Travelling the Extra Mile

I read an article recently that suggested you should try to amaze yourself every day; do something that stretches you. Well this week I have been amazed by Transport for London, TFl, you know the people who maintain our London rail network and buses and the bikes too!

So park your scepticism and sarcasm and open your mind to possibility that there is kindness and honesty in the General Public and that systems actually work.

Who would have thought that a Nintendo DS left on the seat of an underground train at 930pm on a Saturday would be returned to its owner 3 months later after completing a simple online form. It's true, quite amazingly within 48 hours of completing a TFL lost property form, the very nice people at TFL emailed to say they had my Nintendo DS. A short telephone call and it was confirmed.

Whether it was the kind soul who cleaned the train or a fellow passenger who handed it in, I am genuinely astonished that it was collected. I am even more amazed that it could be tracked and identified from me filling in the form that TFL put on their web. In honesty I am also embarrassingly surprised that it wasn't picked up and taken rather than returned to lost property.

To add to my amazement it was only a £4 fee to get the Nintendo back. I am over the moon although I am told by my lovely wife that the people who work at the lost property office need to be a little better at interaction. Sounds like not many people visit them. Perhaps we should try to loose things more often!

New Driving Rules

So yesterday, our legal friends have enabled police to take greater action against dangerous drivers. They are now allowed to issue fixed penalties to anyone caught tail gating, undertaking or cutting you up. The boos and jeers from the crowd of poor drivers are, unmistakenly overwhelmed by the cheers of those who have been affected.

So here is my question: Will they also add to this list of poor driving habits the following:

• CLODs (please refer to previous post)
• Drivers who think cruising in the outside line when the centre lane (at least and often more) is clearly vacant and there is a clear road ahead and someone behind who is clearly in a hurry and wanting to collect some extra points on their license wants to over take them
• Drivers who fail to indicate properly
• Taxi Drivers (tempting to say in general but in fairness there are a few exceptions) who think that parking on a double yellow line to drop off is acceptable
• People who park on the roadside within 10 yards of a free car park that clearly has spaces 

Oh yes, and do the motorcyclists who squeeze between the lanes of a motorway in all sorts of traffic count as undertakers or is that simply where they might head if they fail to realise it is probably one of the most dangerous things they could do after riding without full protective gear!