2011..

I looked at the site here and realised that it is a place I should come to more often. I am always bemoaning things that happen and I never record them, so I think perhaps I should start doing that here.

New Years seem to come round far too fast these days: that of course is a function of getting older. So, as i move into middle age i will continue to write, and share my thoughts on these pages.

Of late there has been one great moment for me: England retianed the Ashes in Australia, and went on to win the series 3-1. This hasn't happened for some 24 years so it's a triumph for the guys who are fast becoming the best in the world, and have most assuredly knocked the Australians off that posuition. For those who are not cricket fans it will mean nothing, but for those who follow the game there is more meaning to the Ashes than to any other sporting trophy in cricket: ask any player who has played for England or Australia, they will always say "The Ashes" are the pinnacle of their cricket career.

I still travel to London daily for work, and yet again the fares have increased: South Eastern , our franchisee here in Kent has been allowed to increase their fares more than any other train operator because they run the HS1 High Speed service. That's all very well, but while there are definite benefits, for me there are none. I have a colleague at work who lives in Ashford, and can now travel in on the train in under 40 minutes! Now that is great. My journey, which is slightly longer still takes nearly 2 hours, and there is no High Speed service from my station. Even if I go to where i can get an HS1 train the journey is some 1 hour and 20 minutes; hardly worth the extra few hundred pounds they charge.

Recently we had some snow: not much but any excuse and the train companies had 2 days when virtually no services ran into London. One of the most annoying things is the lack of communication. In this age of internet, and smartphones and computers, surely a massive organisation like South Eastern could find a way to tell the poor commuters waiting on freezing platforms that the train they were expecting has already been cancelled !