Is Your Journey Really Necessary?

'Autumn woes' was the headline on BBC Wales' summary table of the home nation's dismal performance in the Autumn Rugby Tests since 2009 (eleven defeats and a draw.) 'Autumn woes' could also sum up the experience of passengers on the South Wales Valleys Lines over the past couple of weeks. As I told you in Wet Wednesday , Martin H. and I were fortunate enough to catch a delayed train home from Abercynon last week. Had it actually been on time , we'd certainly have missed it. On 5 November, my friend Alexis reported that the train from Cardiff to Aberdare was running approximately twenty minutes late. Arriva Trains Wales had come up with arguably the best excuse to date – the delay had been caused (this time) by a fireworks display. Back in the days of British Rail, the late running and cancellation of trains was a standing joke, and a great source of comic material. Reginald Perrin used to arrive at Sunshine Desserts eleven minutes late every morning. Driven ...

I'm in Cardiff at the moment, using a remarkably slow wifi, even by Wetherspoon standards. I needed to get online as I had an email from Andy Tillison via Facebook yesterday (see Our Friends in the North .) By way of thanks for my support from (almost) the beginning of Gold, Frankincense and Disk Drive's career, he'd sent me the entire CD of Where Do We Draw The Line? and the accompanying booklet as a zip file. I didn't fancy using up all my bandwidth trying to download it using Myfi, so I decided to wait until I got to the pub instead. Shanara the Dippy Bint phoned me yesterday, to see what time I anticipated being in town. We must have some sort of weird psychic link, as we always seem to know when one of us is thinking about the other. We're going to have coffee in the restaurant of House of Fraser (which was formerly Howell's, and also played the part of Henrik's Department Store in a few episodes of Doctor Who ), as we can take the baby in there. After...

Martin H. and I had to go to Abercynon today, as Cwm Taf Local Health Board were holding a meeting and we wanted to sit in at the back and make notes. Ynysmeurig House, where they have their headquarters, isn't exactly accessible. We were lucky to have a lift on the way down, but on the way back we were on our own. As the crow flies, the complex of office buildings known as Navigation Park is a couple of hundred yards (if that!) from the station. It's built on the site previously occupied by Abercynon colliery, so it's obviously not in the middle of the town, but it seems that little provision has been made for people to get there. The more I've thought about it, I can't help wondering whether it's just a twist of fate. As I observed in A Tale of Two Castles , there seems to be an increasing trend for local authorities and other public bodies find the most inaccessible spot to set up shop. I first noticed it in 1984 in Uxbridge, when I was living in halls of res...