The stable I am in is where my daughter keeps her two ponies, she is tacking up and I am waiting to watch her ride.
My hobby horse is the way hotel brands particularly luxury ones regularly talk about 'the guest experience' as being the thing that differentiates them from others when talking to C&I agencies and they do nothing to explain how they can develop services and products to make it easy for us to do business with them. What they singularly fail to grasp is that:
* Invariably their view of their own brand is an inflated version of the reality
* They don't get to deliver the guest experience if people like me think they are too hard to do business with and we don't include them in the mix.
My daughter is about to get on her pony, so I will get off my hobby horse....
Have a great day
Peter
Peter Jackson
Mobile: +44(0)7887 794396
Sent from my BlackBerry from Vodafone- so please excuse the brevity and the typing mistakes!
Please reply to pj@rede2.com. Thank You
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Friday, 20 August 2010
By the light of the buffet car
I find myself typing this on an early morning train to London. Getting up at four thirty wasn't as harsh as I imagined the night before - what I will be like later on - well who knows. In my minds eye my plan was to get up, dressed and drive down to the station in as semi-concious state - get on the train, jack in my iPod and try and get some sleep in. The major flaw in this plan was that I actually woke up from my slumber relatively easily and the wind on the station raised my concious state to 'fully awake and what can I do now'.
So having found a seat close to the buffet car, correction the PA has just called it an 'express (pun intended I suspect) café ', and typing this entry for something to do as I tried to connect to the outside world using my dongle has proved let's say challenging. So dear readers when I do eventually get to Paddington and post this little missive the post may say 8.00 or 8.15 am, it is actually about ten to six in the morning.
Good morning everyone, wherever you are.
Peter Jackson
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Wednesday, 28 July 2010
A local tropical condition called 'beetroot'
This is our fifth day in the land called 'Cornwall'. We have noticed many invading tribes with exotic names such as 'Geordie', 'Scouse', 'Cockney" and 'Brummie' additionally a number of marauding 'Germans' known locally as 'sun bed nickers'.
In this strange land there appears to be a daily ritual. Groups of males, bleary eyed from mating dances the night before congregate in little groups at places selling a dish called 'full english breakfast - £3.95' - here they stay boasting about their successes the night before (which always appear to be somewhat embellished from the truth) until such time they feel sufficiently recovered to spend time on the beach sunbathing.
On the first day, after spending sometime on the beach observing the local shows of the males and females diplaying their wares, we all were victims of a local condition called 'beetroot' brought on by prolonged exposure to the sun. It can be quite a painful condition leaving a semi-permanent mark called 'white bits'.
Later today two of our party are going to spend a night along the coast at a place called 'Westward Ho!' to visit the mother of our family guest - Jess.
As I write I am standing on a long sandy beach keeping a watchful eye on my two daughters as the bodyboard in the rolling waters - they tell me to keep my distance as they try and snare a near mythical beast called 'a surfer with a modest ego'. We shall see....
P
Peter Jackson
Mobile: +44(0)7887 794396
Sent from my BlackBerry from Vodafone- so please excuse the brevity and the typing mistakes!
Please reply to pj@rede2.com. Thank You
In this strange land there appears to be a daily ritual. Groups of males, bleary eyed from mating dances the night before congregate in little groups at places selling a dish called 'full english breakfast - £3.95' - here they stay boasting about their successes the night before (which always appear to be somewhat embellished from the truth) until such time they feel sufficiently recovered to spend time on the beach sunbathing.
On the first day, after spending sometime on the beach observing the local shows of the males and females diplaying their wares, we all were victims of a local condition called 'beetroot' brought on by prolonged exposure to the sun. It can be quite a painful condition leaving a semi-permanent mark called 'white bits'.
Later today two of our party are going to spend a night along the coast at a place called 'Westward Ho!' to visit the mother of our family guest - Jess.
As I write I am standing on a long sandy beach keeping a watchful eye on my two daughters as the bodyboard in the rolling waters - they tell me to keep my distance as they try and snare a near mythical beast called 'a surfer with a modest ego'. We shall see....
P
Peter Jackson
Mobile: +44(0)7887 794396
Sent from my BlackBerry from Vodafone- so please excuse the brevity and the typing mistakes!
Please reply to pj@rede2.com. Thank You
Saturday, 24 July 2010
N day is here
Our journey South was tough, battling along the track with weekend gypsies on their annual migration to the far south west lands, across the mighty rivers of Severn, Avon, Exe and Tamar.
We rested for a while to take sustenance in the moor top town of Bodmin paying a tribute of £1.20 for each of our vehicles which was paid to the local chef called 'Bodmin Town Council'.
We arrived in Newquay and found our lodgings with the help of a satellite link. The team celebrated with a refreshing drink in an outpost of the Australian colony in a bar called 'Walkabout'
Who knows what tomorrow will bring. N day is all but complete, sleep well my fellow adventurers
P
Peter Jackson
Mobile: +44(0)7887 794396
Sent from my BlackBerry from Vodafone- so please excuse the brevity and the typing mistakes!
Please reply to pj@rede2.com. Thank You
We rested for a while to take sustenance in the moor top town of Bodmin paying a tribute of £1.20 for each of our vehicles which was paid to the local chef called 'Bodmin Town Council'.
We arrived in Newquay and found our lodgings with the help of a satellite link. The team celebrated with a refreshing drink in an outpost of the Australian colony in a bar called 'Walkabout'
Who knows what tomorrow will bring. N day is all but complete, sleep well my fellow adventurers
P
Peter Jackson
Mobile: +44(0)7887 794396
Sent from my BlackBerry from Vodafone- so please excuse the brevity and the typing mistakes!
Please reply to pj@rede2.com. Thank You
Friday, 23 July 2010
N day minus one
N day is just a few hours away. The provisions have been checked and stashed. Last minute preparations almost complete.
We are lucky to have satellite time to aid our navigation. Not like the old days of AA road maps and guess work around the by-passes of county cities.
Everyone on the expedition is both expectant and anxious. For me I am concerned about crossing the contested border between the ancient kingdoms of Devon and Cornwall. I have tales of barrages of cream teas lining the shores of the Tamar River, holding back the hoards of Pasty's on the other side waiting, waiting to cross the river and invade Devon. We have planned our crossing of the border to the North at checkpoint A30. I am hopeful it go well.
We start tomorrow at 0800, wish us luck - God Save the Queen.
P
Peter Jackson
Mobile: +44(0)7887 794396
Sent from my BlackBerry from Vodafone- so please excuse the brevity and the typing mistakes!
Please reply to pj@rede2.com. Thank You
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Fw: Planning the expedition
------Original Message------
To: Blogger A Brit on the road
Subject: Planning the expedition
Sent: 22 Jul 2010 23:04
Tomorrow we start to plan the expedition to the land that time forgot. We have a basic outline - a 2 vehicle party tied together for safety sake by a mobile phone link.
We hear of stories of a great migration that occurs each July that will slow down our journey along the mighty track known for many 100's of years as the Fosse Way, in the great era of the Morris Minor as the A38 and in relative modern times as the M5.
As a family we have trying acclimatise to local conditions. On Monday I re-aquainted myself with a local delicacy. To do so I had to travel to the end of a great trading route and visit an outpost called 'Paddington' to sample the dish known as a 'pasty'. Tom has been sampling a well known fertility drink called 'cider' - it would appear any man that drinks it feels larger and braver and any women folk who quench their thirst with this drink are more likely to partake in the ancient ritual of 'dropping knickers' which as we know is the start of a mating ritual.
Come back to hear of stories of pirates, dancers on the water in a place called 'Finstral Beach' and other tales of the ancient land of 'Cornwall'
Peter Jackson
Mobile: +44(0)7887 794396
Sent from my BlackBerry from Vodafone- so please excuse the brevity and the typing mistakes!
Please reply to pj@rede2.com. Thank You
To: Blogger A Brit on the road
Subject: Planning the expedition
Sent: 22 Jul 2010 23:04
Tomorrow we start to plan the expedition to the land that time forgot. We have a basic outline - a 2 vehicle party tied together for safety sake by a mobile phone link.
We hear of stories of a great migration that occurs each July that will slow down our journey along the mighty track known for many 100's of years as the Fosse Way, in the great era of the Morris Minor as the A38 and in relative modern times as the M5.
As a family we have trying acclimatise to local conditions. On Monday I re-aquainted myself with a local delicacy. To do so I had to travel to the end of a great trading route and visit an outpost called 'Paddington' to sample the dish known as a 'pasty'. Tom has been sampling a well known fertility drink called 'cider' - it would appear any man that drinks it feels larger and braver and any women folk who quench their thirst with this drink are more likely to partake in the ancient ritual of 'dropping knickers' which as we know is the start of a mating ritual.
Come back to hear of stories of pirates, dancers on the water in a place called 'Finstral Beach' and other tales of the ancient land of 'Cornwall'
Peter Jackson
Mobile: +44(0)7887 794396
Sent from my BlackBerry from Vodafone- so please excuse the brevity and the typing mistakes!
Please reply to pj@rede2.com. Thank You
Saturday, 5 June 2010
The sun has got it's hat on
It is at times like this, with the sun high in the sky, a gentle breeze and the faint whoosh of the burner from a hot air balloon when you realise that being tied to a desk, in the corner of a stuffy office, wrestling with web copy for an incentive programme that probably something is not quite right.
Rough work clothes may have been exchanged for chino's and a polo, a screwdriver for a mouse and the shop floor of a factory for a converted farm building nestling in the middle of the English countryside, the effective situation is the same - working for a living and not creating sufficient wealth to be able to choose to not be tied to a desk when the sun has got its hat on.
Apart from six magic numbers is there a road out? Probably not for me, although we can still try to find the silver bullet of an idea that will free the shackles and lift us out of the poverty of little free personal time. Of course this kind of poverty is not the poverty of previous generations, there is a roof over our heads, food on the table and work. To be able to talk about the poverty of free personal time is a sign of progress of our society as a whole however it does not help when the sun has it's hat on and I am tied to a desk as I was on a glorious Friday afternoon yesterday.
So, silver bullet aside, what is there to drive me on? Of course it can only be one thing.....to deliver as pleasant as life as possible for me and my wife and to try...to try as hard as I can (and like any parent) to deliver the life that has escaped me for my three children.
In the meantime as I write this from the reception area of a tyre place, I will in the next few minutes swallow hard, shrug my shoulders and cough up the £180+ for 3 new tyres and just get on with life.
P
5th June 2010
Rough work clothes may have been exchanged for chino's and a polo, a screwdriver for a mouse and the shop floor of a factory for a converted farm building nestling in the middle of the English countryside, the effective situation is the same - working for a living and not creating sufficient wealth to be able to choose to not be tied to a desk when the sun has got its hat on.
Apart from six magic numbers is there a road out? Probably not for me, although we can still try to find the silver bullet of an idea that will free the shackles and lift us out of the poverty of little free personal time. Of course this kind of poverty is not the poverty of previous generations, there is a roof over our heads, food on the table and work. To be able to talk about the poverty of free personal time is a sign of progress of our society as a whole however it does not help when the sun has it's hat on and I am tied to a desk as I was on a glorious Friday afternoon yesterday.
So, silver bullet aside, what is there to drive me on? Of course it can only be one thing.....to deliver as pleasant as life as possible for me and my wife and to try...to try as hard as I can (and like any parent) to deliver the life that has escaped me for my three children.
In the meantime as I write this from the reception area of a tyre place, I will in the next few minutes swallow hard, shrug my shoulders and cough up the £180+ for 3 new tyres and just get on with life.
P
5th June 2010
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