Local authorities are increasingly consulting residents on implementing policy that significantly affects their lives. Oxfordshire County Council alone has 31 open traffic consultations at the time of writing. Even a single consultation takes effort to read, understand and reply to, so each needs to be easy to understand for residents. With 31 consultations in progress... Continue Reading →
Speed and speed limits are always controversial. They get a massive emotional response. Stand by the side of the road and almost everyone feels angry about ‘those bloody speeding drivers’. Likewise, over the last few years 20mph limits have become an ideological rallying point for some groups - an article of faith, almost. The problem... Continue Reading →
Intelligent Speed Adaptation - not so intelligent and not so adaptable Who’s the best person to control your throttle pedal? You, the person behind the wheel, checking for hazards and moderating your speed according to constantly changing road conditions or your local councillor who’s worried about getting re-elected and under pressure to lower limits? Rhetorical? ... Continue Reading →
In the 1950s, psychologist Eric Berne wrote a paper on Transactional Analysis (TA). In it he talked about how people function and express their personality through their behaviour. TA also works as a tool to analyse the way people - and organisations - communicate. In essence, people can communicate as a parent, an adult or... Continue Reading →
Maybe it’s because I originally bought one of these in 1997 with a bonus from work, but I’ve had a bit of a soft spot for them since. And, as they’re a very long way from Patek money, why not start collecting them? The TAG Heuer F1 series was part of the Swiss fightback against... Continue Reading →
More than 30,000 tourists walked past my kitchen window in 2019. Downton Abbey was filmed in Bampton and the library did duty as the Cottage Hospital. Our cottage - perhaps ten yards over the narrow lane from the library - featured too, although only in passing. This bus would have been followed by at least... Continue Reading →
Even if you turn right when you climb aboard and aren’t allowed more than 100ml of anything, there’s still a romance to flying. Originally made for wartime pilots and observers where precise navigation was a very important thing indeed, fliegers are part of watchmaking heritage. And plenty of makers want to claim a whiff of... Continue Reading →
THE LAZARUS WATCH—RESTORING A “FRANKEN-SEIKO” 6139 CHRONOGRAPH Some watches lead pampered lives. They are kept carefully in their boxes, worn only for special occasions when there is little threat of alcohol-induced, watch-threatening silliness before being lovingly polished and put away again. Then there is this Seiko 6139. If it were a puppy, you’d have called... Continue Reading →
Give a watchnerd the keys to Marty McFly’s De Lorean and you’d have a whole different film. Instead of all that faffing about with the Johnny-B-Goode-meets-Eddie-van-Halen thing, they’d set the dials to 1963 and start beating down the door of their nearest Rolex dealer to stock up on Paul Newman Daytonas. Originally, the ref. 6239... Continue Reading →
Chances are, as you read this, you’re no more than 3 metres away from a Casio F-91. It’s still the first watch for generations of children, the choice of half the British Army’s regiments (and practically standard issue for military training) and you’ll find them abandoned in office drawers, forgotten in bags, Blu-tacked to the... Continue Reading →
MMC Musings 