Tomorrow could be boring

Trains, planes and moral choices

Unless you live in a cave cut away from any kind of media (self-sufficiently, perhaps? Well, now that would be lovely) - you must know that travelling by train is the morally correct choice these days. Planes? Definitely not acceptable, at least not for domestic journeys. Automobiles? Hmm, if you drive a hybrid, or a Smart like I do is it a bit like greenwash? Is it really much better to do slightly less harm than regular cars? Aren't you adding to the grand total anyway?

I'm trying to be reasonable and make compromises.

I've never been big on flying all over the globe anyway, so that's fine. The trips I've taken have mostly been work-related and faraway holiday destinations or frivolous weekend trips to Europe using cheap flights have never attracted me. Check.

Driving - well, I've only been driving for a few years out of my life; I got my UK license and the Smart about 5 years ago. It was at a time when I was feeling extremely stressed and burnt out so having the independence was important. Nowadays I really try to think about the trips I make (almost all of them work-related) - should I drive or take the train?

Some longer-distance journeys really feel easier by train versus the car: you can settle down for a good while and work on your laptop or read a book. I travel a fair bit for work and do tend to take the train most of the time. It just makes sense.

And then some trips make you want to scream in frustration and never take another train journey ever again. Like the one I had yesterday.

A simple enough proposition - 2 hours one way with 2 changes. Not too terrible, right? Except that due to some incompetent advice and one train cancellation, the journey turned into 4 hours and 4 changes. I was frozen into a solid flesh-ickle by the time I fell out of the train that had carried me on the last leg of the journey. And thanked my earlier self for having driven to the train station so I didn't have to walk 20 minutes in the cold to finally get home.

I want the futuristic criss-crossing overground bullet-train networks, or cool, magically unpolluting hover-cars, or teleportation, please.

Why have we all been so slow to adopt new ways of conducting business? Some individuals and organisations have embraced video conferencing and systems that allow remote communication and distance leadership. Maybe we need to make all modes of (polluting) transport so excruciatingly uncomfortable that we'll only use them when absolutely necessary.

I guess it's better than burning...

This morning, a neighbour knocked on the door. It was just at that awkward time when Timo is getting dressed and I'm in the shower. Timo opened the bathroom door just wide enough to grab his robe.

I heard murmured, just-woken-up voices, but nothing more. The front door slammed shut. I assumed it had been something to do with the post, or maybe with rubbish again. Last week some bright spark had found his way inside our rubbish room and re-arranged the bins to a leaning tower of Pisa (all the wheelie bins are inside a room, out of sight, just by the front door to the building).

As I got out of the shower, I realised Timo was no longer indoors. He'd gone out in his robe.

I put the kettle on. He walked back in.

"I'm afraid it's not good news for cars out there this morning."

"What do you mean?"

"Some wanker has poured acid over all the cars in the residential car park."

"WHAT?"

"I'm sorry, but they got yours too. Poor Smart."

"..."

Timo rang the police and washed the remaining acid off the car. Luckily, the Smart's unusual design means it had not been damaged even nearly as much as most of the other cars had been. The acid-throwers had aimed at the roofs, but the Smart has a glass roof, which meant that Timo was able to just washed the acid off it. The back door is totally ruined, however, and there are some acid corroded splodges on the left panel and Tridion safety cell.

I rang my insurance company and a couple of garages. We'll have to pay a £200 excess, which really messes up our current budget; we are still tight until Timo's new, additional earnings begin to kick in.

Ultimately, this is just material. It doesn't matter. Still, I am gutted and feel surprisingly violated.

It's like someone has managed to touch my life without being invited to do so.

And I feel sad that even in this quiet, cosy town, there are people whose lives are empty and miserable enough to have to go around destroying things.

When we eventually get a house rather than a flat, I will insist on a double garage. That should help a little.

Calendar shoot!

A few months ago Julie and Tom from Spotty Badger Productions got in touch with me because of this photo. They said that a fan-project-turned-somewhat-serious - a calendar of Smart cars and their owners - was now entering its second year, and that they'd quite like for us to feature as the month of December 2006.

We finally managed to shoot the pictures today and it was a hoot! Tom took in excess of 100 shots (wonders of digital photography; no expensive film stock) and from what I could tell, many of the images were quite striking. I made a point of taking a few sets of clothes along, just in case, but in the end we only went for two different outfits. When the calendar comes out at the end of this month, I will show you some of the results.

The setting was at the historic town of Battle, at a small Gothic style chapel and its adjacent graveyard. I've spent the day draped over tombstones and leaning on angel statues. It sounds bizarre, considering the project in question, but it worked very well. A great mood for the images.

I do hope that one day I'll have the opportunity to customise my Smart pod; it'd be excellent to splash some illustrations on it, or otherwise put more of a personal stamp on it. It's always inspiring to see what other owners have done with theirs. Dangerous, even (for I have no money for such extravagance right now!). One day.

It was very nice to meet Julie and Tom; they're creative and fun. I reserve the right to change my mind if they blacken my teeth out on the photo!