James Went To Budapest…Last Year

So this is the last of the blog posts that have been long-outstanding on my to-do list to write. Well, except for a review of 2018 and my goals for 2019…I think I might just skip them now! Budapest had been on my radar for a little while, and it seemed that rarely a month went by without my Facebook feed having photographs from a friend or some random that I met once, visiting the capital of Hungary. After enlisting two of my closest advisors, we set upon finding some gloriously cheap flights with Wizzair that weren’t really that cheap … Continued

Complaint: TFL

This is from last year, another one that has been hanging around my inbox: Oh TFL The imaginary ink has barely dried on the last complaint and now you have given me cause to write to you again. You do waste enough of my time as it is, without then having to write to complain about your journey refund decision. Last Wednesday I arrived at Harrow-On-The-Hill station around 8:15am. I got onto the waiting fast train. It hissed at me – like my imaginary girlfriend does when I use up too much of her imaginary ink. It hissed some more. … Continued

The Misery Of Being A Liberal Conservative

blue and yellow round star print textile

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted on The Only Tory From Hull much over the last year or two.  I couldn’t even remember how to log in the other day. My interest in politics has by no means diminished and neither has my passion…the latter has been entrenched. A lot of that has to do with simply being far too busy. But I can always make time to write a blog post if I feel passionate enough about something. The real reason, I feel, comes down to a mixture of confusion and misery. I shall start with the … Continued

No No To BoJo

Ukraine and Great Britain will

I used to be a huge fan of Boris Johnson. Hell, even as recently as 2015, I said (and I cannot quite believe I wrote this), “But I do really want Boris as leader,  He would be an inspirational leader.  He would really take our country forward and I feel that he would be able to deliver a two-term Conservative majority.  He has that common touch.”. After all, he supported immigration, he defended bankers, he attacked murderous bastards like Assad, he supported Britain being in the EU, and especially the Single Market.  Didn’t he? He seemed a liberal Conservative, which … Continued

James Went To Croatia – Last Year

All this extra time I have thanks to my new job and getting home at the more human hour of around 6pm (or so) has led me to think that maybe I should try to catch up with things on my to-do list.Some things have been on there for nearly a year, such as writing a blog post about my holiday to Croatia last year. I’m not sure that I would have been able to remember much in the way of details had I written the blog when I got back home, let alone nearly a year later.  It was … Continued

James Went To Belgrade

Why did I decide to go to Belgrade? Because it was cheap. Why was the flight so cheap? Because it was at 5:55am in the morning. Who’s fucking idea was that? It wasn’t actually that bad though, just needed to set my alarm for 1:30am (thankfully I had a stonking hangover the day before so going to bed early was easy), get a taxi to Wembley Park station, then get the night tube to West Hampstead, then get the Thameslink train to Luton Airport parkway, then get the bus to Luton Airport. Simples. Originally it was just me and my … Continued

Old Job Thoughts. New Job Thoughts.

person in black leather boots sitting on brown cardboard boxes

I know that I occasionally moaned about Lovespace – normally when they were stopping me from doing what I wanted to do, ie coding, and sending me to go flyering – or asking me to go on the customer chat thing when I got home from work. Despite minor annoyances, I actually really enjoyed working there. Never before have I had a job where I actually enjoyed being at work almost every day. My first proper developer role, I learnt so much there – going from complete imposter to someone very comfortable, yet still continually challenged. It was quite sad … Continued

A Mullet Massacre

I used to have a really good barber, really sound guy. Then he left. I thought I’d keep going to the same barber shop, last time I went (still £35), had an unconvincing hair cut and a very quiet one too (if I’m going to be there 45 minutes then at least say more than hello). Booked with someone else this time, again at the same barber shop. After 15 minutes I realised that he was doing very little other than combing my hair. He realised that I had realised then stated that he was thinking about what to do. … Continued

From Boxes To Bras – I Have News

From boxes to bras. From storage to suits. From packaging to pies. Yes, you have guessed correctly – you are looking at the new software engineer at Marks & Spencer. Well, you are reading words and daydreaming about me eating an M&S steak and ale pie in a suit. I hope. Back in February, I concluded that I was pretty much ready for the next challenge in my career. There was nothing pushing me out of Lovespace – I’ve never had a job where I genuinely look forward to going to work 95% of the time, where I actually enjoy … Continued

Metropolitan Line Complaint Part 1

It’s actually been alright recently – well, perhaps more accurately I’ve been lucky and missed the worst delays. Working from home two days a week helps too. As does the relatively dry weather recently – there are definite service suspension seasons and the next will be the first really hot day, when it gets to around 30’C. This complaint is from last year and not the funniest ever – just a rant. Part 2 is more fun. ****** Dear Sir/MadamI’d like to make yet another complaint about the Metropolitan line service.Tuesday was yet another clusterfuck of a service.  A signal … Continued