Running in Hertford

My girlfriend was out at the Take That concert at Wembley so I was left on my own this Saturday afternoon. Not knowing what to do with myself as the evening approached I decided to go for a run. Normally I find running quite difficult. As I run my mind tends to concentrate on my breathing which puts me off the run. The difference today was that I went exploring.

I commute in to London most days from Hertford East. Over the past few weeks taking the train journey has been quite painful for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the heat on the train is really uncomfortable and secondly because the train goes through a beautifully scenic area between Hertford and Ware called Kings Mead which makes you wish were out walking through the nature reserve rather than in a hot stuffy carriage.

So, tonight I went for a run around Kings Mead and really enjoyed it. I took a couple of Qik videos, some photos of St. Leonards Church which was en-route, and I’ve even created a map of my run.

43 Feet Stone

The stone that is shown right at the start of the video says “43 Feet” on it. It did have some other writing on it but I couldn’t get close enough to read it. The other interesting point in this video is the penalty of FIVE POUNDS for violating any of the rules on the sign. The sign could maybe do with being updated.

Crossroads

St. Leonards Church, Hertford

Run around Hertford Map

View Run around Hertford 04-07-2009 in a larger map

Snow in Hertford

Me in the snow in Hertford

Jo took some great photos and a couple of videos of Hertford in the snow today.

See more photos in Jo’s Snow in Hertford Album

Sunday Lunch Review – The White Horse Hotel, Hertingfordbury

Jo and I have decided that we are going to start going for Sunday lunch and are going to keep a list of where we’ve been and what we thought of it. What better place to keep a note of this than on a blog. Here’s our first effort at a review.

Read more »

Train newspaper recycling

I recently took a job back at Caplin Systems in London and as a result have started commuting into the city every day by train. Once you’ve done the same journey a few times there’s little new to see when looking out of the window so most people listen to music, read a book or read a newspaper. A newspaper doesn’t generally take all that long to read – or generally only contains a few interesting articles – so people tend to leave their papers on the train when they alight. London has a plethora of free papers (Metro, London Lite and The London Paper) so people think nothing of leaving a free paper behind.

“National Express have teamed up with Metro Newspapers” blah, blah, blah. This is a new message that is announced at most stops to encourage passangers to take their papers with them and keep the train tidy. Never mind recycling. In all fairness the London station I get off at does have a “Newspaper recycling team” that are occasionally seen making their way through the trains to collect the discarded papers. The train station must have hundreds of trains through it a day and there is no way that this team will have time to collect all papers for recycling.

My solution to this problem would be to place newspaper bins or containers on each stations and encourange passangers to simply take their paper off the train with them and pop them in the newspaper bin on the platform. This is easier than having to take the paper to work or home with you and then recycling it. This would be a good idea for two reasons:

1) Most papers will end up in these paper containers and recycling teams can just collect from there at a given point in the day.

2) If you want a paper to read on the train you know exactly where you can get one from at each station.

I’m surprised that this isn’t in place as I think that the green and useful sides of this idea make it a winner. Maybe there’s something that I’ve not considered?

Report problems to your council with Neighbourhood Fix It

Rob of GIS Consultancy fame recently sent me a link to a website dedicated to tracking and fixing of neighbourhood problems. The Neighbourhood Fix It website is a great idea and it actually works. I reported the dumping of a load of newspapers and leaflets outside of our flat that were just waiting to be set on fire. That same day the Edinburgh “Rapid Response Team” had been out and picked up the papers and leaflets.

Neighbourhood Fix It must have a mapping of post codes to councils and automatically inform the council of any reports in their jurisdiction. The site has been developed by mySociety who aim to “give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives”. I think that Neighbourhood Fix It is a great piece of work and a great example.

Read more on the launch of Neighbourhood Fix It.