St Pancras International

Beat the tube strike today getting up to London for a meeting at Kings Cross. Thought I'd have to walk from Victoria across London to Kings Cross, then had a think about it and found a train from Maidstone West to Stroud changing for the High Speed Javelin train to St Pancras. Left later than I would have normally done, cycled into Maidstone, changed at Strood and still got to my destination before the usual time. As I bought a single I was able to use my old person's railcard to use the same route home and it was cheaper overall than the usual way.

All in all a good day, travelled on the Medway Valley line, which I very rarely do and on the HS train which again is a rare occurence. The Medway Valley line is a bit Jekyll and Hyde. South of Maidstone it winds its way alongside the River Medway through orchards, fields and small villages. North of Maidstone the route paases through some of the worst post industrial landscapes I've seen for a long time. Derelict factories, vacant, unkempt land, dreary vista make for a fascinating journey. The station at Halling must rank as one of the worst I've ever seen, steel shutters at every window and pretty much every surface painted battleship grey.

The meeting was lively to say the least, an approaching deadline focuses the mind but lays you open to making rash decisions simply because decisions have to be made. I think we avoided the worst excesses but things will still be pretty tight to get content in place by the deadline.

Still have to be travelling up to London in September and also another trip to Manchester is on the cards for an important seminar. So plenty of work still to do.