I rode the bus across Bath and connected on to Melksham this afternoon.   A lovely bright afternoon, and seeing the beauty of the world and all its facets.  Four pictures - Bath City Centre, a gull, an island bus stop, and Shaw Church. The fifth picture is in the RUH (Royal United Hospital) - the empty bed I was discharged from today prior to than bus journey home.

I was called in, urgently, just before the weekend after abnormal test results.  "Day Surgery" ward but I ended up being admitted and only being discharged this afternoon - Monday.  Seeing so many other patients far worse off than I am is very humbling;  I have lost the best part of a stone, weaker on my feet and tubed up, but nothing malignant. Probably a "day surgery" op later in the year.  Discomfort but no pain; brain working ... a bit wobblier on my feet but still, already, well enough to use the bus home.

I know that starting three paragraphs with "I" is very self-centred, but just today and this one post IS me. I am refactoring April and knocking back plans to be away early in the month.  These Easter weeks will now be a welcomed window to recover - a "time off" prior to a resumption of my norm thereafter.  Big "thank you" to those stepping in for me at today's meeting and helping otherwise too. Knowing me, the time off will be a chance to have my thoughts wander, write, perhaps do some coding.  And being around, I'll now be able to watch "Race across the World" and "Married at First Site". Convalescence - which this recover is - does not mean I will re-instate meetings - I'll be quietly at home, with perhaps one or two gentle outings.













Nothing but praise for the hospital staff ... whole subject there ... I completed their review form, where they asked for suggestions of how they could have done better, all I could do was add a "Thank You"

 



Please don't - you'll set member broadgage off on yet another one! 

 
He's gonna need a bigger cat !!

 

It is a gull with good tastes. If you enjoy good coffee and Turkish pastries, I would definitely recommend the cafe that is pictured there.

 
I figure ... I may as well convalesce on a piece of public transport ... getting better anyway

Seated at Swindon ... needless to say, longest wait of the day ... looking at some of my pics. Where have I been?

 
Yes, very good question, where *is* that???

Mark

 

It's not a million miles from home ... and it's not easy to get a good photo.  Here's another failure

 
Taken from a short line that's been on my "bucket list" for years but only has a sporadic service and things have never quite aligned.  They did yesterday with Easter engineering works.

 

Well - perhaps it's too small or too obscure - the Laverstock curve in Salisbury. The only passenger trains on it are occasional specials, and Cross Country diversions between Southampton Central and Basingstoke when the direct line is closed.

 
You got me Graham! I have been looking on Google Maps all over the West Country for this site but I failed due to one simple error that you squarely landed me in. I assumed that the trackside grey box in each of the photos was the same one, taken from two different sides (down to the detail of the yellow protective fences) - therefore, I was looking for a double track junction. I could find none of these that matched the two buildings in their respective backgrounds.  Well done Sir!

It was only a few hours - honestly 

 
Yup, flummoxed by the sight of the diverging double track, unelectrified, discounted the Laverstock curve 'cos how could Graham be traversing that, and hopelessly distracted by the fantasy that perhaps he'd time travelled and it was somewhere strange on a WW2-era Midland and South Western.

Mark

 
I ... think ... I'm happy to have brought you a puzzle that mystified and intrigued for a while.   The Laverstock Curve has intrigued me, illogically for many years and I have had an eye open for an opportunity to travel along it.    It was the (I think) my final stretch of line in national network passenger service in Wiltshire.

The curve has a strange history.  Opened early with the arrival of the railway from London, it was closed and after many years as a siding from one end lifted completely, only to be restored in quite recent times.  As well as occasional diverted Cross Country services, some steam specials use it, and it's on one of the freight routes used from Southampton Docks to the Midlands and north.  To my knowledge, neither SWR nor GWR use the Laverstock Curve, nor do I know or any plausible campaigns calling for a regular passenger service.

 
It was reopened in 1981 as a diversionary route when there was engineering work on the Weymouth line. Subsequently, it has seen increased use for container trains from Southampton Docks.

As such I would hope that it could form a second electrified route to the docks and, at the same time to Salisbury. Ideally at 750vDC as this would need less civils work.

I believe that the new Integrated Rail Plan for Wessex should develop a future rail plan which is costed and reviewed regularly.

 

An update - please consider me back in normal circulation (if I am ever normal) for a few months.  I had planned to head out, Interrail, to the far end of Schengen and should have been getting back around now.   But instead I have been convalescing - restarting, and from next week back on schedule which is trip #2 on the long pass.   Lisa with me on this segment, and I expect we'll be around online very much as usual.