Although services on the tube and DLR can sometimes be disappointing, frustrating and wholly uncomfortable I find the actual TFL website to be quite the opposite. Without micro-analysing it in complete detail, it provides a good balance between a useful service and entertainment (i.e. competitions and leisure ideas). Sure, it sticks a lot of information inside PDFs and a few tweaks could be made to the journey planner, but the overall site experience is generally a positive one.

The homepage demonstrates a lot of the site’s good points. The tube network already has a lot of established colours for its tube lines and carrying these over to the site – on a predominantly white background – really makes those elements stand out and makes the site more engaging. I imagine most user activities are covered with the ‘live’ service updates board, the journey planner, oyster card and congestion zone areas all getting real estate on the mainpage, as well as a ‘transport mode’ categorisation starting point further down the page offering a good alternative to the main navigation sections that appear to target the key high-level goals of the site’s users.

More recently, they’ve introduced funky iPhone-style icons to the site, highlighting all the different tools they have available to their users. With free mobile services / tools, the TFL site and service is really embracing the mobile and web platform for the benefit of their users.

All this gives us a better perception of TFL overall but, in the real world we live in, all positive brand emotions can be wiped out in an instant when you come up against those magic words: “Service suspended”.

No. I’m not kidding. Well, hmm. Ok, I guess he’s not your traditional spaceman who is propelled into space in a Michelin man outfit. Nooooo. This guy was the ’space’ man. His job was to show drivers where the spaces were in the car park. First time I’ve come across such a job. Interesting. He is kitted out like those lollipop ladies except his ‘lollipop’ says “spaces” and he points in the vague direction where spaces can be found. I imagine it’s quite useful but probably not in my local Sainsburys … where there are loads of spaces. Seriously, he was in the way of the spaces at times and at other times he was simultaneously pointing at so many spaces I thought he was re-inacting the Saturday Night Fever dance. I would have taken a picture of him except this dude looked like his normal job was a bouncer and he would have probably chased me down the street with his big lollipop.

So there you go. More proud parents will now be saying: “my son’s a space man” …

Ok, so I did previously eulogise about the iPhone and, to be honest, I nearly got one. When the sales guy said those magic words: “we have them in stock” … I did consider it, albeit briefly. But, if the truth be told, the 2MP camera really did it for me … or didn’t. For me, that would be a step back. Nowadays, a phone conveniently merges 3 gadgets into one – your phone, your digital camera, and your music player. Therefore, getting a phone with a 2MP camera was a bit of a no-goer – no matter how funky the phone. This is me, thinking with my head and not my heart. Instead I got a Samsung i8510 – and I love it to pieces. 8MP camera, free internet, 8GB of built in memory for my music and, as an added bonus, it went and downloaded FIFA 08 by itself. Now I can go shopping with my wife without fear … change as long as you want dear, I have plenty to do. And so it’s true, a good phone makes a better partner …