
Remember that song - "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". Well - in many ways it feels like it's already the Christmas holiday. There's snow on the ground, traffic is quieter, and it's bitterly cold. Phones are quieter (that's largely because we've changed our phone company and our number is no longer being sold to thousands of salesmen!), lights are up, and Santa has already been seen on the train and in town. I went out shopping for some food supplies to build up some stock for the next fortnight yesterday, and found Lidl surprisingly quiet; something to do with the snow keeping people at home, I suspect - I know from a phone call that Dad's not been out for a couple of days - unusual for him - and he warns us that the drive up to his house is treacherous (that's not new, mind you - you skid on leaf mould in the autumn there too!)

This coming week we *are* running a course -
Perl for Larger Projects. Systems are already set up, and I did a station run to pick up a delegate a few hours ago; fridge is set for breakfast, and it's going to be a fun (and I rather suspect busy) week. We're hunkered down for three good days, although I *will* be out of town - up to Swindon - on Wednesday evening, weather allowing, for a pre-christmas meetup of some of our
First Great Western Coffee Shop regulars. A strategic decision has already been taken to leave Melksham by car that evening even though it's a public transport gathering. The only train from Melksham would get up there after the group had moved on from the meeting point, and the bus 'connections' at Chippenham would leave us hanging around there on the return for up to 80 minutes. Yes - I'm a great fan of public transport (and would love to let my hair down and have a pint), but without properly integrated services, the opportunity is denied me.

I'm expecting to be surprising busy on the rail / public transport side over Christmas too - there appears to be windows of opportunity and political will that's a considerable improvement [note British understatement] of what's been there up to this point. In fact, I'm feeling rather overawed by the prospect, but at the same time thinking that we may just end up with all our ducks in a row at the same time, and that will open the combination lock so that - next year - Santa can open our new service, and we'll be able to get back from Swindon to Melksham when we want - even those of us who aren't fortunate enough to have our own private cars, or the health to be able to drive one of them.
(written 2010-12-19, updated 2010-12-24)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Z210 - Christmas and New Year [161] Christmas break - (2004-12-23)
[162] A Change is as good as a rest - (2004-12-27)
[540] Christmas Party - (2005-12-24)
[541] Christmas is for everyone - (2005-12-25)
[543] The world didn't stop for Christmas - (2005-12-26)
[573] Giving an excuse for Christmas - (2006-01-22)
[953] Christmas in November - (2006-11-29)
[980] Street Scene - (2006-12-12)
[1462] 10 training days to Christmas. - (2007-12-07)
[1481] The Christmas Letter - (2007-12-22)
[1483] What have hotels and bananas got in common? - (2007-12-24)
[1484] A christmas message - (2007-12-25)
[1914] It must be nearly Christmas - (2008-12-01)
[1931] Frosty Morning, foggy evening - (2008-12-08)
[1942] Christmas scenes and events - (2008-12-14)
[1952] Small Print - (2008-12-19)
[1959] - - (2008-12-24)
[2486] Santa Special - Trowbridge and Melksham to Swindon - (2009-10-31)
[2528] Melksham Christmas Lights - (2009-12-05)
[2529] Santa Special, 2009 - (2009-12-06)
[2543] Day and night at Christmas - (2009-12-19)
[2549] Christmas Day ... - (2009-12-25)
[2978] Christmas 2010 - Well House Manor, Melksham, Hotel - (2010-10-01)
[3101] The week before Christmas - (2010-12-23)
[3110] The days after Christmas - (2010-12-27)
[3116] Are there newspapers on New Years Day? Do the shops open on Easter Sunday? Do trains run at Christmas? - (2011-01-01)
[3530] A typical weekend?? - (2011-11-28)
[3535] Melksham, Luxury Hotel Rooms, Christmas. - (2011-12-02)
[3538] Santa Train - another successful trip - 4th December 2011 - (2011-12-04)
[3557] Melksham Christmas Lights - Town, Shops and Private Houses - (2011-12-20)
[3561] Happy Christmas ... a Christmas morning walk in Melksham - (2011-12-25)
[3562] Christmas Day - for unique pictures - (2011-12-26)
[3765] Christmas in June? Melksham hotel bookings and Santa train - (2012-06-15)
[3957] The week before Christmas - (2012-12-19)
[4227] Happy Christmas from the Well House Manor team - (2013-12-25)
[4235] Sharing my personal best of 2013 - (2013-12-31)
[4329] Does Santa Claus need a CRB check? - (2014-11-25)
[4357] Seeing Christmas Coming to Melksham - (2014-12-20)
[4363] A quiet evening in Melksham - awaiting Santa - (2014-12-24)
[4364] Christmas day in Melksham - (2014-12-25)
[4365] The changing face of Christmas - (2014-12-26)
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Perl - database access - DBD, DBI and DBIx modulesLearning Object Orientation in Perl through bananas and perhaps MooseMaking Perl class definitions more conventional and shorterContrast in picturesThe Christmas Season has arrivedSetting your user_agent in PHP - telling back servers who you areHow many toilet rolls - hotel inventory and useagewxPython geometry - BoxSizer exampleHow do regular expressions work / Regular Expression diagramsMatching to a string - what if it matches in many possible ways?