Resources from the web site of Well House Consulaants on the subject of Holidays and Business Trips. We provide open source training course and business hotel accommodation in Melksham, Wiltshire, England

As well as our training courses and Business hotel in Melksham, we travel! Sometimes, that's to present on site course ... sometimes to visit friends and family ... and very occasionally it's pure holiday. In this section, I share with you some of the experiences of places that we've been and people we've met.

Articles and tips on this subject		updated
3381	Report - day trip from Swindon / Chippenham / Melksham to Weymouth We had a fantastic day out in Weymouth - a train that was "nearly every seat taken" by the time it got to Westbury on the way down, a great time had by all in Weymouth, and a good ride back in the evening. In fact we got a real holiday atmosphere, with a number of people coming for their second time, ...	2011-08-08
3372	Wearing the new London uniform    I felt - I admit it - a bit of a scruff as I turned up on Monday morning for a course in London, carrying my laptop and other paraphanalia in a pack rather than a briefcase. But ... looking from the top of my No. 25 bus as I rode to my hotel, I came to realise that actually I'm rather ...	2011-07-28
3346	Gibraltar - said to have a few residents less than Chippenham We've spent the day in Gibraltar - seeing the sites and scenes / doing the tourist "thing" with just a few hours to look around. Gibraltar is a bustling place, and I was surprised to hear of a population of just 31,000 - putting it a little smaller than Chippenham or Trowbridge, and slighlty larger ...	2011-07-06
3345	Cruising Some things change ... and some things stay the same. This is the third time I've cruised - 2000, 2004 and now 2011. I still walk around the ship, tripping over people - who seem to be 10% older, 20% smaller and 30% slower than I am. The age thing - more and more - has become a concept thing, I fear ...	2011-07-04
3321	Travelling around Some travelling pictures from the last week or so ... it's not all by car! Walking, Cycling, Rowing, Guided Busway, and Trains. ...	2011-06-09 (short)
3303	Flying tonight Coming to the end of our short family break - back in the UK soon, and some evening pictures to try our the new camera in low light. Click on either image to expand in a new window. ...	2011-05-31
3306	Photogenic Place I was very pleased with some of my pictures until someone commented "if you can't get good pictures at Disney you can't get good pictures anywhere" Oh well - enjoy (or skip). Click on any image if you would like to see it larger. Come the morning, I'll be moving back to Trains, Campuses, ...	2011-05-29
3300	Wildlife and other pictures from holiday Click on any of my holiday snaps to see it larger in a new window ...	2011-05-24
2803	Travelling across Europe Yesterday was a long day of traveling for me - but a pleasure too; "across Europe by train". Perhaps some of the more traveled readers can tell me some of the places I was at?         There are plenty of clues (and in other articles too) for you to work out where I've bee ...	2010-06-12 (short)
2797	Sur la T.G.V. It's 8 O'Clock - UK time, Monday morning. An hour later here in France; I'm sitting in a train, waiting for it to leave on the 09:09 service to Frankfurt; a Perl course this week, and I having looked at the travel options (drive, fly), I thought I would try the public transport - surface - option. ...	2010-06-09 (longer)
2796	Sunday - waiting for the ferry. "This is the best time to drive" says the cabbie who brought me to the ferry port in Portsmouth, from where I'm posting early this Sunday morning. I'm off to train in Germany this week, and I'm traveling overland, by public transport. Something of an experiment; I'll be writing up as I go. Yesterday ...	2010-06-06
2759	Touching base Not much more than "touching". Just arrived home from Washington DC; flight delayed by having to take the long way round to avoid volcanic dust - and getting ready to head up to Scotland to give a course starting at 9 a.m. tomorrow. [i]That's so short and personal - perhaps I should just have twe ...	2010-05-10 (short)
2469	Beyond the Pale The other day, I used the term "beyond the pale" in conversation with some delegates, and as an afterthought commented - "I don't know where that saying comes from / originates". Well - they knew one origin at least! It comes from Ireland ... the English aristocracy settled centuries gone by in the ...	2009-10-24
2313	Seeing Guadalajara - a first glimpse downtown Daniel took me out this afternoon to see something of Guadalajara - I'm here mainly for work, but a planned extra day allowed me to spend a few hours helping with a couple of outstanding issues in interfacing Lua to Visual C++, then just four hours being shown the city (and taking lunch in the middle ...	2009-08-01
2306	Melksham to Mexico for the week I am starting my day with a short item ... but you may look at the time aand think have a funny definition of "start". But I'm in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico - I arrived here yesterday from London, a lunchtime (UK time) flight of over 11 hours to Mexico City, and an ongoing connection to Guadalajara ...	2009-07-28
2269	Sipping at York I took so many pictures that capture York last week, and I want to share them. But - let's face it - readers who randomly come across a web page because they're searching for a resource want to sip rather than guzzle these personal snaps. So here are a random three: And if you want a little ...	2009-07-19
2265	A chance to do the tourist thing Just occasionally, work takes me to exactly the right place at exactly the right time ... and so it was this evening when after a good day's work I had a chance to let my hair down, join the leisure visitors, and have a look around York ... with some lovely lighting effects Point of arrival in York River Maltings ...	2009-07-01
2208	A beautiful coastline I'm home ... after a very long drive indeed. And glad to be home. But truely thankful for the opportunity to train in Northern Ireland, and to have had the time to spend a day looking around before my return ferry. Yesterday (though it feels a lot longer ago) I cut directly across from the Carrickfergus ...	2009-05-30
2200	England, Scotland, Northern Ireland Yesterday I travelled from Melksham to Northern Ireland - a course to give this week. And with equipment to bring, I came on the ferry. Plenty of routes to choose, and I chose to drive up through England (picture is taken at Tebay in the Lake District) and the on through Galloway. With boats being ...	2009-05-26
2198	On the road, at a Service area thats a cut above the others I (and everyone else) are much more prone to post <rant> than <praise> ... so here for a change is one of the latter. An early start this morning - 04:45 from home - and a stop at 09:00 on the motorway north at Tebay. Breakfast, email check, and I'll be carrying on in a few minutes. As service ...	2009-05-25
2101	A B C D of GA and TN Pictures from this weekend ... Amicalola, Georgia more pictures Blue Ridge, Georgia more pictures Copperhill, Tennessee more pictures Ducktown, Tennessee more pictures ...	2009-03-23
2100	Visiting Family Lisa and I have been spending a few days with son Tyler and his wife Alyssa in Georgia - all four of us are pictured here at the Amicalola falls (which you can see through the trees because the leaves are, as yet missing), with another passing early season visitor taking the picture for us. It's one ...	2009-03-23
2098	A room without a view Lisa and I are staying at the Comfort Inn, in Blue Ridge. It's on a road called the "Outlook" and there are views from both sides of the hotel - on the ridge - to the mountains. What a pity that some tw*t decided to build an oversized awning over the entrance to the hotel and block the view from ...	2009-03-22 (short)
2090	Melksham to Georgia From Melksham at 04:00 to Blue Ridge, Georgia, at 17:30 (or 21:30 if you use the same time zone). Visiting Alyssa and Tyler. 2 cars, 2 buses, 1 railed transit, 1 aircraft. We started counting the number of queues we had to go through when we were at Gatwick, and we gave up counting ... while still ...	2009-03-20
2030	The final step to being British It's over ten years since Lisa moved to the UK, and she's been British for over half of that time ... but there have been just a few experiences which have taken a while to happen. Last night, I took her to her first panto and she had the experience of the leading boy, the pantomime dame, "He's behind ...	2009-02-08
1291	Day trip to Weymouth What better than a day at the seaside - Weymouth is less that 2 hours from Melksham by train, and it was a beautiful day. Thanks to First Great Western's "Group Save" ticket, we can make the trip at a sensible price. Of course - there was the small issue of the first train from Melksham being at ...	2009-01-22
1992	A good time to travel I think that was a record early start for me this morning - up at half past three, for a departure at half past four. Even when I stopped at the service area near Worcester, it as still in "night mode" with the shop closed, the "beware wet floor" signs propped outside the loos, and a deserted car park ...	2009-01-14
1120	1200 miles in 3 days From Sunday lunchtime to Wednesday lunchtime, from Melksham to Melksham via Aberdeen with a two day course presented in the North of the city - that's three hotels sampled, six delegates who now know their httpds from their Tomcats, and can choose between mod_jk, mod_proxy, mod_rewrite and others from ...	2008-12-26
1868	Liverpool - a friendly city I'm in Liverpool for a three day Python course - if October was the month of Perl then November looks set to be the month of Python There's a certain friendlyness about Liverpool - it's very much one of those cities where, I feel, the people make the place. A cheery checkin last night, and a friendly ...	2008-11-06
1746	London for the visitor, for free Covent Garden, Central London, on a hot August afternoon. London is teeming with visitors, and considering that I was working in the Soho section of the West End, and staying (literally) in the shadow of the London Eye on the South Bank, I shouldn't have been surprised at the crowds. This first picture ...	2008-08-09
1740	Vertical London With a course in London this week, I've had an opportunity in the early morning and early evening to walk across town and take a few pictures. A quiz for those of you who are at all familiar with London (most will be VERY easy for native Londoners!), can you place the pictures? ...	2008-08-06
1657	Farewell, Newcastle to Stavanger, Haugsund and Bergen I was very sad to hear on the radio this morning that DFDS are withdrawing their ferry from Newcastle to Norway - a short item and I have no detail,s but it brough back memories of a 24 hour crossing one winter a few years ago, on the "Venus" run - in those days - by Color line. Rising fuel costs are ...	2008-05-29
420	Towards Tebay I'm home ... three days in Edinburgh, 2 days in Cambridge, and I even have a one day course today in Melksham - such is how busy we are. I've been taking the opportunity to take some pictures ... we live on a beautiful island, and even some of the views from the motorways, such as this one here, are ...	2008-05-17
81	Cafe keyboards Isn't the web marvellous! Seated in an Internet Cafe in Venice I/m limited only by the problems I/m having finding at symbols and apostrophes [semicolon] [minus] [close-round-bracket] ...	2008-05-10 (short)
65	Ireland I'm in Ireland this week ... custom Perl course at the start of the week, Linux course to take me through to Friday. Excellent Ferry crossing over last night - I prefer the Liverpool boat as it give me a good long crossing on which I can get a cabin and sleep well, and it's reliable even in rough weather. ...	2008-05-10
1454	From Sunday to Monday, from Melksham to the Balkans Subject Drift ... an email entitled "Brakes Requirements" received turns out to be all about virus scans, and a "Twonky Apple" subject line is confirming receipt of our arrival in a former Yugoslavian republic that's now a part of the EU. Other emails in my box this Sunday night / Monday morning urge ...	2007-12-05
1457	A day in Ljubljana It's Tuesday morning, and I'm in Ljubljana to give a Python training course. Unusually, I traveled out 24 hours early - rather that arriving at something approaching midnight last night after a Monday that was wasted with travel anyway, we (Lisa and I) came out on Sunday and had a look around what is ...	2007-12-05 (longer)
1308	Good to be home I love travelling - meeting people, seeing places in giving courses in another country or on another continent. And so much the better when we can catch up (much overdue) with relatives and friends there. But it's so good to be home. We arrived at about quarter past 10 this morning, local time in ...	2007-08-21
1299	In the USA for a few days A long day yesterday - 24 hours long - from Melksham to Franconia Springfield in Virginia, USA. There'a a long and somewhat negative report elsewhere on our site, which was written mid - journey; 01:15 UK time, and we still had an Amtrak journey, 2 metros and a taxi to negotiate! At Bristol Airport Weston ...	2007-08-11 (short)
1293	Weymouth - Sunny Summer Sunday afternoon My thanks to Lisa for her pictures and presentation above (reproduced with permission). Makes my writing of the Horse's Mouth really simple with morning, and reminds me of a great day out! ...	2007-08-07 (short)
1231	Sur le Continent I'm in Brugges, in Belgium, for a few days. [[And wrote this on Monday ...]] A busy weekend at the hotel. A quick conversion of BR4 from twin to double on Saturday, followed by sporadic checkins and we had every bed taken that night. And a sporadic (or, rather, spread) breakfast on Sunday left us tight ...	2007-06-13
1150	Helsinki - what comes naturally Even when it's sweltering in England, it's quite cold in Helsinki and everyone was heavily clothed - I suspect that there was a hot water bottle (and perhaps an iPod too) under that hat. So perhaps it's as an educational aid to the locals that statues such as this may be found in the local park (or ...	2007-04-15
1143	A course in Helsinki Greetings from Helsinki, Finland, where I'm running a Python course. After a late arrival last night and a busy course (10 bright delegates) I feel tired, but inquisitive enough to have a brief look around in the last light of day. A modern city - this is the area I'm staying in, a couple of stops ...	2007-04-12
1025	Tomorrow's keywords - London, Training, Course, PHP, Ruby. Cheating here and posting a day early - for tomorrow I'm in London giving a PHP course during the day, at I'm at the London Ruby Users Group pub quiz in the evening. {b}How long does it take to install LAMP?[/b]. The L for Linux can take a darned long time simply because of the size of the thing, but ...	2007-01-07
1004	Old dog, old tricks The families' internal flight connecting to Heathrow was cancelled due to fog, and they were told by the airline that if they took a taxi there, they could connect on to their long haul flight which was running. A mad dash later, 600 pounds poorer, they got to Heathrow but found they were too late for ...	2006-12-28
878	Easy criteria to meet "I've got to write my blog when I get to my hotel tonight". So said I to the group that I'm teaching Tomcat configuration and deployment to here in Caerphilly today and tomorrow. "Shall I make it positive or a bit grouchy?" I continued. "Oh - positive" was the reply. "And shall I make it technical ...	2006-09-26
518	Passport office - a much improved system I'll admit it - I had put off the renewal of my passport for too long as Christmas seemed a long way ahead but the adverts have started to appear on the TV, the first snow of the winter appear on the roads, and Wessex Trains have emailed me about three "Santa Specials". Yikes - I had better get my passport ...	2006-06-09
548	San Francisco Classic Holiday Snaps ... we're moving on from San Francisco; an interesting place to visit but I can't say I've left my heart here. It's cosmopolitan, it's fun, there's plenty to see and do but being asked for a dollar on every street corner soon tires. Not saying homesick, but it sure makes me appreciate ...	2006-06-09 (short)
684	Staying in the country Spring is here at last - and early morning is a great time to look at the countryside. On Wednesday morning, I woke to the sound of the dawn chorus - just the birds, no traffic, And these are the scenes from the window at Chris and Delene's house just a few miles from the city of Bristol. It's somewhat ...	2006-06-05