two go on a great western adventure…

Dear GWR
I’ll try to keep this reasonably brief – because I expect a lot of the passengers on yesterday’s 19.03 train from London Paddington to Exeter St David’s might also be writing to you…

1. We arrived in good time, found our coach (coach A) and looked for our seats.
2. The electronic seat displays weren’t working (surprise, surprise!) BUT, thankfully, reserved seat cards had been put in place.
3. We had booked seats 61+62… only to discover that the carriage only had 61 seats (really)!!
4. We (and other passengers) then discovered that the reserved seat cards seemed to have been scattered entirely randomly throughout the carriage (I kid you not!!) and bore no relationship to the numbered seats to which they’d been attached.
5. Annoying and inconvenient as this was, passengers made adjustments as best they could and eventually settled into their seats… despite the frustrations, good humour generally reigned (but staff members were conspicuous by their absence).
6. Two minutes after the train was due to depart, there was an announcement telling us that all passengers had to move into the front five coaches (no apology or explanation, just an announcement)(the train had 10 coaches and we were later advised that a staff member had failed to turn up – which meant they were only able to operate with 5 coaches… which later reverted to 10 coaches because they’d eventually managed to find another member of staff)(are you following this?!).
7. The rear five coaches were already crowded with passengers and you can imagine the displeasure of those affected (and, in some cases, sheer panic!)…
8. After a further 10 minute delay (to allow for passengers to find alternative seats or standing locations in the front five coaches) - and, of course, the notion of securing any reserved seats had long since vanished and people just sat, if they were lucky, wherever they could – the train departed.
9. The journey continued relatively smoothly… albeit late (and I actually felt quite sorry for the train manager – who was trying to cope as best she could).
10. But as we approached Bristol Temple Meads (literally 30 seconds before the train’s arrival), there was another brief announcement telling any passenger who was proceeding beyond Bristol (fortunately, this was our destination), that they needed to be in the FRONT five coaches – as only five coaches would be making the full journey. I can only imagine the consternation of the passengers affected. Why on earth wasn’t this announcement made as the train left Bath Spa station, so that people had time to prepare themselves for their ongoing journeys?

Oh, what fun we had… two go on a Great Western Adventure (indeed!).
Travelling by train and being able to book seats in advance used to be a pleasurable, if relatively expensive, experience. I’m afraid this is no longer the case… journeys have just become experiences to endure rather than enjoy.
Yours sincerely
Steve Broadway

PS: Over the past several weeks, we’ve travelled by GWR (always avoiding busiest times of day) and have been consistently finding that there have been issues with our booked seats (not to mention the odd cancelled train and delayed services). Invariably, the electronic seat display (where applicable) isn’t working and passengers, understandably perhaps, refusing to give up their seats just because someone like me tells them that they’re occupying our booked seats.

PPS: We’ve also experienced a number of occasions when the train has become so crowded that there have been, for example, more than 20 passengers left standing in our coach for entire sections of journeys. It seems that you’re just delighted to sell as many tickets as you can – even if that results in unacceptable, over-crowded trains… and then, ironically (as a train manager announced to us passengers on a train last week), one of the reasons for the late arrival of our train was the large number of passengers getting off and on the train!!

the numbers game…

I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s book “Notes from a Big Country” (published in 1998 and compiled from his regular column in the Telegraph - he’d recently moved back to the USA after living in England for nearly 20 years). In one of his pieces, he was writing about the USA’s national debt – not because he was particularly interested in the American economy, but more because of the figures involved ($4.5trillion)… “but what does $4.5trillion actually mean?” he asked.
I found his following explanation both entertaining and pretty “gobsmacking”:
“Imagine that you were in a vault with the whole of America’s national debt and you were told you could keep each dollar bill you initialled. Say, too, for the sake of argument that you could initial one dollar bill each second and that you worked straight through without stopping. How long do you think it would take to count a trillion dollars? Go on, humour me and take a guess. Twelve weeks? Five years?
If you initialled one dollar per second, you would make $1,000 every 17 minutes. After twelve days of non-stop effort you would acquire your first $1million. Thus it would take you 120 days to accumulate $10million and 1,200 days – something over three years – to reach $100million. After 31.7 years, you would become a billionaire, and after almost a thousand years you would be as wealthy as Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. But not until after 31,709.8 years would you count your trillionth dollar…
That is what $1 trillion is.”
I’m still trying to get my head round this!
It’s a bit like someone telling you that you’ll have to wait another 700-odd YEARS before you can celebrate 1million DAYS since the birth of Christ…
Somehow, I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it.
Note: I’m aware that, in the past, “trillion” has meant difficult things in the USA and in the UK. Apparently, these days, they mean the same (one million million) – it used to be one million million million in “British English” (according to Wikipedia).

TED talks in bristol

Moira+I spent today at Colston Hall listening to some 16 speakers (and six previously-recorded TED talks from around the world) on the subject of “Failure”. I must stress here that we didn’t attend because we thought we were failures… (of course not!).

Although it proved to be a fascinating and interesting day, we both came away feeling rather disappointed. I had watched several TED talks on-line and had invariably been highly impressed. Yes, I realise that the majority of those high-calibre speakers will probably have been well paid for their efforts and that this Bristol version inevitably showcased a range of rather more local, not-so-well-known contributors, but it was all something of a disappointment.
There were certainly SOME original and entertaining speakers (eg. Paul Archer’s around-the-world-in-a-black-cab talk and Sophie Mather’s passionate presentation on sustainable textiles) but, overall, we came away feeling a little tired of the much-repeated message of “failure breeds success” from entrepreneurs, life gurus and people who simply seemed to be there to promote their own businesses in one form or another…  as Moira observed “failure can be more subtle than that”! It also seemed geared towards a scientific and/or technological audience (actually, that’s probably a little unfair!). In our view, none of the speakers had impressed us as much as any of the “Bristol Festival of Ideas” talks we’d attended (eg. Richard Holloway or Julia Unwin).
There were, however, a number of plus points: a) we only paid a concessionary rate of £10 for an entire day’s talks, and b) the event attracted a wide age range, particularly from 20-30 age group.  
A good day… but one that didn’t quite live up to our expectations.
Photo: the Bristol TED talk stage.

the car in front is a toyota….

Actually, the reason it’s in front could be due to a sticking accelerator pedal…. or maybe, if it’s a Prius, it could be due to a “momentary loss of braking capability”.
Joking apart, you really have to feel for them don't you (and those who’ve been involved in any accidents) when it involves them having to recall millions of its vehicles.

cystic fibrosis

I strongly advise you to read Victoria Tremlett’s article in yesterday’s Guardian magazine entitled “Experience: I hope I’m here for Christmas”. She’s a 22 year-old woman who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was two and she writes very eloquently about her long, frustrating wait for a lung transplant. All very humbling.
We have a Year 10 student, Nick, at our school with CF (another pupil at school with CF died last year) and I’ve spent a fair amount of time with him since he started secondary school. He’s absolutely brilliant – bubbly personality, very popular with his peers and prepared to have a go at everything - but I know just how tough it’s been for his mother (especially as a single parent). Although the life expectancy of CF patients continues to increase (about 75 per cent of affected children survive to young adulthood), coming to terms with the average life expectancy of between 30 and 40 must be very hard to live with.

boys

Saturday’s Guardian and Weekend magazine included some fascinating stuff about teenage boys. It pointed to research showing that teenagers felt “wrongly demonised”. Here’s an extract: “The news may come as a shock to those who believe Britain is a broken society menaced by hoodie-wearing yobs, but research commissioned by The Guardian shows that the vast majority of teenage boys are ambitious, career-minded, home-loving and, above all, happy”. 87% are happy at home/with their family; 87% are happy with their social life; 88% are ambitious about their futures; and 88% believe their career prospects are good.
It really was fascinating stuff, but a brief interview of two 14 year-old boys from Kent did make me laugh out loud. It featured two boys named Blue Addison and Barney Hodson Laybourne (see pic) – both boys immaculately kitted out in colourful gear. Blue received £5 a week pocket money from his grandparents (hope that’s not setting a precedent?); Barney got just £3 from his Dad (when he saw him every other weekend). But don’t feel too sorry for Barney (pictured right) because the article went on to say that his favourite items of clothing were the 50 pairs (yes, fifty!) of trainers he owned.
Clearly, our girls were deprived.

lost

I can’t find my piece of the Berlin wall!
There have been various trailers on BBC Radio4 recently for programmes celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. It made me wonder where I’d put my small piece of wall (won in a local Labour Party fundraising draw, I think?)…. I’ve been looking but, so far, in vain.
This seems to happen to me on a fairly regular basis (yes, there will be those who will put it all down to my age!). For example, I haven’t been able to find my lovely (expensive) Gore-tex waterproof trousers for several weeks now – and can’t remember the last time I wore them. Similarly (and I can’t for the life of me recall why I was looking for it), not so long ago, I was searching for a small black+white photograph of me playing football (taken in about 1970). I still haven’t found it. So, for my super power, I’d like the ability to be able to locate such things instantly please.
If found, please return to…..

benefits of old age

Spent the day with Iris at Bristol Zoo yesterday. Really enjoyable day and, as a bonus, the sun shone throughout. Also prepared food and drinks beforehand so didn’t end up spending a fortune at the café. Anyway, the real point of this post was to underline some of the benefits of being over 60! I’ve recently discovered that, by showing my bus pass, I can get discount at the Watershed cinema AND Bristol Zoo (as well as on the buses, of course!).
It all adds up!
Photo: Iris and the lioness at Bristol Zoo (“females in profile”).
PS: Wonder if I can get a discount at Threshers?
PPS: They’ve introduced a fantastic aerial ropes course at the zoo (you have to be over 5 years/1.1m high) – it looks wonderful and kids+parents seemed to be really enjoying themselves: see http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/visiting/attractions/zooropia.

red arrows

I’m very much against Air Shows on environmental grounds, so I feel a little guilty about this…
I knew that the Red Arrows Air Display Team was due to appear at Bristol’s Balloon Fiesta at 5pm yesterday. As it was such a beautiful afternoon, I decided to walk up to Clifton in the hope that I could watch the Red Arrows from the suspension bridge. There were absolutely crowds of people everywhere - the roads were jammed in all directions by traffic trying to get to Ashton Court; people were lounging about on the grassy area next to the bridge; I noticed that the roof terrace at the Avon Gorge Hotel was a particularly popular viewing point and, of course, there were lots of people crossing the bridge to get into Ashton Court itself.
Suddenly, right on time, there was a tremendous ROAR from somewhere behind me and I just managed to react in time to take this photograph (they move bloomin' fast!). I have to admit, the Red Arrows were pretty impressive and they “performed” for nearly 25 minutes.
PS: by the time I returned home, supper was virtually ready(!) and we ate in the garden and watched all the hot air balloons fly directly overhead – very gracefully and somewhat quieter than the Red Arrows!

balloon fiesta

Moira+I got up very early this morning to walk to Ashton Court to watch some 76 hot air balloons make a mass ascent at this year’s Bristol Balloon Fiesta. Ruth+Stu+Iris+Rosa joined us in our dawn quest and we were very well rewarded by beautiful weather and blue skies. If you’ve never witnessed this early morning spectacle, then I really recommend that you make an effort to do so (but only on perfect summer mornings with very light winds, that is!)…. the whole atmosphere is SO much better than at the evening ascents. We returned home afterwards to eat lots of excellent bacon sandwiches and drink copious quantities of tea/coffee – and were also joined by good friend Angie (Wilf had to go on to work) and her daughter Orla and Angie’s parents (plus R+S+I+R)…. and, by the time we’d finished it all, it was still only 10.30am and the day was still young!
Photo: Iris’s friends Harry and Monkey enjoying the fiesta (note their thermos flask and cups!).

gratitude+guilt

A strange thing happened a couple of days ago.
A young woman (maybe in her 30s) knocked on our front door and pleaded for me to help her (actually she was on her phone when I answered the door). I’d never seen her before in my life. She’d parked her car a few doors up the road and her car battery had completely died and she hadn’t a clue what to do. Did I have any jump leads? No, I didn’t.
I suggested that I (well, Stuart and me!) could probably get it started by pushing her down the hill (once we’d turned her car around). She expressed huge doubts – not about our ability to push her, you understand – “I’ve never done anything like that before in my life”. So, I explained what she needed to do and Stu+I pushed and pulled her car into position (it was at the top of the hill). She appeared to remain very doubtful.
Anyway, we managed to “bump start” her virtually immediately and she vanished down the hill (at some speed!) – mainly screaming in disbelief and but also desperately trying to poke her hand out of the car window to wave her thanks, in a vague manner of means.
All very amusing.
But later, I admitted to Moira that I’d been very suspicious by the whole thing. Her attitude had appeared really rather strange…. why our house (she must have passed nearly ten houses before knocking on our door)? She just seemed to assume that I’d comply with her request. She didn’t seem particularly pleased that we’d sorted out her problem…. although I was perfectly happy to help, I told Moira that I was little put out that she just seemed to ASSUME that I’d assist.
Well, yesterday evening I had to eat my words…. there was another knock on the door. It was the young woman again – but this time she was armed with a box of (quite expensive) chocolates! She apologised for not being able to thank us properly yesterday… she was really REALLY grateful…. and I was left feeling VERY guilty!
PS: the chocolates have probably been doctored… I’ll probably be kidnapped over the next day or so in a drugged state and smuggled to some far-off land… I’ll try and post a blog regarding my whereabouts….

looking for eric

I realise that going to the cinema is not the most sensible thing to do on a beautiful sunny afternoon but, believe me, it proved to be WELL worth it! I went to see Ken Loach’s “Looking for Eric” at the Watershed and really, really enjoyed it. It’s about an ailing Manchester postman getting his life back on track with the help of Eric Cantona (yes, Eric Cantona: ManU football legend) and it’s just beautiful. It’s funny (I found myself laughing out loud at various stages), it’s quite tough at times, but it’s also a poignant love story and, according to a review I’ve just read, it’s a “feelgood vigilante film” which (and I know you’ll find this hard to believe) just about sums it up!
Even if football doesn’t interest you at all, you really should see this film.
PS: Coming out of the cinema, the sun was still shining and people were smiling and I even gave the singing guitar player some of my loose change! As I crossed over the swing bridge by the Arnolfini, an old man fell off his bike. He wasn’t badly hurt but a couple of us went to his assistance, someone picked up his bike and others were clearly concerned…. eventually, we got the old man up off the floor and he smiled and said to the gathered throng “Thank you ever so much for all your concern. As you can see, I’m a bit of a learner at this, but it’s really nice that so many of you stopped to check that I was all right”. People beamed back at him and you could almost sense everyone thinking “aaaah, what a nice man!” before going on their respective ways. A very nice moment.
PPS: Also connected another section of roof drainage to the water butt, went along to the Refugee Week entertainment in Queens Square and attended Tim’s entertaining and thought-provoking “service” at foundation (busy day!).

we are not amused

I’m not someone who constantly knocks Prince Charles.
I actually think he’s a bit of a visionary when it comes to things like the Prince’s Trust and his work and words on organic food and climate change, BUT (and you just knew there was going to be a “but” didn’t you!) his latest intervention in the field of architecture has been utterly outrageous.
As you have probably read, the Qatari royal family has scrapped its plans for the £1b redevelopment of Chelsea Barracks in west London following a private letter from the prince to the Qatari royal household.
Brilliant.
Just a week before it was due to be considered by Westminster City Council, the site owners (an investment arm of the Gulf emirate) have withdrawn the planning application. Lord Rogers’ scheme for “548 apartments – half of them affordable, spread over 14 glass and steel buildings” is to be scrapped. Richard Rogers has been one the finest British architects for the best part of 40 years. He is noted for his modernist and functionalist designs. No doubt, Lord Rogers’ architectural practice won the commission in the face of stiff opposition. No doubt, the clients selected the firm on the basis of its past record and the quality of its work. No doubt the practice has been working painstakingly with the developers to help them to come up a design that met their requirements in terms of design, brief, cost and suitability. No doubt the practice has been working in close conjunction with the Westminster Council planners and residents (indeed, the scheme had won support from council officers and the government’s design watchdog). An awful lot of time, effort, expertise (and money!) has been expended on this scheme in the two years and a half years since the site was sold. If you appoint Lord Rogers’ practice, you clearly are NOT wanting to pursue a “more classical, traditional scheme”.
Yesterday’s article in The Guardian indicated that “diplomatic relations between Qatar and Britain were a key factor. An aide to the Qatari royal family said the emirate’s acquisition of the barracks site was as much about developing its diplomatic capital in the UK as it was about producing a profit, and senior Qataris had become concerned that opposition to the plans by ‘well-heeled and highly articulate’ individuals was damaging its attempts at ‘soft diplomacy’.”
Unbelievable.
Architect Peter Ahrends (designer of a modernist extension to the National Gallery that was scrapped in 1975 after the prince had called it a “monstrous carbuncle”) described the current decision thus: “We have been taken back several centuries to a more autocratic, medieval way of wielding influence”. Former Secretary of State for the Environment, Nick Raynsford said that Prince Charles’ behaviour was “almost feudal”. The president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Sunand Prasand, was equally appalled: "We are really throwing in the towel if we think in the 21st Century that we can't make beautiful buildings that can face a site of magnificent buildings across the road. They can be beautiful without being neo-classical." Lord Rogers described the cleints’ decision as “disastrous”.
Anyway, we MUSTN’T be concerned, because the developers have already appointed new designers to take matters forward…. they’ve appointed the “Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment”.
Genius!

magpie

I know we’re supposed to welcome garden birds in these days of diminishing birdsong, but our “own” local magpie is making me consider extreme options. Being an early riser, I’ve been aware these last few weeks of this particular creature’s incessant “song” – Iris does a brilliant impression! To get a “feel” of what I’ve been experiencing, click on this link (and continue to play it a hundred times at full volume!). I even heard one of our neighbours come into the garden this morning, clapping her hands loudly in desperate attempt to chase off our local pet. I think the magpie just found entertaining!
I’m very aware that the rhyme talks about one magpie “for sorrow” and I’ve just used google to discover that there are various things you can do if you meet a single magpie in order to ward off the bad luck. These include “taking your hat off and making the sign of the cross, spitting three times over your shoulder(?), and saluting the magpie with 'Hello Mr Magpie, How's your lady wife today?'”.

Good grief!
happy(?) footnote: I was wrong – there are TWO magpies. I’ve since spotted its (much quieter) mate…. joy knows no bounds!

alice roberts

This might be a sad reflection of our family, but we’ve often joked about “who on earth will replace David Attenborough on the TV?” (apart from either Felix or Stu, that is!). We had fears that either Alan Titchmarsh or Richard Hammond was being groomed to fill his considerable boots. But I’ve started to relax a little…. because the BBC seems to have realised that Dr Alice Roberts is the new Attenborough (and rightly so). She won’t become the voice/face behind exactly the same type of “natural world” television programme, but she is one of those multi-talented people who is opening up whole new range of programmes. She’s an osteoarchaeologist and a lecturer at Bristol University (in fact, I’ve actually seen her described as “the David Attenborough of the human body”). As well as being highly intelligent, she’s one of those people who seems to be able to do absolutely ANYTHING (and do it really well) – artist, caver, diver, rock climber and athlete (if the first programme was anything to go by, when she ran with a couple of native hunters in the heat of the African “bush”). I first came across her on my favourite “Time Team” and then, of course, she was one of the presenters on “Coast” before the BBC built an entire programme around her with “Don’t Die Young”. Her latest television series is “The Incredible Human Journey” – an impressive five-part series in which she “follows the archaeological and genetic footprints of our ancient ancestors to find out how their journeys transformed our species into the humans we are today, and how Homo Sapiens came to dominate the planet”.
She’s brilliant and, as you might have gathered, I’m a bit of a fan!

PS: .... and she's obviously been added to my "world eleven"!

bungie jumping in bristol

No, don’t worry, I haven’t been participating!
We were walking by the harbourside yesterday and briefly watched some bungie jumpers. Just amused by the contrasting styles illustrated in the attached photographs. The bloke in the first pic seems absolutely petrified and is probably just doing it because his friends have put him up to it; his body language seems to suggest that he’s thinking “oh good grief, what on earth have I done?”. On the other hand, the girl in the second image seems supremely confident (“I CAN fly”) and, although it’s a pretty grotty photograph, is performing a perfect swallow dive.
They both survived!

the speaker

I found myself watching the television last night. I hardly seem to watch it these days. I watched the end of “Wainwright Walks” on BBC4 and was about to disappear downstairs to the basement to work on our forthcoming exhibition when I became intrigued by a programme called “The Speaker”, which was about to start on BBC2. I’d never even heard about it and last night’s programme was the final (“the search to find Britain’s Best Young Speaker”). From thousands of entries (14-18 year olds), they were down to the final three for yesterday’s programme. The finalists were flown out with Unicef to research children’s rights in Malawi and I suddenly realised that one of the finalists, Irene, was a member of one of our local churches here in Bedminster! She was just brilliant. Not surprisingly, the quality of the finalists was incredibly high. Irene ended up coming a close second to the 14 year-old winner (who was also from Bristol!), but I have a feeling that we might be hearing a fair amount about her in years to come.
Inspiring, moving, humbling stuff!
PS: if you’re quick, you can watch it on BBC iplayer

university challenge and the sun newspaper

Watched the final of University Challenge this evening and, after watching the programme over recent weeks, wasn’t at all surprised that Corpus Christi College, Oxford won. In previous rounds, their captain Gail Trimble had been outstanding but seemed strangely nervous in the final until the last few minutes when she seemed to come into her own (which was good for the other team members, as it demonstrated that they were pretty bright too!). I’ve been amused by the attention that she seems to have attracted; Moira read out extracts from an article in yesterday’s Observer which included the following quote from someone’s blog: "Not for some time have I been so angry at a complete stranger as I was with this Trimble character. Each answer was met with a smug grin or a cocky smirk. My normally placid girlfriend ended half-poetically seething: 'Not a friend did she own at school', before physically turning her back on the screen so she didn't have to bear this odious little smug specimen."
When I googled Trimble’s name, I came across a wonderful(?) “report” in the “Sun” newspaper essentially claiming that, although she’d been hailed as the brainiest woman in Britain, the Sun’s pub quiz questions had caught her out! She apparently DIDN’T know who had won the Brit Award for Best Female or the name of the 13 year-old father who’d featured in the Sun last week or who had won the most recent series of “Big Brother” or even the name of the Chelsea football manager!

Thank goodness for the Sun newspaper some say (not sure whether to laugh or cry)!
Photo: extract from the Observer’s team picture (which actually only showed three of the four team members for some reason).

list-making

I am a self-confessed list-maker. In fact, I think I invented list-making. So I was mildly amused by Oliver Burkeman’s “This Will Change Your Life” column in last Saturday’s Guardian: “I am astonished afresh each time I’m reminded that there are people who don’t use to-do lists. They get up, do things all day, then go to bed. At no point in this process do they cross off tasks in a notebook, fill in timetables with coloured felt-tip pens or organise complex systems of Post-its. They just do things”.
In my architectural days, I reckon that over 90% of my time was spent being proactive and, to this end, lists were critically important. These days, it’s completely the reverse – I’m probably spending 90% of my time being reactive - but I still compile my things-to-do-today lists as the first task each morning.
Mind you, I think I missed a trick when I first started making lists. I almost certainly invented the “tick-box” (see image!) which I use for all my lists and regret never having patenting it (another case of "it's too late now"!). Crucially, you don’t actually tick the box, you have to insert a cross once you’ve completed a task (in fact, I have a number of other “codes” representing half-completed jobs or jobs that I need to prioritise!!).
The wonderful thing is that our three daughters are all list-makers too (to a greater or lesser extent!) and, whisper it, one of them even uses the “crossed box” model of her old man!
Bless her/them!
Image: “to-do-list” selected at random from my filofax (note to self: why have you still got a “to-do-list” dated 23 June in your filofax?!).

tobacco factory market

As we often do, we went along to the excellent weekly Tobacco Factory Market yesterday morning. The sun was shining and there were lots of people about (it also coincided with one of its monthly street parties) and there was a real community “feel”.
Amazingly, I bumped into an old work colleague Neil Foreman (he’s a chartered surveyor with Hicks Baker) from Oxfordshire who just happened to be visiting his daughter in Southville. Great to see him again (after more than 5 years).
PS: can’t quite believe this, but we’ve eaten outside twice this weekend!!