Another week!
Some work:
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Finally sat down to test my forthcoming integration with the forthcoming Transport for the North disruption information API, only to find that the test disruption information had already been removed – there are some learnings for me there about the folly of leaving things till the last minute.
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Reworked some maps to use Mapbox GL JS instead of Leaflet. Then decided the reworked maps weren’t as good, so back to the old maps. Cool story.
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Experimented with some more form fields to let enthusiastic fellows record which buses have special features like USB charging sockets and bicycle storage. Also, what depot a bus is based at – which some people seem interested in, but I quickly decided is a terrible boondoggle.
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There was a little outage, the fault of Digital Ocean and not me, for a change. And now I’ve fiddled with some settings to make things more resilient the next time there’s such a networking issue, so that’s good.
And some other stuff too. Big week.
Happy winter solstice, fellow northern hemisphersons. I went to the nearest city, and stood in some queues to buy some last-minute general merchandise I didn’t need to travel all that way to buy. I also passed some time with a jolly Christmastime ride on a preserved Bristol RE – apart from the grand roar of the engine, and curious looks from pedestrians, a highlight was the comfort of the seats, compared to what I’d sat on on the modern bus to get there. Anyway, it’s much recommended – good to feel nostalgic for an era years before one’s time.
I’m afraid Giles Coren (and Mark Dolan)’s programme on the dreadful Talk Radio has become a Sunday evening favourite. Actually, a Monday morning one – one can download past broadcasts in half hourly chunks, e.g. this is the URL for 19:00–19:30 on the 22nd of December:
http://cdn2.talksport.com/tscdn/talkradio/audio/listenagain/20191222_1900_LA.mp3
Heston Blumenthal was a recent guest, promoting his and Coren’s weak new television programme Hestons Marvellous Menu: Back to the Noughties. I watched a bit:
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Cheese twit Alex James, peering out from under all his hair, was one of the luminaries who appeared to talk about how great the early 2000s were.
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Blumenthal’s head chef is named Ed Cooke, ha ha ha.
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Blumenthal, who looks really like a Lego figure, wears a selection of tee shirts with his coat of arms on them, which maybe is a bit of a dick move – but I suppose it takes some courage not to worry about people thinking you’re a dick for wearing tee shirts with your coat of arms on them.
But pfft.