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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
10 reasons why I travel the night before a course starts

I have a London meeting at 09:30, and traveling up by train it should be routine, straightforward, worry-free. I would love to have got a bus to the station at - say - 06:50, catch the 07:20 train, change at Swindon and be in London at 08:50 and then catch the tube - 09:15 arrival just a few minutes walk from my final destination. Ticket and seat reservations made online when my plans were definite (in this case at about 7 pm. on Friday), breakfast on the train, fresh and ready to go for my meeting.

You would think that wasn't too much to ask, wouldn't you? Well - let me tell you of my actual journey.

There *is* a train at 07:20, but (Problem 0) the cheapest fare was £146.00, before adding in the cost of the tube. There's also a £174.00 Day Travelcard, but these are the sort of prices that I can't afford. By catching the train at 06:38 and doubling back at Westbury, I planned to be a little earlier in London and pay just £4.00 return to Westbury, from where I could buy a £80.00 Day Travelcard to London, admittedly restricting me to the direct route from there via Newbury, which has 4 hour gaps in service during the day. Enough of the background.

I come to buy my tickets online. And I'm told "You need to collect your tickets from a Fast Ticket Machine". Problem (1) is - there isn't one at Melksham Station. Oh well - I'll make a special trip over the weekend and collect somewhere else - Chippenham or Westbury. Problem (2) - system tells me no ticket reservations available, and on that basis I had better join the scrum for a good seat and not bother with booking ahead.

I woke at 05:15 and checked train running. Problem (3) - the Westbury train departure board shows the 07:01 cancelled. Yikes - scramble up and prepare to grab the car (sorry, Lisa) to drive and park up for the 06:18, but only to find out a few minutes later that the train is running (something wrong with the system?) - just starting from Taunton rather than Exeter. That's fine for me ...

Problem (4) - no bus to the station this early. Never mind - 25 minute walk, passing 6 other people coming the other way between the town centre and home, so I suspect that a bus service would be used.

Some 6 of us on the platform for the train, even at that unearthly hour, and I ask the conductor if I can buy my tickets from him. Yes, says he, and between Melksham and Trowbridge he does so.

Now - credit where it's due - much better information available at Melksham than there used to be, and a cheerful and helpful conductor. Problem (5) is that the notices at Melksham station are all in the shadows and impossible to read in the dark ... and at this time of year, the only train service there is in the dark.

I note that my Westbury to London ticket has printed on the back of it "If an authorised penalty fare collector had been checking tickets, you may have been charged a £20 penalty fare or twice the full single fare to the next station stop, whichever is greater". Problem (6) - the threat is incorrect; as there's no ticket office at Melksham I'm perfectly entitled to buy on the train, and the railway really shouldn't put out such threatening messages (which I'll be carrying all day, including on my Westbury to London ticket for all inspectors to see) to their rule-abiding customers.

Problem (7) - a signal stop outside Westbury and a queue at the buffet meant that there wasn't time to grab a coffee before boarding the train. Never mind - I'm looking forward to breakfast with the traveling Chef. Problem (8) - he wasn't on the train this morning ...

At my seat and we're still in the countryside short of Reading; I suspect we're late. Problem (9) - the power at the seat doesn't work and my battery's starting to get a bit low.

Many of them are little trifles - but I give you ten reasons why I'm disinclined to commute by train. I need to arrive at the customer site fresh and ready to work, not exasperated, hungry and thirsty after a traveling adventure. The tragedy is that so many of these issues are indeed trifling ones, that are perfectly curable ...
(written 2012-12-10, updated 2012-12-15)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
G404 - Well House Consultants - On site venues
  [107] Taking Equipment offshore to run a course - (2004-11-02)
  [196] An Open Source course on the Channel Islands - (2005-01-31)
  [382] Central London Courses - Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl, MySQL - (2005-07-18)
  [727] A journey, an arrival, a people - (2006-05-21)
  [741] Last week - picture of the Perl course - (2006-06-02)
  [2309] Lua training class in Spanish - (2009-07-29)
  [2731] Training Courses - time of change - (2010-04-19)
  [2989] Oddballs in Plymouth - (2010-10-08)
  [3130] New Computers for delegates to use - (2011-01-13)
  [3131] Lua, Tcl, Python; Worldwide training classes - (2011-01-14)
  [3292] Every tenth picture. - (2011-05-17)
  [3636] Best tenner I ever spent? - (2012-03-04)
  [4011] From Salford - (2013-02-19)
  [4671] Ruby training, half a world away - (2016-05-14)

G401 - Well House Consultants - On Site courses
  [139] Just provide a room and the students - (2004-12-03)
  [191] Setting up a training room for a course - (2005-01-27)
  [213] Off to Munich - (2005-02-13)
  [241] Dress for training - (2005-03-10)
  [438] Fair system for travel and accommodation expenses - (2005-09-07)
  [439] You cant - (2005-09-08)
  [1027] Cue the music, I'm happy. - (2007-01-09)
  [1465] Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl, Linux, MySQL, Ruby courses ... - (2007-12-09)
  [1600] Cambidge - Tcl, Expect and Perl courses - (2008-04-04)
  [1781] Reception - (2008-09-01)
  [2041] httpd, Tomcat and PHP course enhancements - (2009-02-14)
  [2311] Floor to ceiling - (2009-07-30)
  [2801] Binary data handling with unpack in Perl - (2010-06-10)
  [2810] A course review - for the tutor to complete - (2010-06-14)
  [2928] Public (scheduled) or private course? Book direct, or through a third party? - (2010-08-19)
  [2956] On site course - travel and accommodation expenses - (2010-09-14)
  [3137] Training Classes - should the training company provide a system for each delegate to use? - (2011-01-18)
  [3691] Back in Cambridge to give a Lua course - (2012-04-09)
  [3715] Changing face - Filton - (2012-05-01)
  [3898] The course must go on - improvements to tutor travel plans, with immediate effect - (2012-10-17)
  [4132] Using your own laptop on our courses - now even easier! - (2013-07-05)
  [4230] Well House Consultants - course prices for 2014 - (2013-12-26)
  [4602] Training course and hotel room prices - 2016 - (2015-12-31)
  [4739] A year of changes for Lisa and Graham Ellis, and Well House - (2017-05-27)
  [4769] Python, Tcl, Lua and other Open Source programming courses for 2018 - (2017-12-31)


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Forward to
Christmas Bus Schedule for Melksham - First Bus
Some other Articles
Lesson 1 in programing - write clean, reuseable and maintainable tidy code
Objects in PHP - Revision
PHP revision ... by example.
Christmas Bus Schedule for Melksham - First Bus
10 reasons why I travel the night before a course starts
Melksham Spa from Woolmore Farm
Quiet little town? Advanced Technology Centre?
this or self - what are they, and what is the difference? (Python)
Moving from a warning system to a control system - PHP, forum spammers
vargs in Python - how to call a method with unknown number of parameters
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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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