Gemini Translation Services Blog

Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

It was great to see the unveiling of the new bike scheme in London today by Mayor Boris Johnson. Personally I think its cool, having first seen something like it whilst visiting clients in Frankfurt, Germany. After a day long meeting and having freshened up back at the hotel, the ‘less formal’ part of the visit commenced. We were wined, dined and shown the most amazing hospitality and kindness from our hosts.

Then as the evening wore on the the numbers started to peel away. Not that it is was our intention to be ‘last man standing’ but some how we were. One of our hosts, was ‘des’ for the night and was driving us back to the hotel but as she drove a mini, spaces were limited.

So one guy made a phone call from his mobile, did something with his credit card, punched a bunch of numbers into a pad and hey ho, suddenly he had a bike!

Our host explained that, he would cycle home, find a docking station, park up the bike and then go home and crash for the night and would see us in the morning.

Obviously, this was a routine event and something our hosts and European cousins as just everyday life but it was a ‘OMG, that is really neat’ kind of moment. It was a bit like when travelling Canada and the USA in 1996 and being taken a back by the amount of coffee shops (Tim Hortons etc) and wondering is it possible people can drink that much coffee? Then low and behold UK Plc has become a nation of coffee drinkers with one sort of coffee shop or another springing up all over the place. We even have Subway shops now (which is cool I have to say).

Fast forward to today and seeing the announcements in London shows a real indication of how we can improve and better ourselves and take some of the great ideas from mainland Europe and improve UK Plc. Personally, I would like the scheme to be introduced across all major cities. This improvement can only add to the quality of life and is maybe a better one than the 24 hour drinking idea which whilst beautifully integrated into European life somehow got battered and abused by us Brits.

Whilst Bristol is a great place live the public transport network is dire but plans are underway to make the centre a ‘car free’ zone and so maybe a bit of Europe which came to London can now come to Bristol and make the city Gemini are based in even more modern. Here’s hoping anyway! But well done London, think it’s a brilliant step in the right direction.

By Darren Elliott