I wan to comprain about Edinburgh
Neil drives to work most days (it’s cheaper than public transport if he includes parking fees). So I take the bus into Edinburgh every day, and every day it takes longer and longer. The government (council?) has been doing roadworks to re-install the tram system, and various roads have been closed or massively bottlenecked for months.
Today it took about two hours for what was originally a 45-minute journey, not only because of tailbacks on the motorway, but also due to the extra 20 minutes we spent getting from the west end of Princes Street to the bus station in the east end (i.e. a small part of the city centre). The bus driver told another disgruntled passenger that the only times the road into and out of Edinburgh wasn’t completely chockers was 5am and after 8pm. That would mean I need to wake up at 4am and get home at 9pm. That is so not happening.
I just know that if I take the train instead, it’ll start getting cancelled on a regular basis because of snow or something. And it comes only once an hour. The current thought is to get multiple-journey tickets for both the train and bus, paying more for my travel but hedging my bets.
(Maybe we should move to a bigger town with better public transport options.)
Fame is surely just around the corner
One of my photos of Edinburgh is on Schmap!! Edinburgh. They sent me a message a while ago on Flickr, announcing that my photo from the roof of the Camera Obsura building had been shortlisted.
There’s no payment involved. I am going to be inundated with highly-paid photography commissions and I can give up my day job, I can just see it. At some point I may even think about changing my camera (a half-decade old Sony Cybershot, thank you very much).
(Er, no.)
Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree-ee…
Wow, this is the first time that I’ve actually used a service and then been asked to write about it!
UK users are familiar with Gumtree, a Craigslist-style classified ads site. I hadn’t used it until recently, when we were looking for flats to rent (and surfed around in general). Like Craigslist, they provide a free space for everyone in the area to advertise pretty much anything, including jobs, business services, and the aforementioned accommodation.
The good thing about it is anyone can post an ad for free. I’ve noticed, though, that we posted a flat wanted ad and got no responses at all — I reckon advertisers don’t even bother to look at the ‘wanted’ ads before posting their ‘offered’ ads, which means they are ignoring a lucrative business opportunity, IMHO.
Gumtree’s a pretty decent service, and pretty popular with most groups of people in the UK, I reckon. Worth every penny (heh).
This post is sponsored.
Paid less for more skills
The Scots are paid 6 percent below the UK average, despite being relatively more skilled. Edinburgh and Aberdeen are seen as places of growth, with Edinburgh the only city able to attract migrants. Odd, since Edinburgh is not top of my list if I was to move to Scotland tomorrow.