Not Enough Time In Kent

This week I've been travelling about for work. Nothing particularly new in that but I've been to a couple of places I've not been before.

The first one was Rochester in Kent.

This was actually taken in Strood which sits across the River Medway from Rochester and is where my hotel was. The river was just across from the hotel, with a safe crossing provided - had I had time for a closer look. At the point where I took the photo though I was waiting for a taxi to take me to the University for Creative Arts where I was due to deliver a workshop on Process Review techniques for JISC infoNet.

It was a week of train journeys. Blackpool to Preston, Preston to London Euston, on foot to St Pancras and then St Pancras to Rochester. By the time I got down there is was getting dark but as the taxi took me from the station to my hotel I was pleasantly surprised at the sights of Rochester. A castle, a cathedral, town walls and lots of half-timbered buildings. Unfortunately the taxi kept going and by the time I'd had something to eat, I was too knackered to go back into Rochester for a proper look.

The University the following day had a really nice room that I was using and it led onto a patio area which had this wonderful view. Someone described this area of water as the sea... The other delegates didn't think much of that idea...

Looking another way from the patio was as close as I got to seeing the castle and cathedral! Having finished the day I got a taxi back to the station, the train coming to the platform just as the taxi drew up. I was gob-smacked that I managed to get on it!

This took me back into London to Waterloo East - a station I never even knew existed! From there I walked to Waterloo which it unsurprisingly joined onto and from there took a train out to Aldershot for the following day's workshop. To anyone from the Provinces it is staggering to think about the number of trains that leave London at the end of the working day. You can hardly walk two paces in a straight line and then you fight your way onto a train which is 12 carriages long and just hope to get a seat.

Then if you are from the north as I am, you gleefully play at making people acknowledge you for a while until that gets boring. It is a challenge anyway. And then you watch in amazement as they start to blow their cheeks out and shake their heads the very moment the clock ticks past the moment of departure without the train moving immediately.

Aldershot had another Premier Inn. Same standard, same comfort. I love them but you do wake up, stare at the same painting on the same coloured wall and wonder where on earth you are...

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