School Admissions Online meeting at Thistle Hotel, near Victoria Station with representatives of Office of Deputy Prime Minister and DfES. Arrived in good time, despite some track circuit problems around Twyford. All seems generally disorganised. Found representative from Wiltshire who are the lead authority in our consortium. Chatted briefly before start of meeting.
Seems the goalposts have moved even further, with ODPM now wanting individual LEAs to 'bid' for development rights of little arbitrary bits of the entire system. No-one except people who already had some sort of system up and running seemed unduly interested in getting involved with rapid application development at our collective busiest time! Left earlier than expected, feeling a little negative - we certainly can't be involved in the development process, but I suppose remaining in the consortium would at least give us early access to whatever gets developed. Vague ideas about inventing our own way of doing things...
A rare thing indeed that I'm in London with time to spare, but I'm too dejected to use it.
A week back at work left me so disoriented that I'd not planned for the weekend at all. Friday night found me wondering what to do and browsing Rover Tickets in the hope of inspiration.
Finally settled on the 3-in-7 day Severn, Avon and Wessex Rover. This gave me a reasonable range of places to end up, and was pretty good value. It also meant I had a spare day for some 31 chasing next Friday.
Set off on Saturday morning with the sole intention of getting the curve from Westbury to Chippenham passing through Melksham. The low frequency of services on this rather close-to-home route has meant I'd neglected it. Redressed this, then headed through the Cotswolds to Gloucester, then via Lydney to Newport.
Text messages summoned me to Bath at this point, where I spend a very odd couple of hours in the Old Green Tree before heading back to Weston.
Sunday started with a quick trip to Gloucester, then Cardiff. Grabbed a Valley Day Ranger ticket and covered more new track - to Aberdare and Treherbert, including a rather dismal wait at Pontypridd and a damp and miserable trek up the Rhondda valley. Finished with a trip down to Barry Island before heading home.
A pretty hectic weekend all in all, revisiting some places I hadn't seen for six years, and even covering some new ground. Barely saw the inside of the flat, which after all is the aim of all this rather pointless wandering. Time, money and an attempt to have a normal life have precluded this kind of thing before. Perhaps now I've admitted to myself that I'm a crank at heart?
Lost::MikeGTN
I've had a home on the web for more years than I care to remember, and a few kind souls persuade me it's worth persisting with keeping it updated. This current incarnation of the site is centred around the blog posts which began back in 1999 as 'the daylog' and continued through my travels and tribulations during the following years.
I don't get out and about nearly as much these days, but I do try to record significant events and trips for posterity. You may also have arrived here by following the trail to my former music blog Songs Heard On Fast Trains. That content is preserved here too.
