Boston Metblogs » bos_paul

Snow and parking spaces

bos_paul — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 22:36:44 +0000

It’s funny the difference between The City and The Suburbs when it comes to snow season.

This time last year, I lived in Jamaica Plain, and had no off street parking. The roads were tight, and when the plows went through your car vanished in a pile of sludgy grey snow.

Digging the car out and marking your spot with a chair is pretty common, and as has been noted before, annoying as hell when a limited number of spaces are available and people are marking them when there is no need to do so.

This year is different. I now live in Lynn, about 30 miles north of the city. The roads a wider, there is more access to off street parking, and I haven’t seen a single chair, filing cabinet, traffic cone or other object stealing spaces on the road side.

So, is it a greed thing? “My parking spot, my precious”

Who knows. I only know I’m glad to get well away from it!

So they won …

bos_paul — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 22:05:49 +0000

Congrats go to the Red Sox and all that, but as a Brit, I just don’t get baseball. I’m sorry, but watching last nights game, the most exciting game *EVAH* had me bored after about 5 minutes. And no, I don’t like cricket either.

And what is all this rioting, car tipping and other crap all about? If you’re going to riot after a game, do it properly (http://www.caliach.com/paulr/news/euro96/)

With all this stuff about the Sox in the news, it’s easy to forget that there is a huge event coming up very soon which everyone should be much more conerned about than some silly little game.

I mean come on, it’s Halloween on Sunday!

Patriotism

bos_paul — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 13:47:48 +0000

This isn’t specifically Boston related I guess, but it’s something I see a lot of in the area, and being from the UK, confuses me … I posted the following to my own blog, and yes, it is meant to be taken with your tongue in your cheeck :)

There is a house just around the block from us. It

Some people *love* the T in Boston

bos_paul — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 11:49:58 +0000

http://boston.craigslist.org/about/best/bos/39292936.html
Can’t really say I blame them either :)

More on Mass driving …

bos_paul — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 06:51:47 +0000

I know it’s one of my favourite subjects, but today I wanted to rant again about Mass drivers. Again.
Today when I woke up, it was foggy. Living only a small number of blocks from the ocean, it was foggier there than it was when I drove to work.
So, why, when visibility is low, would people in dark coloured cars (White cars too) drive with no lights on?
I don’t get it … do they think that having lights on is so they can see where they are going? Nope, it’s so others can see you!
So, if you were driving around this morning without your lights on, please consider yourself a dumbass and switch them on next time it’s foggy, it’s not like you haven’t seen this stuff before.

Moved house

bos_paul — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 08:45:17 +0000

It’s been done for a few weeks now … I’ve moved house from Jamaica Plain to Lynn (almost Swampscott … I could spit and hit it!).
For those outside Boston who don’t know:
Jamaica Plain = Hip, trendy, southern Boston. PITA commute to work.
Lynn = Northern suburb, some rough parts (fortunately I’m not in it), right by the beach, totally easy and nice commute to work.
I’m loving it. We’ve got some issues in the apartment .. no electrics on the office (electrician is being scheduled) and our upstairs neighbours left their broken dishwasher running, and caused huge amounts of water damage to our office and hallway roof (landlord not pleased, they are moving out anyway, they’ve done this before, more than once), but those issues don’t take away from it being a nice apartment.
I kind of miss the stuff that was in JP … I miss Galway House and Doyles. Costellos and the pond, but the benefits are much higher. I saved $500 a year on my car insurance (screw Geico!), I drive 8 miles and I’m at the office (instead of 35 miles plus an hour for ball game traffic / storrow drive traffic / events at the hatch shell traffic). I get more sleep too, which is nice.
Move out of the city! It’s good for you! :)

I’m moving

bos_paul — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 15:36:17 +0000

I’m leaving the lovely Jamaica Plain, which has been my home for over a year now, and moving north to Lynn.
There is a ton of stuff I’m going to miss .. walks around Jamaica Pond, JP Licks, Costellos, Galway House, Sorellos to name a few.
However, I am NOT going to miss my commute to work.
I work in Lynnfield, and the easiest way for me to get there is to follow the Jamaica Way, go down Boylston St past Fenway, then Storrow onto either Route 1 or 93.
The bane of my life are the Red Sox. Whenever they play at home, I tack 30 minutes onto my commute, just to get past Bloody Fenway Park. I *never* remember to check the schedules and plan accordingly, and instead almost always get stuck in the madness that huge numbers of baseball fans manage to cause when they absolutely *must* park a close as physically possible, regardless of who is trying to drive down the road.
So, it was with *great* pleasure to see they are playing at home next week (Mon 9th right through, every day, till the 18th), and then on and off until the end of the month.
Why great pleasure?
I move on Saturday, and *never* have to do it again.
That alone has made my day :)
I hate the Red Sox.

Why do you like Boston?

bos_paul — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 12:34:34 +0000

It’s a question I’ve been asked a few times since moving here from the UK, and I guess it can be answered here, and expanded into:
Why do you stay living in Boston? What keeps you here?
I’d like to read other peoples answers too.
I first came to America for a 3 week trip in May 2002, I spent two weeks at my office in Lynnfield, and stayed in a hotel there, then spent the last week in Boston itself and Chicago, visiting friends.
I felt at home in Boston, much more so than Chicago. I couldn’t place why really.
I came back that November for a proper holiday and spent 3 more weeks here. I travelled to New York, but spent most of it in Boston again.
The city itself was fun, I felt much more comfortable with Bostons twisting roads and rotaries (otherwise known as roundabouts) than I did in New York or Chicago. I found Bostonians friendly, whereas Chicago seemed almost fake. If someone in Boston asked how I was doing, then it was because they wanted to know, in Chicago, it was because it was expected of them and fake.
Of course, to many people here, this is considered rude behaviour, but to me, from Europe, its pretty typical :)
In general, I guess I like Boston because it is so much more European than anywhere else in America … it has a certain level of history, some fun neighbourhoods.
I moved here in April 2003, and have lived in Jamaica Plain ever since … with the pond, the shops, cafes, pubs, restaurants … it has everything you could want, in walking distance, yet is also small and compact enough to feel like a town. When we move to Lynn in August, I’m going to miss it …
So, why do you like Boston?

DNC = Do Not Care

bos_paul — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 07:30:04 +0000

Looks like the entire city of Boston is focused on the Democratic Convention this week … every local blog and new site is reporting about the bad treatment of the protestors, or the various speeches that are being given.
Personally, I took the week off. I have no car, and refuse to get on the Orange line without a good reason. The TV is on, but it’s showing old reruns of Star Trek right now.
I don’t really care too much about what happens, being a Brit, I can’t vote, I’m more worried about being hassled by the police and security “precautions” than I am about any terrorist activity. It seems any T stop is having “random” stop and searches, we’re constantly being buzzed by helicopters of various types, the roads are plauged with police.
So, I’m staying inside, or walking distance from the house and pretending none of this is happening :)

Insight

bos_paul — Thu, 22 Jul 2004 08:17:46 +0000

It’s no secret that drivers in Boston and Mass in general suck. Some drivers are exceptionally bad, to the point of being dangerous, some drivers are great, but I would suggest they are an exception.
And I think I’ve worked out why …
The test here sucks.
I’m from the UK, and passed my driving test there around 7 years ago, and have been driving since then. I did around a year of learning and lessons, then a written test which was challenging, and the 30 minute road test where every aspect of your driving was watched … how often you checked your mirrors, how aware you were of things around you … that kind of thing.
I arrived in Boston a year ago, and finally got around to converting to a Mass license, for which I had to go through the test as if I was a new driver.
I did no preperation, no research, no books or guides, just let my 6 years in the UK and one year here teach me.
The 20 minute written test was finished in under 5 minutes. I got a couple wrong, but they were mostly local law questions I hadn’t come across.
Yesterday I did the practical portion of the test, and I admit, I was a little nervous …
We drove around the block. A left turn, three right turns (one with a STOP sign), and a left turn back into the car park. The policeman doing it chatted about the war and how crap he thought Bush was for the whole 5 or 6 minutes we were out.
I just figured that because he knew I could drive already, he was giving me an easy ride … but I’ve been told since that this wasn’t the case, and that really is how the majority of tests here are …
So, Boston drivers suck because the state test suck :) Thats my theory, and I’m sticking to it :)