bikes and things

Whilst Peckham Rye is being dug up I found what I thought to be a little detour to avoid the road works and take me onto a quieter road. Unfortunately not. It seems to have placed me on the most dangerous roundabout I’ve ever had the misfortune to use. If you click on the map below it’ll take you to the street view version of it. You can clearly see the drivers going East not giving way correctly on the roundabout (the transit and grey 4×4). I take the route of the red car and have almost been hit a couple of times. When asking the driver if they saw me I’ve had some pretty shocking responses, one proceeded to ram me with her car and drive up on the kerb, one apologised for almost killing me and the other had their passenger get out and try and beat me up. I’d report them to the police but I’ve got little hope of them doing anything about it really. They’re just not interested in cycling related issues. They are interested in giving tickets out at red lights and raising revenue though.

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I occasionally get emails from people wanting to use images I’ve posted to my Fickr account. I set all of my images with a Creative Commons license so that anyone can use them on blog, publications etc so long as they’re not for profit. I don’t see any problem with that as they’re mostly just for fun. Some of these emails are asking to use the images in books which publishers are putting together. I’ve donated a few mountainbike shots so far and usually they agree to send you a free copy of the book – I’ve never received any copies of these free books however.

The latest email came a few months ago though and I’m starting to think some of these people are out to take the piss really. The image in question is below – a picture of a tap which looks a bit like a face. The initial email asked to use the images, so I said “sure no problem”.

However with these muppets, the problem is that they haven’t actually chosen your image yet, they want you submit your image for consideration. Heres the email from the good people at Lark Books

So I’m GIVING you an image for FREE for you to make money out of and you want me to fill out all these forms on the off chance that I might get selected? Are you fucking shitting me? How about you choose the images you want to use and then make people fill out the forms and go through the hassle.

It really does take the piss. Needless to say I’m not quite as interested in licensing my images to people like this anymore no matter how crappy the image.

Edit: Gary just pointed me to two books on their site providing advice on running a successful photography business. How ironic!

Just waited 45 mins to get a taxi and now I don’t have my keys. No locking up the office, no getting home. Best find somewhere good to lie down til the morning.

Having spent 5 years at Uni in Portsmouth I shouldn’t really expect too much of the admin or accounts department in such an institution but the sheer uselessness of Kingston University has exceeded all expectations. Not content with trying to charge me £600 for deferring the course when the big flood happened they’re now demanding £1000 for un-paid fees! As usual it’s impossible to find anyone who knows what the fuck is going on.

Thank god I never have to go through any of these institutions ever again!

Since I got the Nikon D70 around 18 months ago I’ve been using BibblePro for all my RAW processing needs. It took a while to get used to it and it certainly has it’s quirks to say the least. However I’ve stuck with it hoping that the new version 5 sorts it all out. The thing is that version 5 has been promised for as long as I’ve been using it and has all but turned into vapourware as far as I can tell. I’ve also got sick of seeing this message on my machine.

So, no more BibblePro for me as I’m going to give Adobe Lightroom a try. Hopefully it will be a little bit more stable.

…don’t ask the police to help.

No really. Don’t they don’t give a shit. Instead they’ll try and say that you should be arrested and charged an £80 fine. Small price to pay for dying on the roads I’m sure you’ll agree.

So, the full story. I was riding home after work tonight and I head through the top of Camberwell just past the Black Sheep pub. I pass another cyclist in the bike lane and a silver BMW comes past me honking his horn. He then rocks his steering wheel from side to side trying to knock me off. I obviously shout at the car as he’s a real danger to myself and the guy behind me. He’s getting even more aggressive at this point and starting to come very close to knocking me off. I go through the next junction on red as I was pretty scared at this point. He wheel spins through the lights after me and then does a U-turn in the road to try and knock me off.

I stop at the next lights and he’s one behind a police car. So I knock on the window and say that someone is trying to kill me can they help? So they get out, he gets out, details get checked including mine. At this point two other cyclists have stopped to offer witness statements. They tell one of them to go away. Thanks.

So they decide that the best way to settle it is with a ‘chat’ between us. He alleges that I banged his windscreen which is utter rubbish which the witness agrees with. Another guy turns up at this point who witnessed it all. Again they tell him to go away, thanks guys. So at this point it’s going nowhere so the numbnuts who pass for police officers offer to arrest us both and charge us £80 each for something or other? Unbelievable. So with a witness and some guy trying to kills a cyclist they still can’t be bothered to deal with it.

They then tell me that I can report it in the morning if I wish? Hold on, I have two police officers here, why can’t they deal with it? Not interested it seems.

Their solution, let me cycle home whilst they hold the guy. Brilliant thinking guys. If you thought he wasn’t actually a danger, why offer to hold him back?

So two things to do tomorrow, report to the police and then write to the IPCC. Thank you so much police people as well as Mr silver BMW. You’ve been great.

Updated:
It turns out it’s not the first time he’s done this. I’ve found someone who got knocked off by him recently. He drove off! They got his number plate though.

I was VERY lucky!

EDIT: Six months after the event. We have decided not to prosecute. Well thanks a fucking bunch.

Wow, I feel exactly the same way about this terrible show!

Horne and Corden’s BBC show is not something to celebrate

“I may not be in BBC3’s target audience, but I do know what funny looks like – and lame homophobic material and a fat bloke baring his flabby belly every 30 seconds simply doesn’t make me laugh. Besides, if that’s what BBC Three producers think their target audience wants, they are insulting them.”

Was meant to go for a ride with Gary and Tim this morning. Felt a bit dodgy so stayed in. Felt a bit better later so Emma and I popped out to Cafe 2050 on Forest Hill Road. Nice to get out and get some fresh air. Got the papers and sat down with two coffees, a bacon sandwich and a sausage sandwich. £2.75 each. When they arrived there was one rasher of bacon spread over two bits of bread. Mine was even better, one sausage cut in two. What a total piss take! Didn’t pay for them, complained and left.

Emma asked what the deal was.. They didn’t seem to have a problem with it saying “Is one sausage not enough?”

Won’t be bothering with that one anymore. Not a great start to the day.

John Galsworthy Building, Kingston University.

I resumed my Part course at Kingston on Weds and after an hour or so of trying to find the actual lecture room we ended up in this building. Another bar code facade and with the most hideous internal layout I’ve seen. Dreadful. All the money obviously got spent on the facade.

I’m shocked that it got an RIBA award. Did the judges even go inside the building? As for the teaching spaces… well the lighting is dreadful, bog standard 600×600 ceiling tiles and lights so bad that they phyiscally hurt your eyes.

I’m so glad I don’t have to be at University full time anymore.

Somehow this firm of stupid recruitment consultants managed to get hold of my details. After a few phone calls asking if I wanted a job I asked to be removed from their contact database. Still more emails.. Then I asked again and got a very polite reply from a lady who had originally called me, which I thought would be the end of it… Unfortunately not. More emails from them. It would be ok if the emails were a little more carefully phrased or even a little creative, but the tripe they come out with is utter rubbish! 

4th time lucky being removed from their database. What a bunch of chancers.

Dear All

I think we are all feeling the way the market is at the moment – However we still have jobs on Health Care, Education, Rail and today I picked up a job on Aviation – so in short Public Funded projects.

If you are interested in Healthcare, Education, Rail or Aviation projects, then please get in touch, as clients / companies are letting people go what seems to be at a very rapid pace within Housing, residential, mixed use and retail sectors.

I dont believe we need to panic – but if you are feeling the heat and want to secure something else then send me an upto date cv with samples – but you must remember it will be put forward for the above projects.  Obviously if you have relevant sector experience then it would be easier…. 

I hope to hear from you all

Kind regards

Alex Breton Consultants 

Anyway, I’m very happy in my current job! I wonder if their clients know how much they pester people?

Update: So I poked around their website a bit and they even have a recommend a friend section! Woo. Sounds like they’re desperate for work. 

Not sure if this was the kind of service they were suggesting when they wrote this? ..prides our self in offering a very different approach to the common problems faced within the industry

For info. If you want to get a job in architecture through a recruitment consultants – use RIBA Appointments!