The title is taken from a quote by Fanny Burney who was actually talking about how dull other buildings are once you have seen what Italy has to offer. The part I've selected seems to sum up my regular commute, especially just lately when the German rail network hasn't been living up to it's fearsome reputation for punctuality.
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
Sunday, 27 July 2014
Saturday, 21 August 2010
Panic over: the radio is tuned!
So now I have a car it's easy to fall into the trap of: but I don't like the seat covers/radio/colour...
Actually, I'm still in love with the shiny "new" Octavia but was worried because it has a free-range radio that has no instruction book and doesn't actually do anything except spew white-noise, sometimes at full volume. The radio doesn't appear to have an off switch.
But today I was in a "multi" story car park. (what passes for multi-story in these parts: it has 2 levels) Suddenly we realised that there was some kind of display on the radio that works, and that we could see which wavelength we were trying to tune. Easy peasy.
And on the offchance that saving the stations is pretty much the same on all of these types of thing I started tuning and pressing like a mad tuning and pressing thing.
Result!
We now have the ability to select, at the press of a(n unlabelled) button: BFBS2 and WDR2. They don't set the radio universe alight but they do have:
a) the Radio4 Today programme
and
2) the actual traffic news
and
iii) local news.
Yaayyy!
Actually, I'm still in love with the shiny "new" Octavia but was worried because it has a free-range radio that has no instruction book and doesn't actually do anything except spew white-noise, sometimes at full volume. The radio doesn't appear to have an off switch.
But today I was in a "multi" story car park. (what passes for multi-story in these parts: it has 2 levels) Suddenly we realised that there was some kind of display on the radio that works, and that we could see which wavelength we were trying to tune. Easy peasy.
And on the offchance that saving the stations is pretty much the same on all of these types of thing I started tuning and pressing like a mad tuning and pressing thing.
Result!
We now have the ability to select, at the press of a(n unlabelled) button: BFBS2 and WDR2. They don't set the radio universe alight but they do have:
a) the Radio4 Today programme
and
2) the actual traffic news
and
iii) local news.
Yaayyy!
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
333,333 reasons that the Punto is prefixed with "Super"
Here it is. Evidence, if you will, that I need:
a) to get out more
and
b) to photograph all my sets of wheels if I'm going to blog about them in future.
As I don't have any photos of SuperPunto, here's one I took earlier. It is the milometer and it speaks for itself. Indeed, explains the whole "super" part of the SuperPunto epithet.
Technical details: I could see, of course, that this was coming up, and did hugely complicated feats of maths (yes, I didn't do well in my maths A-level, alebit back when they were difficult) to make sure that I wouldn't be on the Autobhan with no chance of stopping when it came round.
The day dawned. I arrived at the car park at work with around 20kms to go. At lunchtime I drove to the rather fabby and marvy (and, indeed, spiffy) RealFuturestore - The Best Supermarket In The Whole Of Germany. Close, but no cigar.
That meant, slow driving around the less populated areas of the car park still didn't get the result I wanted. A trip down the small road to Aldi was necessary. I got very very close, so I drove around a small sliproad a few times.
By now I was absolutely sure that anyone around (and there were quite a few) would be calling the police by now. And then, LO! and BEHOLD! I saw the numbers turning, pulled sharply into one of those parking spaces that you get at the sides of some roads and this photograph is the result.
Make sure you are sitting down for this...
So, do you think I should have tried to sell this to the FIAT museum rather than send the car to the crusher?
a) to get out more
and
b) to photograph all my sets of wheels if I'm going to blog about them in future.
As I don't have any photos of SuperPunto, here's one I took earlier. It is the milometer and it speaks for itself. Indeed, explains the whole "super" part of the SuperPunto epithet.
Technical details: I could see, of course, that this was coming up, and did hugely complicated feats of maths (yes, I didn't do well in my maths A-level, alebit back when they were difficult) to make sure that I wouldn't be on the Autobhan with no chance of stopping when it came round.
The day dawned. I arrived at the car park at work with around 20kms to go. At lunchtime I drove to the rather fabby and marvy (and, indeed, spiffy) RealFuturestore - The Best Supermarket In The Whole Of Germany. Close, but no cigar.
That meant, slow driving around the less populated areas of the car park still didn't get the result I wanted. A trip down the small road to Aldi was necessary. I got very very close, so I drove around a small sliproad a few times.
By now I was absolutely sure that anyone around (and there were quite a few) would be calling the police by now. And then, LO! and BEHOLD! I saw the numbers turning, pulled sharply into one of those parking spaces that you get at the sides of some roads and this photograph is the result.
Make sure you are sitting down for this...
So, do you think I should have tried to sell this to the FIAT museum rather than send the car to the crusher?
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
The Car. It's here.
I just thought I'd mention that now I've got a car there definitely won't be any more blogging about my woeful experiences on German Public Transport.
However, since I've enjoyed the blogging exponentially more than I enjoyed the travelling (except for the fact that it offered a fantastic opportunity to Read More Books) I've decided to carry on.
But first, let's have a respectful silence for SuperPunto.
*the brass band plays Abide With Me in the background*
ALAS AND ALACK! (ha, there they are again!)
I don't have one single photo of the Super Punto. Not one.
Really, it is true: you don't always know what you've got 'till it's gone. There is a photo of the speeedo/milometer when it did 333,333kms and maybe one day I'll find that and post it.
But anyway.
That is the past.
We will move into the future. But before we do that, here's my favourite bike. Yes, indeed. Finally, here it is.
The Shiny New Bike
And now, the moment we've all been waiting for. Some of us more anxiously than others...
The Skoda Octavia Combi/Estate/Station Wagon
I don't know any details apart from the fact that it has a massive boot. Four doors. It runs on Diesel. And I'll be checking the oil a lot more often than I have in the past.
:)
However, since I've enjoyed the blogging exponentially more than I enjoyed the travelling (except for the fact that it offered a fantastic opportunity to Read More Books) I've decided to carry on.
But first, let's have a respectful silence for SuperPunto.
*the brass band plays Abide With Me in the background*
ALAS AND ALACK! (ha, there they are again!)
I don't have one single photo of the Super Punto. Not one.
Really, it is true: you don't always know what you've got 'till it's gone. There is a photo of the speeedo/milometer when it did 333,333kms and maybe one day I'll find that and post it.
But anyway.
That is the past.
We will move into the future. But before we do that, here's my favourite bike. Yes, indeed. Finally, here it is.
And now, the moment we've all been waiting for. Some of us more anxiously than others...
I don't know any details apart from the fact that it has a massive boot. Four doors. It runs on Diesel. And I'll be checking the oil a lot more often than I have in the past.
:)
Tempting fate - tempting, isn't it?
A car in the offing
So, this is probably tempting fate, but we're so far along the process I really don't see what harm it could do.
We live in a village, and if there is one thing village people (note lack of capitalisation there - we are not that 70s singing group) are good at it's networking. Obviously being newbies to the village (having only just embarked on our second decade here) we don't actually get spoken to by anyone, or indeed referred to as anything apart from 'The English Family'. But we do use the local car repair guy who has built up a very good business over the last ten years or so.
It started as a kind of small workshop, and he sometimes sold the odd second hand car or two. Now it's a pretty much fully-fledged business taking on things like windscreen repairs and a breakdown service. Anyway, to cut the long, boring story short, he has a car for us and, because he's really working at his business, will register it for me.
In the meantime he has loaned me a cute little Citroen thing - it's tiny but it works, which is more than I can say for the late, lamented Super Punto. This has meant that I haven't been cycling much (it's horribly rainy at the moment) and since my chef is back at work this week we haven't used the trains much either.
So - hopefully, the car will be registered this week which means the blog will be (with any luck) redundant from next week when I go back to work.
Before I hang up my Commuter Blog Hat forever, though, I'll try to post a picture of Super Punto, the tiny Citroen, the new car and - of course - the star of the blog: my Shiny New Bike.
So, this is probably tempting fate, but we're so far along the process I really don't see what harm it could do.
We live in a village, and if there is one thing village people (note lack of capitalisation there - we are not that 70s singing group) are good at it's networking. Obviously being newbies to the village (having only just embarked on our second decade here) we don't actually get spoken to by anyone, or indeed referred to as anything apart from 'The English Family'. But we do use the local car repair guy who has built up a very good business over the last ten years or so.
It started as a kind of small workshop, and he sometimes sold the odd second hand car or two. Now it's a pretty much fully-fledged business taking on things like windscreen repairs and a breakdown service. Anyway, to cut the long, boring story short, he has a car for us and, because he's really working at his business, will register it for me.
In the meantime he has loaned me a cute little Citroen thing - it's tiny but it works, which is more than I can say for the late, lamented Super Punto. This has meant that I haven't been cycling much (it's horribly rainy at the moment) and since my chef is back at work this week we haven't used the trains much either.
So - hopefully, the car will be registered this week which means the blog will be (with any luck) redundant from next week when I go back to work.
Before I hang up my Commuter Blog Hat forever, though, I'll try to post a picture of Super Punto, the tiny Citroen, the new car and - of course - the star of the blog: my Shiny New Bike.
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Day 24 - Friday, 6th August 2010
We're all going on a summer holday...
Well, I don't know about you, but this was my last day at work for two whole weeks. During which it was hoped that we'd be able to get a car, which would have made this my last day of commuting by public transport.
Alas and alack, it's not to be as the chap who is selling us the car is away on his hols. Oh well, I can manage a week or two more on the train/bus combo as long as I have an end in sight.
As Friday dawned bright and clear, I decided not to be fooled by appearances and zipped on my fleece before leaving the house. I also abandoned the idea of the early train and went for the usual one at 07:18. And again, yaay, it didn't let me down and everything went swimmingly.
This afternoon I abandoned the idea of the bus and took the offered lift from my colleague who dropped me at Mönchengladbach station and I got the train home from there. It was bright sunshine and very warm, which meant the fleece went into the basket and I cycled home in the lovely weather.
Ready for two weeks jollies.
Now, we'll be using public transport during this time so I may come back and leave a blog entry or two detailing delays and groovy seat covers along the way.
Well, I don't know about you, but this was my last day at work for two whole weeks. During which it was hoped that we'd be able to get a car, which would have made this my last day of commuting by public transport.
Alas and alack, it's not to be as the chap who is selling us the car is away on his hols. Oh well, I can manage a week or two more on the train/bus combo as long as I have an end in sight.
As Friday dawned bright and clear, I decided not to be fooled by appearances and zipped on my fleece before leaving the house. I also abandoned the idea of the early train and went for the usual one at 07:18. And again, yaay, it didn't let me down and everything went swimmingly.
This afternoon I abandoned the idea of the bus and took the offered lift from my colleague who dropped me at Mönchengladbach station and I got the train home from there. It was bright sunshine and very warm, which meant the fleece went into the basket and I cycled home in the lovely weather.
Ready for two weeks jollies.
Now, we'll be using public transport during this time so I may come back and leave a blog entry or two detailing delays and groovy seat covers along the way.
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