Bouquets and Brickbats

I hope that the criticisms I level freely in a number of areas are morally balanced by compliments delivered where they are deserved. The two days since the thundery instability of Saturday have brought plenty of opportunities for both. After an uncertain start, the cloud over Dorset peeled away to offer beautiful weather  for the third day of the Swanage Railway Diesel Gala. Breakfast at the Marriott was excellent combining good quality ingredients with fresh preparation. The Sandford Road between Poole and Wareham may be the most rhododendron lined in the country. They are not fully out yet (as in Sarisbury Green) but it was very pleasant. There is so much to see in Bournemouth, Poole and environs, I am sure we shall be back soon. We went first to Norden where 'Western Campaigner' set the scene for an excellent day divided between the respective ends of the line. The organisation of the Diesel Gala was excellent, its choreography excellent. The amount of effort which had gone into arranging resident and guest locomotives and their multitude of movements and pairings was admirable. I felt that the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum also at Norden was, although still under development, a fascinating bonus.

Later in the day we were back in Bournemouth to collect a new Nikon lens for Greg. While he was in the shop, I finally found the motivation to capture some of the varied buses in busy Gervis Place. Then we went to eat in the Square at the poor Obscura restaurant. As I chewed the Obscura fare I reflected that the only possible advantage of this establishment is its prime people watching location. The food was poor quality, overpriced and dully prepared and served. To my astonishment they required payment up front, blaming escapees from their many outside tables. As one does not normally order a dessert at the outset of a meal, that would mean a separate payment or no dessert. I chose the latter to get away from eastern European wait staff, some of whom had not mastered even the phonetics of the menu and were unlikely to attempt conversational English. I thoroughly recommend not going there. On the way home, I remembered that oil prices went down this last week; I did not see any price reaction at forecourts. There never seems to be such tardiness with increases.

Today was a day for taking Mum out primarily to Gunwharf. We received outstanding attention and service in the shops we visited and Mum got both the shoes and handbag she wanted. That visit was rounded off nicely by another visit to Giraffe where service and food remained very good. I was pleased to be able to comment to that effect to the regional manager who was visiting. No such plaudits are deserved by Carillion, the avaricious and inept providers of parking services at QA hospital. I have had to criticise them before and today's news in the local paper prompted a letter to the editor (by e-mail) and to the Portsmouth North MP, Penny Mordaunt. Charges are due to go up again and, whilst this is entirely within the provisions of the unfortunate PFI contract, several criticisms can be levelled against a firm which is more interested in money than patients (and their attendants). Warning notices of the kind which now proliferate around the UK are inappropriate in the stress rich environment of a hospital. Patients and visitors have plenty to preoccupy them without enforcement threats made with a vigour not matched by the attention paid to broken or faulty ticket machines. Working or not, the ticket machines neither give change nor accept cards. The tariffs present and proposed are in odd amounts; this is a deliberate and calculated ploy to ensure that the many hassled parkers who do not have the right money will overpay, thus bolstering Carillion's profits further. I am not against hospital car park charging as such. In many locations it has become necessary to deter immoral commuter behaviour. It is regrettable that PFI deprives the QA of a potentially useful income stream where non-PFI hospitals benefit. Carillion however must be made to introduce change giving and card accepting machines and to improve their reliability. They should also be persuaded to introduce a simplified tariff of whole number sums to reduce the need for overpayments and hopefully be shamed into retracting the June increases. This is an era of scam. it should be challenged wherever it arises.