Blogs
The Break of Dawn
A blog from the Waterfront's Dawn Lewis.
Why people drive, everywhere!
- 01 Mar 2007 09:00
Having just returned from a visit home in quaint West Sussex I would just like to express my dislike of public transport. Yes granted, you probably already have your own tainted opinion about this subject, well let me add mine.
I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend of home cooked food and free use of the washing machine, my journey however, was not a highlight. I arrived home on Friday night to discover the train crash that had happened on the west coastline track, now in fairness trains are a very safe way to travel - apparently, and it was nothing short of a miracle that more people weren't hurt. But if you've been following the events of that particular crash you'll know that someone had forgotten to put four fairly vital bolts back into the track and that I believe was the main cause of said accident.
Anyway, back to my travel experiences. I spent the weekend driving myself around in the comfort of my own space, which I loved - you really miss your car when you don't have it! Then came my return journey, things were going well until I reached Reading. My train was cancelled. And here begins my tale. Having sat at Reading station in the freezing cold for 30mins, a train arrived but it was so full I literally had to force my way on and stand, not particularly gracefully, in the isle.
I endured this until Bristol, where I managed to bag a seat. By this point I was glad to sit down and was looking forward to being home and watching LOST. All was well, that is until we reached Newport, and here comes problem number two. There was a signalling fault between there and Cardiff which resulted in a 45min wait. I was not impressed, plus I was getting hungry, which only made me more agitated. This was the problem which caused all of those football supporters to miss the Carling Cup Final, yet another cock up.
I did finally get through to Swansea and was only 70mins late, my journey had been nearly five and a half hours long, I was tried, hungry and stressed - but hey that's public transport for you. I'm not saying that we shouldn't use public transport; I just think that for the outrageous fares that we all put up with paying, that we should get a decent service. Trains that run on time, that you can sit down on and trains that are clean. Until this happens, people aren't going to give up there cars and I am still going to rant about getting delayed. Sorry.
Snow Days
- 10 Feb 2007 16:00
The snow has finally caught up with Swansea and despite the fact that we were sort of expecting it, everyone seems to have gone completely crazy – anyone would think it was the end of the world!
Transport is totally up the spout, the shops are packed just in-case we happen to get snowed in tomorrow and we (i.e. crazy people shopping) must stock up on all food products for the long winter! Or in the other extreme, everything shuts. Including uni. I was so pleased that I traipsed through the snow to make it in for my 2 o'clock on Friday to find the university closed.
Why is it that the whole of Britain seems to come to a stand still the moment snow flakes begin to fall? Other countries like Sweden, Iceland, and America all seem to manage without the apparent melt down of all public services (no pun intended), or indeed our own mental collapse. All that is needed to deal with the couple of centimetres that has fallen is to act sensibly. For instance; drive carefully, wear a hat, scarf and a pair of gloves. Don't go shopping; Tesco will still be there tomorrow, and finally don't panic. On the rare occasions that it does happen to snow we should all be out there enjoying ourselves, throwing snowballs, building fat snow men and generally frolicking around. Remember it would have melted by the morning.
During the twenty first century when strange weather is set to venture onto our shores more frequently due to global warming, (I'll have a rant about that some other time), we really do need to get our act together. Seriously, if every time the weather went slightly out of the ordinary the nation just stopped, we would never get anything done. Enjoy the snow whilst it lasts!
The Joys of Facebook
- 04 Feb 2007 17:00
What is it about Facebook? This seemingly random craze that has swept the nation, adding yet another excuse for students to procrastinate up and down the country; yet when you think about it, what really is the point? I suppose yes, you can keep in contact with all of friends who have been scattered haphazardly about the nation and you can even get to know all of your long lost primary school chums! But why would you honestly want to do that? You lost contact with them for a reason; why after all of these years would you want to find these people, who you don't know anymore and ask them the fairly usual and dull questions of, 'how are you?' and 'you working or at uni?' As for the people you already know, chances are you will see them fairly soon and even those who are miles away – whatever happened to the phone? For all intensive purposes I think that Facebook is for all of those nosey people out there, flicking through your photos and checking out the competition. For instance, recently my friend discovered she was being cheated on; her first reaction was to go onto Facebook and find out what 'the other girl' looked like. A far more satisfying reaction would have been to throw something heavy at him, at least that's what I would have done!
Despite Facebook making everything in your life public knowledge, including the drunken photos from the night before, I have to say that I love it. I know I've just spent the past 200 words complaining about it, but there's something about Facebook that makes you addicted. I must for instance up-date my profile on a regular basis and scroll through any new pictures, check for new friends, invitations to party's and make sure that nobody has written on my wall. So it might be a waste of time and I don't really gain anything from it, but I sure as hell won't be giving it up anytime soon!
Dawn Lewis