Today began as a bit of a farce. Having decided to get up later than usual, woke to a bunch of messages about a major mix-up regarding the coaching stock for Virgin's 'Holidaymaker Specials'. In short, it wasn't where it needed to be and was horrendously late in setting off to get there! Eyed the Live Departures Boards cautiously whilst preparing to leave. Seems that 1E99 - due to call at Weston at 10:53, and therefore my preferred first move - had started from Exeter St. Davids making up some time.

Arrived at the station to find a reasonable number of fellow cranks, and some customarily confused normal folks. One of these attempted some disparaging remarks before realising that there were more of us than of him! Dead on time 67029 at the head of 11 very lightly loaded Virgin liveried Mk2's arrived. Time for a quick photo before hopping aboard for a speedy and smooth run to Temple Meads.

Some more pictures at Bristol, then over to Platform 9 to watch the other northbound special arrive. This had started from Paignton as planned, and as a result of being somewhat late both 67 hauled services were at Temple Meads at once. Shame they weren't on adjacent platforms for the photo opportunity however! Watched 67016 and 67029 depart northward, then got coffee and settled in for the wait for 1V15 - one of the southbound specials.

After some platform changing strangeness, 67027 arrived with another 11 almost empty coaches. Lets hope patronage of these services improves over the coming weeks - my father assures me that the 'factory shutdown' fortnight at the end of July will help! More pictures before setting of on time for a non-stop run to Exeter St. Davids. Hampered by a preceding Voyager some of the way, but we got moving quite respectably south of Taunton.

On to the sea wall at Dawlish - a spectacular bit of railway and an experience I never tire of. My favourite memory being of a stormy high tide six or seven years back, with waves landing the wrong side of the 158 heading for Penzance! 67027 seemed to make particularly swift progress here - there must be some impressive shots from the photographers at Dawlish out there on the various fotopic sites! Some talk of bailing at Dawlish for the northbound Virgin HST, but I decided to stay on to Paignton for old time's sake!


In retrospect, probably shouldn't have done. The strange distaste I developed by visiting the town when in a very unhappy state of mind seems to still trouble me. The sad part is, I used to love a run down here, taking pictures of trains from the footbridge, a decent lunch and a walk to Goodrington. Today however, changed platforms for the 1530 Voyager heading northwards, and left swiftly.

Reasonably uneventful run back. Passed 67002 hauling the other southbound service at Exeter, very late having being swapped on and off the train at Crewe earlier in the day. Changed at Taunton for a packed 143621 back to Weston. Not many miles travelled, but some interesting haulage.

With the printer installed, set to work on Inkblot, a GNOME ink level indicator based on libinklevel. I'd started work on this for FuzzyTheBear and his wife, on #lemmings, working blind and by guesswork having sold my printer some weeks previously. Seems that my guesses had been moderately good, since once built it worked reasonably well.

Did a little cleaning up, added support for separate Cyan, Magenta and Yellow reservoirs if present, and made a tarball of the progress. Next steps include some device detection and some minimal preferences (its currently hardcoded to look for a USB printer because that's what both Fuzzy and I have!).

Another project to fiddle with intermittently...

I set out to install a printer, and ended up destroying my imap set up!

Don't ask me how. It involved installing a few updates, fiddling around with some configuration files, and amazingly I was on a day-long mission to get mail working again. Finally got things going again about an hour ago - no idea how much has bounced around the net in the meantime, probably nothing important.

Consequently, didn't get much done today. Had planned to read and write a bit, and to get some paper for the printer to test it properly. Also planned to visit my father in hospital. Finally set out on the 1630 bus to Weston General, after a long wait for missing buses and getting drenched on the way to the stop. He is much brighter and feeling better today, which was a relief. Bumped into my mum, also visiting. Left a little earlier than planned due to further bus uncertainty.

Now to try to get webmail working again...

Resolved to go somewhere reasonably distant, following a long and trying week and a few weeks of mainly local wanderings. Had been at a loss however, as to where to go. Spent hours last night playing with times, but found myself hampered by absurdly inflated ticket prices (mainly around Virgin services I note) or the very Filton blockade which provided last weeks points of interest.

Finally settled on a run on South West Trains Reading to Brighton service, travelling via Basingstoke and Winchester to the south coast. Set out on the 0809 - allowing me the luxury of getting up at my usual time, and happily found the staff at Weston able and willing to sell the combination of Cheap Day Returns, which made a quick change at Reading possible. Tried to get breakfast on the train, but the absence of a "Travelling Chef" until after Bristol and the lack of announcements led to just having a coffee. Quick change at Reading with time to purchase refreshments before boarding an SWT 170 on Platform 1. I fully understand that the 170/3 units are newer than Central's but at least SWT seem to clean these. Comfortable trip to Brighton, if a little crowded at times in the 2 car unit. Notice I was travelling with a poet too, and was proud to notice that she took interest and noted down the name of my chosen reading matter.

On arrival, decided that being this close to new track, without a purpose demanded a trip to Lewes via London Road. I've almost always been going somewhere when I'm in Brighton - visiting Russell Hill or heading for the UNISON conference - so I've never had time to scratch the short bit of track between here and Lewes. Grabbed a ticket from the machine and hopped on a 377 waiting on Platform 1. A short but pleasant trip - the views from the viaduct over Brighton being particularly interesting. Interesting to see how Lover's Walk is dominated by 377 EMUs now, in comparison to my last visit some years ago when slammers populated the depot. I must confess I find the 377s both comfortable and quick - and whilst they are soulless plastic, they are pretty good units.

Headed into Brighton. Previous visits have given me a good navigational start on the place, and I was amazed to remember most of my way around the shopping areas. Headed straight for the shops, homing in on HMV where I bought Belle and Sebastian's "Dog on Wheels EP" many years ago (eight maybe?). Commemorated by buying their newly released "Books EP" from the same shop. Also got a USB hub and cable to get the printer going. Back to the station in record time, wishing I had more time to wander in fact, despite crowded streets and low-flying birds!

Spotted a 450 waiting to return to Basingstoke, so changed my vague plan to go via Gatwick and Guildford and decided to take my first trip on a 450. As reported, a pretty basic unit. Some confusion with the computerised announcments too, which announced a station just as we left it! All-in-all, a fine suburban unit akin to the 458s in use between Reading and Waterloo. Doesn't feel nearly comfortable enough for the Portsmouth services they find use on, or indeed this rather long run. Almost relieved to transfer onto a 165 for the run back into Reading!

Long, wet journey back to Weston. Hampered by more trespassers near Parson Street station. New track, new units and a bit of shopping thrown in. Can't complain at all.