Coming Home

Today we travelled to Sherborne in North Dorset. It was an interesting trip as the Sat Nav took us on a drive through the Piddle Valley, and piddle it certainly did. We passed chocolate box thatched cottages next to idyllic streams, the aforementioned River Piddle. However they were writhed in mist viewed through car windows obscured with heavy rain, and flapping windscreen wipers. When we arrived at the hotel it was an ungainly rush to the bar for lunch as we waited for the rain to ease off.

Later in the afternoon we took a stroll through town, Marion in search of Dorset Knobs. These are a hard biscuit about the shape and size of a small doughnut. They are only made by one bakery and can only be purchased in Dorset and are great with cheese. This meant a delightful stroll down the main street looking at the various shops. Although it was a little gloomy as can be seen from this photo the town was still delightful.

 Sherborne also has a gold post box, painted because a gold medallist from the 2012 games comes from here. As might be expected from the rural nature of the town he won some sort of shooting event.

Also it seems like coming home, my grandfather was station master here in the late 1950’s early 1960’s, so I showed Marion the Station House that I visited which at the time was still lit by gas. It also had a sitting room window that looked directly out onto the station platform. It seemed natural to me at the time but I am sure that it was extremely awkward when entertaining. Still as I understand from the stories of my grandparents this was usually only at Christmas and perhaps Easter, so maybe there were no trains running.

Now this is one for my Vermont readers, we were walking along the road a van passed use with D. J. Chutter – Joiner written on the side. I did not quite have time to take a photo with my telephone. Of course this area of the Dorset/Somerset borders is the epicentre of the Chutter family, to whom I am related through my paternal grandmother.

In the café where we had tea they were advertising a Sherborne stodger, I was not brave enough to try, but it occasioned much laughter in rather poor taste. Marion you know who you are.

So both Marion and I felt very at home in Sherborne today. So much so that we ventured into the Estate Agent to enquire about a town centre conversion that we had seen. Alas it was already sold. The other properties that we like came in at £2.35 million, a little outside of our price range, unfortunately.

Getting Back to Form - Or Nigel goes Mad in Dorset

We are in Dorset staying at my parents-in-law, who live very close to Sandbanks that is one of the most affluent places in the United Kingdom. Geographically it is on a peninsular, one side of which looks over Poole Harbour and Brownsea Island (where the Scouts and Guides were founded) and the other side looks over the English Channel. Properties typically cost multi-million pounds. Many thirty-year-old properties are being pulled down to build ultra-modern designer house with names like Emporio, they look like that name as well as being fairly tasteless.

I took the photo below from the hill overlooking Sandbanks, looking towards the Jurassic Coast and Old Harry Rocks. I was really fortunate in catching a fantastic light. So no apologies for reproducing this photo here.

 It was somewhat ironic given the excess I had seen this morning I was completing my online debt advisor course this afternoon. Now don’t get me wrong I am absolutely in favour of giving people high quality advice. I also fully accept that you can never legislate for circumstances, and there but for the grace of god etc…..

It is then that I struggle with the morality of this. Much of debt counselling is about reducing people’s liabilities. So essentially you are trying to get corporates to write off debts. I suppose that I was always brought up in a debt free household and was taught the value of not getting in debt. However I lived in a family where I was denied nothing. So my thought could be that I am looking at this through the lens of my experience rather than trying to be objective. I would be interested in hearing the perspective of my readership.

Given where I was and as I said the number of high net worth individuals in the area, the poster on the phone box was I thought somewhat ironic. It was warning people against tax evasion, I feel that it is falling on deaf ears.

Sunshine

After days of grey the sun finally shone today. It immediately felt like spring, and we just noticed things like the snowdrops poking through the hard ground. Everybody seemed to have a renewed lightness in his or her step.

We went to see and elderly relative, unfortunately her memory is receding. But her ray of sunshine was when we showed her pictures of our grandchildren. This brightened everybody’s day and provoked not always flattering reminiscences of my childhood. It is always good to hear memories and relive the past. However when people start to lose their memories to me it stresses the importance of living ones life to the full, of taking advantage of all experiences that are offered.

As we were in Dorset I was looking forward to a walk by the sea, however I have been unwell. It made me appreciate more the walks that I had in the past and look forward to them in the future. It was particularly galling to miss the walk on a sunny day.

So apologies for the short blog today, I will be back to form tomorrow.

Marketing Speak – Taking your Customers for Granted

Today I am going to get on my soapbox combining some of my particular bête noirs, Virgin Trains, big companies and beardy. I have become quite exercised by the lies that big companies use. So for many years I have travelled every week to and from London on the train from York. Since privatisation this has been using a number of different operators whose service has varied somewhat, in common they all waste money on changing uniforms and the livery of their trains. I have never met one passenger who gives a stuff what colour the trains are, and what the staff uniforms look like as long as they are smart. Yet millions are wasted on changing these.

On March 1 we have yet another handover, from East Coast Trains to Virgin Trains. Now those of you who know me will no how much I detest anything to do with the Virgin Group, mainly because I think that Richard Branson is the antithesis of what a modern businessman should be, particularly in the values that he has and the way that the Virgin businesses are the embodiment of the excesses of the 2000’s.

The current train operator runs a reward system that is similar to air miles. Every train journey contributes to a free ticket, roughly on a scale of one free for five journeys taken dependent on the fare paid. This to me is a highly popular scheme. Now already Virgin Trains have said that they are abandoning this scheme in favour of a more broadly based rewards scheme. Though I can maybe accept this from a commercial perspective, however it is the next step that really annoys me, Virgin claim to be making this change after consultation with their customers. Now the power of social media is that this can be exposed as a lie. Using a specific hash tag it would appear that nobody has been consulted, so Virgin is being economical with the truth. Once again my custom is taken for granted and I am being taken for a patsy.

I have noticed the same with my bank, which claims to listen what I want about interest rates. Last week they wrote to me to say that the rates on my savings account had been reduced. Sure they must be really listening to me, I am always clamouring for my savings interest rates to be reduced. I do not mind if companies make commercial decisions, just do not involve me into your tawdry web.

Rant over.

Induction

It is great to be feeling better today, just as well as I had my volunteer’s induction course at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. There were surprising things about the day, and things that I probably expected.

Eight of us arrived at the NYMR Learning Centre at 10am, that was the first surprise the railway has a well equipped series of lecture and conference rooms in a restored part of Pickering Station. The make-up of the course was perhaps not surprising, it was entirely male and I was probably about the average age, though I did find out that the railway has two ladies on the footplate. Although there were several retired gents others wanted to apply skills that they had in a railway context. Indeed there were some serial volunteers.

The induction course was well run, as well as what I expected like the history and structure of the railway, there was much about the ethos of the organisation and what was expected of volunteers, and what could be expected from the NYMR in return. The whole approach was very professional; it would stand comparison with many commercial companies that I have worked for. When I started to think about this it was not surprising as this is a significant commercial enterprise as well as being a heritage railway. It carries around 320,000 passengers a year, which if you think about it must mean a revenue of well in excess of £5,000,000. Trying to do this with professional and voluntary staff must be a huge challenge. It is interesting to think that in the early days the town of Pickering was resistant to the railway as they wished to use the station site for car parking. That would have been a huge mistake I think.

I was also interested to see how much work goes into giving an authentic passenger experience. High visibility vests are not worn on the platforms because in the eras that they represent they did not exist. They are of course worn on the track.

After lunch we were trained on trackside safety, I now know my four foot from my six foot, from my ten foot. Again this was carried out with a professionalism that made learning a pleasurable process. All we could have done with was some sun. I passed the exam.

So I thoroughly enjoyed my induction, now cannot wait to get down to the voluntary work and hopefully my training to be a signalman!!! Watch this space.