February 03, 2012
Another cold night
I got home late tonight - that's two nights in a row. And it's another cold one, with the temperature down to -7°C already. Tomorrow morning will be brisk, like the last two.
Posted by gje at 11:16 PM
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More about Graham Ellis of Well House Consultants
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Emerging proposals for land to the east of Spa Road, Melksham
Letter - to be hand delivered within the immediate area of Melksham Spa. Copies of the letter and one of the map pages to be attached. Available via links in my blog - Graham
3rd February 2012
404, The Spa,
Melksham,
Wiltshire,
SN12 6QL.
Dear Neighbour,
I've received a letter, forwarded to me by the secretary of the Melksham Chamber of Commerce, concerning plans for "Land to the east of Spa Road, Melksham", and talking of it as "the most appropriate locations for up to 400 dwellings". As the letter is an open one, I've put in on my website at:
http://www.wellho.net/graham/Hallam.pdf
Trying to work out the limits of the land, I believe that they're talking about "site 265" in Wiltshre Council's Strategic housing land availability assessment. That document is online at:
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planninganddevelopment/planningpolicy/strategichousinglandavailabilityassessment.htm
with the maps for Melksham at:
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planning-shlaa-2011-dec-appendix-3-melksham.pdf
The letter invites the community to attend an exhibition on 16th February - I'm writing to you today to make sure you're aware of it and can attend too if you wish, as I hadn't heard of it otherwise even though the plans have land adjoining our property shown as part of the potential site. And please feel free to circulate this letter.
Graham Ellis
Please feel free to email me (graham@wellho.net), call (01225 708225), drop a note through our door or pop round if you would like filling in on what I have researched. If you don't want to have to type in these horrid long web page names, this letter with links is at http://wellho.info/3602
Posted by gje at 02:22 PM
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February 02, 2012
Rail Travel - has it become more unreliable?
It times it almost seems like railway travel to the West of London is like travel in the wild west. When I started a thread on the "First Great Western Coffee Shop" this morning, commenting on all the people moaning about train problems, I knew I was travelling up to London and back later in the day. [here]
But did I expect it would turn into something that I could grouch about from the start. Well - frankly - yes. For I'm travelling from Melksham, and for my 18:30 appointment in London, I would have had to catch the 07:17 train and would have arrived some 9 hours early. So instead I drove up to Chippenham, from where I had a prebooked ticket for the 15:55. For those of you who don't know the area, Melksham is a town with a population of around 24,000 and Chippenham has around 35,000. Melksham has two trains per day in each direction; Chippenham has two trains per hour in each direction.
I paid the usual leg and two arms to park at Chippenham Station. Did you realise that in the Western region of the UK, Car Parking and refreshments account for 12% of the Train Operator's income (it's just 7.5% in the next area across)? I mused that my 7.10 is far easier money for the train operators than running a train to Melksham - much cheaper for them to provide a patch of tarmac than a train, after all, and they charge the same. Smart business.
Anyway - my ticket was prebooked and waiting for me in the Ticket Vending Machine, which I successfully negotiated - with about 15 minutes to spare. Yes - tickets and seat reservations for the 15:55. Then I heard an announcement that the delayed 15:25 had just arrived in and, glancing up at the departure board, was shocked to see that the 15:55 showed as cancelled. That's right - I had just seconds before been issued with a train-specific ticket for a train thatwasn't running.
A quick dash over the bridge (pushing through the crowds coming towards me, and probably appearing terribly rude and thoughtless) and I got onto the platform as the station staff were closing doors. "I have an advanced ticket for the 15:55 that's cancelled - please may I use this train?" and the uniformed station person held the door open for me and I got on. I'm now seated on the train, either 15 minutes late or 15 early depending on how you like to think of it and ...
... Train Manager has just come by and checked tickets. I was slightly nervous beading in mind the dire threats about being on the wrong train that I hear and read so often. However, he was "nice as pie" about it - helped that there was obviously some joined up data around and he knew the train behind wasn't running!
It's very curious this business of tickets that are for a fixed train, of course. If we (the customers) miss the train - even if it's because a bus run by the same company was late - we loose our money. But if the train operator cancels the train, he can just laugh it off and put us (usually) on the following service. The words "level playing field" come to my mind, but with a heavy dose of irony attached.
I didn't expect to start this post with a tale of things going wrong today - but I was going to comment on how I travel between Melksham and the west of England and many other parts of the country by train ... and how it always seems to be the Western legs that are "eventful" [I'm still writing on the train, and we have lurched over the points onto the slow lines ... what now, I wonder ...]
Posted by gje at 04:27 PM
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February 01, 2012
Visa, MasterCard and American Express - changing payment profiles
Well House Consultants opened for business in 1995. And in the early days, payment for courses was almost exclusively made by cheque. My goodness - how things have changed! We added Visa and MasterCard in December 2000, and in June 2008 (and, I will admit reluctantly) American Express.
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Payment by cheque has faded, to be largely replaced by BACS transfers, and the use of credit and debit cards has grown. MasterCard, American Express and Visa each represents a signifcant part of our business now. Each of the credit card companies has differences in its schemes, and as merchants some of these differences used to have a big effect on which we preferred. But I'm delighted to report that this imbalance of features and charges has now shrunk and balanced out, and we truely welcome payment on any of these cards.
You'll note little mention of cash. Yes, of course people who drop in to Well House Manor for a cup of coffee at £1.50 (open every day!) will typically pay by cash, and occasionally people will pay cash for Hotel Rooms too - but it's very rare indeed for a training course to be paid for with cash - I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but the few occasions are memorable ones.
Posted by gje at 01:02 PM
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January 30, 2012
Seeing how Melksham has changed over the years, via an iPad
I spent some time over the weekend working my way into iPad and iPhone programming, using XCode, and already I've written a "toy" application which lets me drag a slider and move through overlaid maps of Melksham to see how the town has grown over the years.
The original map is dated 1888, and the overlay that's starting to burst through here is more or less up to date. It's very interesting to see how the course of the river was adjusted when the bypass was built ...
Without bundling up all the source images and much more, I can't publish the full application development resources here - but I HAVE included the view controller header file and the view controller source in our resources.
A couple of days ago, I was looking for a couple of people to learn with me / help me check my understanding of iPad programming in a few weeks time - see [here]. Looks like we're on for the weekend of 10th and 11th March, with a group of four of us shaking out XCode and Objective C, and making sure we've got a thorough understanding. That weekend's going to have quite an advanced starting level. It should leave me well prepared for iPad programming, with (perhaps) an ability to show others how to do so more formally later in the year.
iPhone programming is very similar to iPad programming - in fact you can choose to write Unoiversal applications that run on both. Screen layout / resolution need to be considered, of course - but then that's the case even with iPhone alone where you have the original resolution and the newer, higher "retina" resolution. Here's another simulator screen capture, this time showing a simple iPhone text entry screen, with feedback of the text entered via labels modified by the controller. The View Controller Header file is [here] and the View Controller source in Objective C is [here]. Although I used IB (the Interface Builder) to create the layout rather than coding it directly, I have also included the interface design XML in my sample sources - it's [here].
Posted by gje at 11:24 PM
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January 29, 2012
Melksham Civic Awards - report and pictures
Friday Night was the Mayor's Reception - an event to which all the dignatories from neighbouring towns are invited (and they turn up in full regalia), and at which civic awards are handed out. I received an invite and attended as a representative of the Melksham Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Whilst I was delighted to be invited, and to accept and represent The Chamber, I will admit to not being a great fan of events that go on late into the evening with music - however good - that drowns out talk, and dancing which - with two left feet - I really can't get pleasure personally from.
However, I was very agreeably surprised by the event. It was well organised, it provided a good opportunity to honour some of the people and groups who have quietly done really good things for the town over the past year, and it provided a needed chance to catch up with some of the people we don't see often, and to meet new people for the (hopefully) common good into the future.
One of the Civic Awards was made to the Melksham Railway Development Group - with the Mayor (Councillor Rod Eaton) describing how the group promoted rail travel last year, with really successful trains to the seaside at Weymouth in the summer, and a trip with Santa in the lead up to Christmas. The award was accepted by one of the stalwarts of the group - Sion Bretton, who's their secretary (and I would like to add a mention of honour for the group's chairman, Peter Blackburn and for John Money their appropriately named treasurer).
Because of a personal interest, I'm very much aware of just how much the rail groups have achieved in the last year. I have no doubt that each of the other 7 award recipients has also done a very great deal in their field - that's a strength of Melksham. I am going to mention Andrew Morgan, too, who has been deputy Town Clerk for several years. Andrew's moving to Cornwall and Friday was his last evening. Staff are not eligible for awards, and so it was really good to see Rod giving a special "Thank You" to Andrew who will be a very hard act to follow. Andrew - all the best for the future.
It must be very difficult to get the balance right when planning an event such as this. Many of the attendees were guests of honour, and the Civic Award winners were also honoured guests, which means that it would be rather cheeky to ask them to pay (and indeed, chances are that many would elect not to attend). But on the other hand, costs can be high for an event with a meal, wine, a band, hall hire and the rest, and if it's not being paid for by the honoured guests, then either the remaining guests or the organisers (the Town Council, funded by the local taxpayers) must pay. And I have misgivings about the taxpayer funding a "jolly".
It must be difficult to get the balance right - but I think the Town Council team did get it right. The hall in which the event was held was their own. The food was an Hog Roast, followed by a simple cake and cream - excellent food, but pork in a bun followed by a slice of cake isn't like giving away a full meal which would be more traditional for a dinner / dance type event. And although drinks were provided to accompany the main course, the pay bar was open for supplements. And non-honoured guests *did* pay £15.00 for their places at the event.
Come mid-evening, the lights were lowered, the band struck up, and the (sorry !) all chance of conversation ceased. I like music - but not that loud - each to his or her own taste. But if that's what it takes to pull in the people who are needed to make the earlier business part of the evening, so be it.
With two anxious dogs at home (Billy is still settling in and shouldn't be left for too long), we made our apologies and left - wishing everyone else a good time through to carriages at midnight. I would have said "we left quietly", except that we had to run the gauntlet of smokers clustering around the front door and, interestingly, continuing their networking. But we feel very much amongst friends who know us here, and really there's no need for us to sneak out. Our friends are very much aware of our "lark" rather than "owl" lifestyles, and know that we're up at the crack of dawn to walk the dogs.
Posted by gje at 12:26 PM
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Niche businesses in Melksham. From glass painting to Tcl and Lua courses.
Melksham has a number of excellent shops and other establishments selling niche products and services - things that you won't find in other nearby towns or (in some cases) in any other towns at all. Do you know what is behind each of the shop fronts? Do you walk into the new shops to see what's there?
Some places such as the image to the right are ... right in our Shopping Centre - the "High Street". Fairies Wear Boots Designs - right on the roundabout at the entrance to Sainsbury's, make original painted and engraved glassware. Their business card says "Fine Art, Handpainted & engraved glss, gifts for special occasions, weddings and corporate events". Why not pop in and see them if you're local - I certainly learned something new about our High Street yesterday when I popped in there, and although I (personally, at present) don't have a requirement for their product, I may do in the future - and I can tell people about them too.
The image on the left is our own Hotel / Training centre. We have niche products too - we're one of the very few providers of Tcl/Tk training courses in Europe, and of Lua courses worldwide. We're NOT in the town centre - we're about 200 yards from the Market Square, in an area where we have been able to provide plenty of free parking for our customers on site. And we offer many other prodcts that are less niche too like High standard hotel and business conference accommodation. We too welcome people to walk in - we'll happily chat and show you around ... and did you know that we're open, 7 days a week, for bean to cup coffee, light snacks, and the rest. You'll always get a warm welcome.
A web page such as this one cannot give full show to all the wonderful products - be they an original painting of Lacock Abbey, a Perl course, bespoke engraved glassware with a unicorn theme, or tutorship in how to write and distribute applications for mobile phones and tablets. It can just hint at what's available. It's a taster. We may be able to tempt you further with more pictures ...
... and we may persuade you to click on those images to see them larger (as will happen with most images on this page) or to take you to more detailed pages which will tell you much more about the product (which will happen with one or two of them), and perhaps let you purchase online.
Hotel rooms certainly CAN be booked online ([via this link]), and we're delighted to offer immediate confirmation of availability, and best prices. Training course are also bookable on line [via this link], though we prefer to check with each individual by email first to make sure that they're buying the most appropriate course to meet their needs. And in the case of both hotel and courses, we look forward to meeting you in Melksham in due course.
With physical products rather than person-to-person services (such as those from Fairies Wear Boots Designs), you may wish to visit their shop - meet the owners, choose want you want ... but you may also live a long way away and for purely practical reasons wish to look through their web site, contact them through that (link [here]), and order and have your product shipped without ever setting foot in Wiltshire. And that's welcomed and cared for business too.
Melksham has a number of niche suppliers. Lisa and I were amazed to come up with some 200 retail product or service outlets when we came up with a map a couple of years ago. And we know that many of them are selling far and wide beyond the town via the Web. That's wonderful news for them, and for Melksham. Long may it be fostered, and continue to grow.
Posted by gje at 10:39 AM
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Useful links: Lua training, Tcl training
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January 28, 2012
Want to learn iPad and iPhone programming? Come along and learn with me for free.
I'm learning Objective C. The language itself doesn't look too difficult, nor do the elements of how it's used on the iPad and iPhone for App programming. But there's an awful lot of content to those elements - a lot of putting together to see the complete picture. My target is to end up knowing Objective C, and the whole iOS / Xcode environment in which it is used, well enough to be easily able to specify and write my own applications, and to assist others as they learn how to do so.
Some time in mid to late February, or early March, I'm going to take a day or two to check and see how I'm doing. And I'm going to check my knowledge by explaining to one or two former delegates / friends how it works - it's a real chance for them to learn with me, to be my guinea pigs if you like. If you would like to get into App writing for Apple products, and have a strong background in programming (including OO - principles at least), please let me know. (This is not going to be a beginner's session)
This is a real opportunity for you and me to help each other get really into this exciting field. I'm motivated - are you? Email me, or get in touch via our contact page.
[Venue - Melksham, Wiltshire. Hotel rooms available [here]. No charge at all for being my guinea pigs - but if you need to stay, we can't do the rooms for free as well - £72.00 per room per night which is our lowest delegate rate]
Posted by gje at 03:21 PM
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