simont | (no subject)

Well, I feel silly now.

Yesterday, on the assumption that the Cambridge bus system would be painful doom in one form or another, I took a taxi to work, costing me eleven quid.

In the evening, since I was going into the town centre for pizza, I felt safe taking the bus, because, well, practically all buses go through the town centre. Imagine my ‘D'oh!’ when I find that the C1 bus, which goes between the town centre and the nearest stop to ARM, happens to also be the bus which goes between the town centre and the nearest stop to my own front door. So this morning I got on the bus at home, got off it at work, and paid about a fifth of what I did yesterday. I feel very silly.

Still, I should get the car back today, so that'll make life easier. (The bus may have been a lot more convenient than I'd feared, but it still doubled my normal travel time.)

Also I got a failed-parcel-delivery note yesterday. I can't think of anything I'm currently expecting apart from the Dension MP3-based car stereo I've been waiting for for a month and a half, so with any luck it'll be that at last! Which would be nice, since I was just on the point of ringing up again and demanding a revised estimate of when it might turn up. I hope to pick it up tomorrow (bah, delivery companies) and find out for sure…

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And I thought that I didn't use the buses much...

(I caught a bus in June actually. It was the day Harry Potter came out which is how I remember. I also caught a bus in Greece as well, but I don't think that counts...)

You could take the bus every morning and use the time to read books. That's how I get most of my reading done these days.

On the other hand, if you've taken the upfront financial hit of buying and taxing a car, I guess it makes sense to drive it too.

I did wonder about that, but really what I'd like to do with the extra time is sleep - getting up half an hour earlier would be a major hit even if it did mean I could spend some time reading that I'd otherwise spend driving. And there's no way I could get to sleep on a bus...

(And yes, I think it costs half as much to drive as to take the bus given that I've already got the car.)

You're possibly not taking into account the bulk ticket price. 7 or 8 quid I think for a ticket which lasts all week.

Hmm, you're quite right, I had overlooked that. That makes the prices roughly comparable, so that it's entirely a question of how early I get up in the morning...

(JOOI, have you replied to the email I sent you this morning? I'm getting paranoid about pobox after yesterday. If it's delayed another mail from you, I might have to write and complain.)

No, I haven't replied to that one yet.

Funny how much you get used to mail being pretty reliable most of the time.

Yes, it is odd. If most mail took a few hours, I probably wouldn't think twice about the occasional one taking a day or so; but since most mail goes through in a matter of seconds or minutes, the occasional few hours of delay is a nasty shock! I suppose it's a question of how many orders of magnitude your instincts see as reasonable variation in a working system. One is acceptable, but 2-3 starts to feel iffy to me...

I'd only have started asking questions if I'd thought pobox was consistently delaying messages from you in particular (lots of other stuff today has come through promptly), because that might indicate a specific problem of some sort. Good to hear it's not (necessarily) though :-)

The C1 is well-known (sort of) as the most useful bus route in Cambridge. It's also the one that joins my house to the station, which is good if the alternative is walking.

Yup, best route in town. From almost outside our front door to town centre or station or addies, all useful, and Cherry Hinton too, though that's less so. Was more useful when davefish was still living out that way.

*friendly waves*
*bus sympathy*