As I couldn't remember what I got Lottie for her last birthday, I made damn sure we'd both remember her thirty-fourth. As part of a suave routine we visited Bramham international horse trials a few days before, and on the day I got her a bottle of whisky, a few cigars and a trinklet to put on her phone. Just like I had forgotten her birthday, a few things I could rustle up quickly. But ah. I got her tickets to a Dolly Parton concert as well. She had two weeks to get mad excited about it - and with help of a Dolly album in the car she managed that easily.

Before you say anything, yes I realise Dolly Parton isn't an obvious artist to love. She has no qualms about plastic surgery and singing about love for Jesus for example, both sicken me a bit. The country & western scene itself is a bit faux and conservative too - but I can get past all that. She can sing beautifully and some of her songs are simply brilliant. Unlike many other artists, she writes most her material herself, plays most instruments needed, and sings beautifully. If you disagree, just listen to this particular tune:



Her latest album "Backwoods Barbie" is actually a return to traditional country music. She wrote nine of the eleven songs on it, and again it features some songs I just have to love. Even though my favourite bands are Faithless and the Offspring. Looking up the tracks again on Youtube, unfortunately I notice she's rehashing her jokes at every concert. Still. You can't beat a bit of Dolly. Even Dolly doing a bit of Fine Young Cannibals!

Getting to the concert was a bit of bother unfortunately. As we stood waiting for the bus, I started humming. "Islands in the stream, that is what we are. Watching cars go by for the past half hour.. Sail away with me, to another world, and we rely on a taxi uh-oh.." But we got to town eventually. I had never been to the MEN Arena before, and inside it struck me it's basically an old football stadium with a roof on. I am not that impressed by concrete, let alone small seats up in the stands. Despite Dolly cracking out dsome fantastic tunes, hardly anyone stood up to dance. Even in front of the podium people at best stared at her adoringly. That said, the sound was good, and when "9 to 5" finally got played we definitely danced regardless.

After weeks of comparing washers online, making careful judgements on energy use, spin quality, noise levels and company reputations.. Lottie and I went to a local shop yesterday to see a few models in reality - ready to catch a bargain if it could be had. Though we spent a good twenty minutes arguing about Zanussi's, Hotpoints and Whirlpools, we came across a brochure of black Hoover appliances. Within five minutes we had bought it, even put a deposit on a matching tumble dryer. Without looking at the specifications really.

It arrived today in the flesh. I had to get up for it early on a Saturday morning, and just ten minutes after Lottie had buggered off to the horse stables, the delivery guys arrived. They had it installed in a flash - only struggling to shift it across the carpet, poor lads - and I took the liberty of washing my own jeans soon enough. That's the benefit of not having a washer from the stone age really: even guys like me can wrap their head round how to use it. Unfortunately it danced about a bit as the spin came on (wooden flooring and carpet to blame I'm sure) but it's otherwise not a disappointment at all. Sofar it hasn't asked us "is it coz I is black?", but ehrm, yes it is.

If Manchester get the go-ahead for the proposed congestion charge, the UK government will invest £ 2.8 billion in the city's public transport system (GMPTE press release). It's one of the main arguments for it, and certainly the reason why councils in Greater Manchester back it. But while the congestion charge itself is much debated, the investment in public transport is not. This is a shame really - there's a lot to be said on this 'TIF package'. Not much in its favour though.

There doesn't seem to be a philosophy behind the plans, though it can be called an ambitious extension of the existing network. A GMPTE map (available here) shows off the pièce de résistance: Metrolink extensions to southern Manchester. Though taking away the 'rapid bus transit' routes and other inexpensive solutions, it also becomes apparent that the investment is confined to a South-East to North-West area. Wythenshawe and Oldham stand to benefit most. Towards Bolton however the bus is upgraded and the rail network stays the same. Little can be expected also towards Cheadle, Gorton and Levenshulme - where existing rail links are apparently sufficient. Unfortunately, that's not necessarily true.

Greater Manchester has been a very car-oriented city over the past decades, and public transport relies mainly on buses to struggle through the asphalt jungle. Buses are notoriously slow - the fifteen miles between Manchester Airport and the centre can take an hour and a half easily. While there are quicker options to the airport, people caught in between railway stations have little option but to spend their time at bus stops. Trains, while quick and efficient to other boroughs and nationally, are not an option for inner city travel either though. Stations are often found in the middle of nowhere, and trains don't often stop in places such as Kearsley and Patricroft. Trams, such as the lines to Altrincham and Bury, suit such purpose much better, but the tram network limited. While it's arguably the most comfortable, reliable and efficient inner city transport available, it's not of a standard that would be accepted in Amsterdam, or on the London underground.

The TIF proposals therefore, are a stop-gap solution. Unfortunately, stop-gaps are all too common around Manchester. Realising perhaps that certain trends cannot be stopped, the city has built a large network of cycling paths, it has embraced congestion charges and it will pride itself on enormous investment in public transport. However, the cycling paths mainly follow the kerbs of dangerous roads onto deathly roundabouts, the congestion charges will quite unfairly affect professional drivers and the whole of suburbia, and public transport will be better than what it is now. Considering the state it is in currently though, that isn't saying much. The investment in Greater Manchester public transport, in effect paid for through the congestion charge, doesn't look good value for the money.

Friday night, June 20th 2008. My employer threw a party at four-star hotel Shrigley Hall in posh Cheshire, on the occasion of us not working for Shell much longer. They're to outsource the entire IT operations.. Unfortunately Lottie and I forgot to charge the camera batteries before we went, so we couldn't take any pictures of the fabulous weather, beautiful clothes, gorgeous landscape and friendly faces. Ach well, we had fun regardless, and there were plenty of others with cameras at the ready. These two pictures are made by Avi Singh, a team leader. To see them full-size just click and it'll get you to Flickr.

Last night, "The Apprentice" was won by a guy called Lee McQueen. On the Guardian site, most comments are about his clear fiddling with his CV as a reason not to hire him, as a liar will always be a liar. And what example does it set to young kids nowadays trying to finish their exams and obtain their degrees, when clearly you can get a £100k salary without either achievement?

I can understand the goody two shoes would be worried - their own kids might drop out of college if they can't be convinced of its worth. It makes me sick though - I for one am cheering the guy on. From my own experience, I have tried to conform to societies standards of intellect by getting good grades and getting a degree, but whenever I went to the top of the class I jumped off. When I studied Journalism at college (B.A. level) my classmates always sought my help in getting facts straight, bettering the grammar et cetera.. Yet when push came to shove (answering daft multiple choice questions on the exams) I failed. The reason being that I didn't want to stuff my head with wee little facts lifted straight from study books. If they'd been relevant, aye, but their main purpose seemed to be whether you read the book or not: "In his 1994 lecture, how did professor Cargill describe the U.S. Economy?". Why, who the feck is he, and how is knowing the answer making me a good student and a good journalist? Instead of trying to answer these questions correctly, I filled the exam papers with philosophies on news items, journalism practises and logical reasoning. But when a question is black and white, a colourful answer is never correct.

I have noticed, in other studies since, that actually you do not need a free spirit, an open mind and an inquisitive disposition to obtain a university degree. In fact, it helps if you lack of all these things, and are willing to swallow any kind of tosh squirted at you from the professor's pedestals. Of course that takes ambition, concentration, and the ability to memorise data - but what is the end result? It's the same with language studies - the quickest way to pick up a new language isn't to learn pages of the dictionary and repeat them a hundred fold. It's far better to grab a book in a language you can't read and make sense of it as you go along - or better yet, to holiday among the native speakers and try to make yourself understood without barking English. Unfortunately, current day students too often are taught to memorise, repeat and bark.

If I therefore would be a hiring manager, I might look at university degrees with a bit of disdain. An applicants willingness though to show his/her worth where it matters (on the job), combined with derring-do, isn't necessarily a bad thing. On the other hand, having a degree isn't necessarily a bad thing either. What we do need to realise though is there are many ways to Rome - and the people who veered off the motorway aren't necessarily bad apples. Until society at large realises this, recruitment agencies and hiring managers might follow. Until then, white lies in black and white aren't such a bad thing per se.

Bramham Horse Trials always preceed Lottie's birthday by just a few days. As she is very excited by horses and 'eventing' in particular, it is becoming tradition for us to visit. I'm glad I took my camera with me again this year, or through a haze of Pimm's I might not remember much anymore.. Here's a compilation of this year's action.

I'm thinking of taking Lottie to the Netherlands in September, so she can finally meet my parents and sisters. As one of my sisters lives on a Greek island though, we might as well make it a proper Tour of Europe. To motivate her to get a passport soon, this is a wee presentation on what we might do.

Crossing Europe by car or motorbikes would be knackering, and aeroplanes would be costly, as well as not very flexible. Though trains aren't cheap either, we'd be able to make stops on the way, sleep while travelling and follow our own itinerary.

On Day One, we'd be leaving Manchester with a Virgin Express to London Euston, then hopefully an equally fast train from London Victoria to Dover. The ferry to Calais would be cheap due to our Interrail tickets, which would come in handier still in getting to Paris in time for dinner and an overnight stay.




On Day Two we'd spend the morning and early afternoon in Paris, then grab the Thalys high-speed train to Amsterdam at 3.30pm - which would arrive just four hours later, again in time for dinner. We'd then spend the night there, but could grab a very late train (0.22-1.59) to get to my home town Nijmegen.




Day Three and Four we'd spend in and around Nijmegen, with plenty to see and do. We might also need to recuperate a bit from all the travel - and get ready for some more.




On Day Five I intend to show Lottie around a bit of Germany. We'd grab an early train to Arnhem, then the ICE express straight into Cologne, even before 10am. After a few hours here, we could get a Regional Express train along the Rhein and Moselle rivers to the gorgeous town of Trier. Where we'd stay the night.






Day Six we'd get to Luxembourg for breakfast, then via Nancy and Lyon to Marseille, Genova and on to Florence. That's quite a journey, but you wouldn't want to stop in France now would you?! The speed of the TGV should make it possible.


Luxembourg..

.. To Florence

Day Seven we'd spend just checking out Florence, and later on, Rome. Whether you can do Rome in a day or not remains to be seen. Perhaps we could act like American tourists eh.. Sorry y'all but we have to get to Athens by Sunday. Innit.




The next afternoon we'd travel to the port of Brindisi later, getting on the ferry to Patras in Greece - where we'd arrive in the morning of Day Nine. We'd get to Athens by the afternoon and spend some time there, as well as the next day, Day Ten.




By now hopefully Lottie will have overcome any fears of flying and particularly short runways, as the best way to get to Lesvos is getting an aeroplane on Day 11.




Day 12 we'd spend with my family in Greece (how suave is that), as well as Day 13. On Day 14 we'd have to fly back to Athens, but again could spend some time there as well as the night. The Friday after, we'd grab the train back to Patras and the night boat to Brindisi (arriving Saturday, day 15). In one long haul, we'd travel the length of Italy again, and through Switzerland would arrive in Frankfurt.



Well, Paris is passé. On Day 16, We'd travel from Frankfurt through Paris to Calais and London by high speed trains, then Manchester late on Sunday night..