It was meant to be simple. I needed to buy a final Christmas present. Thinking about a town with an easy to navigate shopping area which might not be too impossibly crowded, Gloucester seemed like a possibility. I've always found it easy to get around quickly there, and whilst no doubt it would be busy - it might just be a little less daunting than Bristol or Birmingham. So, set off on the 09:37 from Highbridge. I'd noted that everything from Bristol to the Midlands was diverted via Newport, so I expected a first journey via Lydney on a Voyager.

After a dash over to Platform 3 at Temple Meads, I was surprised to see a Voyager apparently coming from Plymouth arriving empty from the London end of the station. Got on board and settled into a free seat in the quiet coach. Heard something arriving behind us on Platform 4. Thought little of it. Then all hell broke loose! It seems the five-carriage set behind us had been declared a failure, and we were on the replacement stock. So, for starters we had five carriages of people squishing into four. To complicate matters a member of staff had said people should take up their reserved seats from the previous set on the replacement - but there were no reservations showing. Actual physical violence ensued! Things got even uglier when the reservations finally appeared and some people still steadfastly refused to move. I was threatened by one angry, foul-tempered old fool, despite being in a pair of seats which now had a scrolling 'This seat is not reserved' legend above them! The visibly distressed young woman seated beside me and I both decided to bail at Newport to get the next Central Trains service. I know these things are frustrating, but the atmosphere on this train was unpleasant, volatile and generally just plain stupid.

After a cup of tea and a cold wait in the winter sun at Newport, had a nice run along the Severn in a quieter and far safer 170. Arrived in Gloucester later than planned, but in one piece, to find Cotswold's 47316 'Cam Peak' stabled near the station. Wandered into town, found a suitable gift surprisingly quickly, and made it back to the station in time for the next down Voyager which I hoped would be doubled-up and quieter. No such luck - a stuffed 220 left without me. More tea, and a chance to photograph the 47.

A busy hour at Gloucester saw three passing freights and a bunch of passenger workings. The weather stayed amazingly clear and the sunshine started to warm the bones a little. Spotted a very unusual sight in the distance beyond the level crossing, and headed for the footbridge to watch 20905 and 20096 approaching from Cheltenham, having taken some stock to Long Marston I understand. Both locomotives were in immaculate condition, and even the driver couldn't resist taking a picture himself before leaving. Tricky to get a good shot due to the shadows cast by signal gantries in the low Winter sun. Good to see this pair of locos in such fine condition however.

The 14:10 Voyager was happily a pair, and was a little quieter at least until Newport where things got busier. Quick running to Bristol where I had time for coffee before catching the 16:25 back home. Noted the incoming working from Severn Beach was late and getting later. After a growing crowd of us had switched to Platform 4 and a further 25 minute wait, 158859 trundled in decked in Christmas decorations and with Santa onboard - its destination indicator reading 'Special'. We waited a few more minutes for the 'elves' to clear things up before leaving. A surprisingly interesting day, considering I only set out to go shopping.

It seems that my employer is considering a change of image. So, perhaps soon we will see the back of the subdued dark green and burgundy which reportedly appear 'unapproachable' and 'complacent'. In their place, new vibrant hues reflecting dynamism and progress. Perhaps the council should really push the boat out and invest in an ever changing coruscation of colours reflecting the current mood and status of its services - a real-time 'key performance indicator' for the information-on-demand age?

This got me thinking again about the corporate insignia - what future does it have, and more pressingly - what really is it?

The emblem - commonly referred to as a Dragon by most employees has its origins in the arms of the County of Somerset. Granted in 1911, the blazon of the arms is 'Or, a Dragon Rampant Gules holding in the claws a Mace erect Azure'. So, it is indeed a 'Golden Dragon'- heraldic splendour hijacked by the chinese takeaway? A battered version of this emblem, the mace cruelly truncated, can still be seen on the Magistrates' Court building in Weston-super-Mare, close by the new, stylised North Somerset flag. Risking an Anti-social Behaviour Order, you could throw a stone from the Town Hall to the courthouse.


Others, who have little better to do than consider such things, refer to the emblem as a Gryphon. These mythical mongrels are 'beasts like lions, with the wings and beak of an eagle' according to Pausanias. It is perhaps hard to make the case for the Gryphon (or Griffin) as the figure bears little resemblance to a lion in any respect, and clearly sports a lizard-like tongue placing it firmly outside the realm of birds.

Having ruled out the Gryphon, I note that locally, the Wyvern too is a common name for schools and businesses. This 'fabulous two-legged, winged creature, like a cockatrice, but having the head of a dragon, and without spurs' is usually depicted with a long, barbed tail which it bears in a knot. This casts some doubt on the heraldic description of Somerset County's arms - as the creature depicted is almost certainly a Wyvern, a dragon being a four-legged beast. However, Somerset's mace-wielding monster clearly wears spurs. If we accept that this odd heraldic hybrid is a wyvern, it would go some way to explaining the use of the word locally in Weston and elsewhere in the existing and former county areas.

To solve the mystery however, heraldry is our only hope. North Somerset's unusually rightward facing (and therefore 'forward looking') insignia has no legs whatsoever. In heraldry, a dragon without feet is a Serpent.

So, is the Serpent a fitting emblem for our council? It seems to preserve our historic links with Somerset, and beyond to ancient legend. It is said to be 'forward looking', which I think most of my colleagues at least, seem to be. However, its worth remembering that a serpent is also 'a subtle, treacherous, malicious person'. You know who you are!

Links:

Pimbley's Directory of Heraldry
Gryphon Pages
Celebrating Somerset - The Coat of Arms
Somerset County Council
North Somerset Council

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...

Rarely is such a lot of different stuff crammed into one week of my life!

First off, the beginning of Secondary Bulk Appeals for the year. Much dreaded, in fact, by me for hard to explain reasons. I was actually able to relax into them and somewhat recaptured some of the spirit and attitude from last year. Monday was a long and rather intense day. Results were very positive too. There are far fewer appeals this year, for me in effect just next week - which might seen a long one, but traditionally signals the wind down to my (now annual) conference weekend and London trip. This year of course include the Belle & Sebastian show at Somerset House.

Finally got various parts of new mobile phone working correctly, after a long email conversation with O² during which they seemed to get as confused as I did! So, now I have GPRS access sorted, and have been playing with the Live Departure Boards provided by National Rail. Still getting used to the features of the handset, but I've vowed to learn to use this one properly, rather than accidentally discovering features as I go along. Also managed to get Bluetooth talking to the phone via gnome-phone-manager which is working pretty well.

Visited friends for pizza and TV/VCR/DVD installation assistance yesterday, during which a wonky SCART lead caused a great deal of frustration. All was eventually well, and I'm looking forward to borrowing the "Rising Damp" DVDs!

Today, lots of meetings and confusing running around - found out surprising and frustrating result of a mover appeal earlier in the week which put me off my stride a bit - more concerned that people seem to be deeming these things 'performance' indicators, when this one was a complete surprise. You can't legislate for a panel which decides not entirely unjustly, but perhaps impracticably, to 'give someone a break'.

Heard that my Dad's surgery had gone well this morning, and that he was recovering and comfortable. Much relieved. Reminds me that some people have had a far more difficult few days than I!