Mark Carroll's Journal

On the way east into Edinburgh, one can catch sight of the tall red-brick warehouse building marked Jenners Depository. This reminds me of a different tall red-brick warehouse building that my memory places on the way east into Truro along the A39. However, some looking online fails so badly to find anything of the kind that I have probably somewhat misplaced it. It's some consolation that some further poking around online reveals that what I saw on the train into work recently was Niddry Castle.

I sometimes wonder about quite how they organize Glasgow's subway system. For example, I had guessed from service frequency that they often have as many as four trains running on each circular line. Is one train allowed to leave a station until the train ahead has arrived two stations ahead? Or, maybe it need only depart the next. I don't know how they guarantee separation. I have also wondered how they manage various situations, for example, what if a train breaks down? I suppose maintenance is centred partly on ensuring that they don't in a manner that unexpectedly blocks the line and strands the passengers. It's hardly a wide tunnel.

I have noticed that it's not uncommon for the outer line to pause at St Enoch while the driver pops out for a minute. There's also talk of a depot, one morning (last month, I think) the subway wasn't running because the line from the depot was icy, suggesting some track that isn't underground. Recently, I happened to spy an exciting clue: travelling on the outer line from, I think it was, Ibrox to Govan, I glimpsed a line branching off along another tunnel then rejoining a little later. I wonder what other side tunnels there are.

A bit of googling suggests that they can have as many as six trains running per circular line, though I wonder how typically that actually happens. It also suggests that the tunnel I saw may be a branch to the not-submerged depot so perhaps the inner line also has a branch in the same segment.

Incidentally, Glasgow has an excellent transportation museum which includes a couple of older subway carriages and is packed high with exhibits. Last time we visited, it even had Imperial military folks from Star Wars happy to pose for selfies with visitors. Dundee's transportation museum is funnier in offering modest but quite random mystery tours on an old bus.

Given the short winter days this far north, I commute largely in darkness. The railway carriages are well-lit and variably heated. After I settled into my seat for my journey home this evening, I glanced around to see who else is around me. In the window, I saw the reflection of a lady a couple of seats ahead of me.

Curiously, looking in my actual carriage, I couldn't see her at all, she could be seen only in the reflection.

It turned out that there was a train at the platform alongside, I suppose she was seated on that one instead and I spied her directly. At least, we've now set off and I no longer see her!

Our couple of small road trips down into England afforded some success though plans were a little derailed by sites having holiday closures that weren't previously obvious. Fortunately, my plans include fallbacks so, among other things, our dog L. had a good time running around on Bamburgh Beach in Northumberland (near the impressive castle) and Roanhead Beach in Cumbria (near Morecambe Bay). He also got to see swans at Annandale Water from as close as I dared let him get. Roanhead Beach turned out to be enormous: by coincidence, we arrived at around low tide when there is an awful lot of walking along the sand that one can do before getting near any sea. I also learned to avoid Windermere: narrow roads full of tourists.

L.'s been suffering some gastrointestinal issue over these holidays; there has been an infection going around. They now seem to be on the mend but it slows us down and distracts us while we focus on making sure they're okay. We actually left Northumberland early to make it to an appointment with our regular vet. With luck, we won't need a second appointment.

After a quiet New Year at home, we'll go to visit family in Dundee then be back at work. R. works tomorrow too, at least from home, helping to fill out the support rota.

I had thought it a good idea to choose glasses with fairly large lenses, figuring that I would have more of my visible field corrected. However, seeing as my distance vision is fine (though worse than it was in my youth), I find that it's not as practical for me to peer over the top of my glasses, I have to take them off or at least slide them down a bit. Well, now I know for next time I choose some. Additionally, another unanticipated effect of my choice is: having opted for rimless, if I put them down then it is harder to find them afterward.

I saw a surprising sight a while ago, commuting to work: travelling from west to east in the morning at a rather northerly latitude, at one point I noticed the sun on the left of the railway carriage. It turns out that, approaching Edinburgh, the more northerly railway line bends rather south for a spell before passing south of the airport instead of north of it.

A joy of commuting by train is seeing the Scottish Gaelic station names. My journey is from Sràid na Banrighinn to Waverley Dhùn Èideann and, along the way, highlights include that Falkirk High becomes Bràighe na h-Eaglaise Brice. Otherwise, I am also exposed to Gaelic via BBC Alba which often makes for a pleasantly relaxing way to kill a bit of time, they have low-budget cookery shows and the like, with subtitling in English.

Late one evening back in July, I boarded a CrossCountry train at Edinburgh Waverley that then failed to proceed further. In the end, my journey was delayed by an hour so, under the Delay Repay scheme, I was supposed to be eligible for a refund.

CrossCountry's claim process wanted a QR code and and a ticket number. Unfortunately, I was using one of their flexi season tickets in their mobile app, which prevents screenshots, and the day's ticket wholly disappears once the day is done. So, I asked their customer service people how I can claim. I asked several times and got no useful response at all.

Eventually, I fell back to an effective last resort: post them a paper letter. This triggered a slow sequence of back and forth by e-mail but, last week, they finally paid me my refund. It's absurd that it took three months, and probably cost them as much to deal with me as the £7.55 they paid me, but I still don't have my answer as to how people with those tickets are supposed to claim.

R. and I sometimes head into Edinburgh on the train for in-office work, sometimes on separate days, sometimes together. Today, R. went in, and I stayed home and helped out with pet care. I hope that I am becoming more productive as I grow more familiar with my employer's codebase. I also look forward to getting around to personal programming projects at home but not quite yet it seems, still I have to figure how and when to fit that in. A task this evening is to schedule our influenza vaccinations. COVID-19 vaccinations are becoming a distant memory, it's a pity our BUPA health insurance doesn't reimburse them.

( Our expensive family visa journey continues. )

I read John Wiswell's Someone You Can Build a Nest In which was gentle and engaging. Whether in science fiction or fantasy, I always enjoy insight into a fairly non-human character. Definitely a nice enough way to pass the time. (Though, R. noted that it is far more gory than I had noticed, somehow that all passed me by.) I might be running out of television to watch, though. There is a bit more Chief of War left but it is far more buttocks than smiles and R. noted arrant ahistoricity in the portrayal of Zamboanga (languages, buildings, clothing). We are giving The Mayfair Witches a try on Netflix, R. read the books long ago.

A local Tesco Express convenience store has opened quite near us so we have a very handy source of heavily discounted food that must be sold before it turns into a pumpkin, assuming it isn't already one. So, among other things, we found ourselves eating sandwiches recently. With luck, the store will soon correct their loud alarm siren that warns whenever somebody outside walked near the customer entrance.

Just on my walk to work this morning, twice I had to dodge tourist groups blocking the entire pavement. I thought that I had avoided this in escaping Cambridge, England, but apparently not. Not being attired for leisure, I occasionally have people ask me for help with local navigation. At least, a no-steps route at the Edinburgh end worked well for me today and took little longer. I don't feel enormously steady on many-steps and can experience some vertigo so it would seem foolish to make a frequent habit of them.

In considering the prospect of moving house a little south, it occurred to me that Glasgow's buses are best avoided and the south-side trains will go up to Central, not Queen Street from where the better Edinburgh trains depart. If I want an easy commute, it behooves me to remain near a subway station from which I can easily transfer at Buchanan to Queen Street. I wonder if there is any prospect of finding a garden flat (so better for L. the dog) in our youngest's school catchment area within easy reach of the subway; it seems a tall order.

At the last part of my way home tonight, I stop to pick up the car from a local car park. I left my parking space clear because the electricians are fixing a light above it. I did so on a previous day when there was word of their arrival, on which they helpfully spent their time partly on other activities that did not require cars to have been moved. So, second time lucky, one hopes. That first was a while ago, their work was interrupted by an unexpected-by-us holiday on their part.

Pensions guys presented to us at work and got me to thinking: I have a mountain of debt at a reasonable APR and I am in a high income tax bracket. I don't have much in pension savings so old-me will be in a low tax bracket. I expect that my debt grows faster than my pension. However, I can pay pre-tax money into my pension. So, better to direct spare post-tax money toward the debt or pre-tax into the pension? I wonder if a cranking of approximate numbers yields an obvious correct answer. It would be nice to not think about secondary factors like less debt means better APRs or that I can deduct paid mortgage interest from my US taxes.

Years ago I implemented a composable simulation language into which, were it handy now, I could easily plug these questions for a year-by-year simulation. Back when working on demonstrating that technology's application to financial planning, I was amused that such inevitably led to the question, when do you plan to die?, so this pensions question is a nice exception in that I can simply optimize for starting far-off retirement in the best position.

It has been some days since I made an entry here. While R. works on making some ube (purple yam) cake, I can write up and share various tidbits. R. is pleased to have found salted duck eggs at a good price earlier today in what passes as the closest area Glasgow might have to a Chinatown.

( I watched some science fiction. )

I found myself in an odd mood for more mellow electronica lately, Alexa managed to play me things like Synergy's Ancestors and Jean-Michel Jarre's Computer Weekend without getting songs mixed up.

eBay irritated me. I bought two of an item, then found ( it difficult to request a refund for one, then the other. )

At work it's interesting to see how I have a pattern of afternoon meetings at the moment, given that I work closely with US-based colleagues, though we do also have engineers in Pune. Back at Zilliqa my meetings tended to be in the mornings, as I worked with people in the Middle East and Asia.

( I found that I have various money, and I read some science fiction. )

( I am still experimenting with commuting for days that I work on-site. )