I know I've had an early start when there's a bank of fog over the road as I drive through Beanacre and a fox dashes across just in front of me on the Chippenham bypass - so it was yesterday morning when I had a
Python course to present in Manchester starting at 09:30 ... with an 08:15 arrival scheduled to allow me time to find the place, find my contact, and get all the equipment in and installed.
People are amazed how we can schedule ourselves like this - but we can, and it works "like clockwork" week in and week out. There's about half an hour of slack in my schedule in case of traffic problems, and I've been around enough to know the back roads if I have to use them. There's a spare computer or two so that in the unlikely event of a failure, I can still train ... and I could also add on an extra trainee on the day if required.
Indeed - good time was made to Manchester, with roads getting progressively busier and the inevitable queues on the M56 and through into the city. Met up with my contact, and it turns out she's from the same local town here that my ancestors / relatives were. Time for a coffee and a chinwag as I set the kit up and a chance to write tomorrow's "Horse Mouth" up to this point ((OOps I have given my game away)) as I wait for the trainees. Change for another quick coffee - I've sussed out where the machine is ...
(written 2005-02-08, updated 2006-06-05)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Z100 - Daily life [19] interesting products and subjects - (2004-08-19)
[20] Not two the same - (2004-08-20)
[26] Matching Cat - (2004-08-24)
[110] Friday, busy week! - (2004-11-05)
[149] Fish stocks - (2004-12-12)
[228] Beard Justification - (2005-02-26)
[232] Diverse activities - (2005-03-01)
[238] Difficulties with a trolley - (2005-03-07)
[271] Different course every day - (2005-04-07)
[283] Natural or man-made? - (2005-04-18)
[307] Farming yesterday - (2005-05-10)
[330] An O level comes in handy - (2005-05-30)
[363] Greetings from Edinburgh - (2005-06-29)
[446] Up early - (2005-09-16)
[455] A Stengthening day - (2005-10-04)
[473] Looking different in town - (2005-10-22)
[474] Vintage Bus Day - (2005-10-23)
[516] Open source questions? Anyone can ask. - (2005-12-03)
[580] What to do with milk - (2006-01-28)
[584] Loosing breath with Gerald - (2006-01-31)
[605] Design your day with a walk - (2006-02-13)
[612] Coming or going? - (2006-02-18)
[613] Greetings from Dublin - (2006-02-20)
[623] Behind every face is a person and a story - (2006-02-25)
[635] Odd one out. - (2006-03-06)
[645] Lost Camel - (2006-03-14)
[654] Making use of disabled facilities - (2006-03-22)
[655] Can some food be TOO different? - (2006-03-23)
[692] Healthier eating - (2006-04-20)
[698] Catch up weekend - (2006-04-24)
[706] May day away - (2006-05-01)
[724] Helping mental health through diet, exercise and other lifestyle matters - (2006-05-18)
[752] Over zealous police activity? - (2006-06-09)
[777] On Crosby sands - (2006-06-25)
[817] Working on Weekend in Wiltshire and others - (2006-07-29)
[843] To join an organisation? - (2006-08-23)
[882] Rocks, hard places, trains and funerals. - (2006-09-30)
[897] Too much for the National Trust - (2006-10-18)
[908] And so to Inverness - (2006-10-29)
[911] Letter Home - (2006-11-01)
[921] French Exchange - (2006-11-11)
[978] Wellhouse Manor, Hotel, Melksham - (2006-12-10)
[992] Enthusiastic, but .... - (2006-12-16)
[1056] Another frantic posting! - (2007-01-30)
[1057] Selling by phone and Skype - our policy - (2007-01-30)
[1061] Take vehicles off the road - put all the passengers into one - (2007-02-01)
[1100] Wondering where I have been - (2007-03-06)
[1138] The Holiday - unlikely romantic comedy? - (2007-04-08)
[1151] Gordon Dodge, R.I.P. - (2007-04-16)
[1178] Ducking stool for Melksham? - (2007-05-06)
[1189] Meet, greet and welcome - (2007-05-16)
[1272] Behind closed doors? - (2007-07-22)
[1303] Heading Upstate New York - (2007-08-14)
[1429] Remembrance day - inside a church and inside the day - (2007-11-11)
[1643] A lack of technical content - (2008-05-16)
[1810] Middle aged subsidise young and old - (2008-09-26)
[1953] End of Training, 2008 - (2008-12-20)
[1979] Looking forward, in Melksham, in 2009 - (2009-01-05)
[2000] 2000th article - Remember the background and basics - (2009-01-18)
[2008] The Month Ahead - What is happening in Melksham - (2009-01-25)
[2024] Carry on Training - in spite of the weather - (2009-02-03)
[2027] Who sticks by you in the snow? - (2009-02-05)
[2030] The final step to being British - (2009-02-07)
[2034] Through Snow and Flood to Linux and Tomcat - (2009-02-10)
[2064] East of Melksham Countryside - (2009-03-02)
[2068] Playing Catchup - (2009-03-06)
[2090] Melksham to Georgia - (2009-03-19)
[2105] Hire Car, from Atlanta Airport - (2009-03-27)
[2106] Learning to Twitter / what is Twitter? - (2009-03-28)
[2118] Spring Sprung - (2009-04-05)
[2121] Out in the Vale of Pewsey - (2009-04-07)
[2141] Town Crier competiton - (2009-04-25)
[2159] A long day to guess where - (2009-05-06)
[2164] Updating my public profile - Graham Ellis - (2009-05-09)
[2217] Enjoying the summer weather - (2009-06-04)
[2264] Learning about others private lives - (2009-06-30)
[2371] Quiet summer days? I think not! - (2009-08-22)
[2401] Back Tomorrow - (2009-09-10)
[2450] Family Gathering at 404, The Spa - (2009-10-11)
[2580] C course inspires new teaching examples - (2010-01-16)
[2868] A move towards the family - (2010-07-12)
[3125] The family is defunct. Long live the family. - (2011-01-09)
[3316] Twitter Phishing Trips ... and a great new alert service - (2011-06-04)
[3319] Moving on - a task for the hotel staff! - (2011-06-08)
[3463] Busy weekend of contrasts. - (2011-10-03)
[3553] Changes to morning routines - (2011-12-16)
[3743] Sunday - no longer a day of rest - (2012-05-28)
[4222] Five lessons learned or re-learned on my travels - (2013-12-15)
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