Corsham's Town Ten is up and running

Well what a way to spend an afternoon - sitting on a bus! I thought I really should 'Road Test' the so called new and improved Town Ten local bus service in Corsham - and I was pleasantly surprised. The two routes 10A and 10E provide two loops each starting and ending at Newlands Road. One takes in Broadmead, Neston and Basil Hill. The other takes in Katherine Park, Basil Hill and Rudloe. And it runs every half an hour from 7am to 6.30pm on weekdays and on Saturday mornings.

The reason each service takes in Basil Hill is because these services are part of the section 106 agreement connected to the planning permission for Basil Hill which requires a certain level of investment in the local community and will also include cycle way provision which is really positive for the town.

Use it and try it out if it works for you!

A New Bus Service for Corsham

From 1 October an updated No.10 bus service will operate for Corsham. With two new low level buses and a route which will include the new MOD development at Basil Hill this will be an improvement to the existing No 10 services.

Wiltshire Council and the MOD will be partly subsidising these services and are keen to give them an identity so are calling for suggestions for names. Suggestions so far have included “The Flyer” and "The Trooper".

Other towns have personalised their local bus services and this is an opportunity to create something unique for Corsham.

Any suggestions should be sent to nigel.brucerobertson@wiltshire.gov.uk

Edinburgh Festivals - Day 7

Our final day brings a relentless week of shows, exhibitions, walking, eating, drinking and socialising to a close. I am so relieved I posted everything I experienced on twitter as I would never have remembered it all otherwise!

The week was brought to a memorable climax for me on Friday night at the Preview of Caledonia at The Kings Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. This co-production between the Edinburgh International Festival and National Theatre of Scotland told the extraordinary tale of how Scotland had ambitions at empire at the end of the 17^th century – and nearly made it happen. If they had been successful it could well have changed the course of history – our history – and the UK may never have been created.

I knew a bit about the founding of a Scottish colony in Darien on the narrow isthmus of Panama which would have been a valuable transhipment route between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

But it was an unmitigated disaster resulting in the loss of over 2,000 people and a virtually bankrupt Scotland which paved the way for the end of the nation's independent status and the signing of the 1707 Treaty of Union with England. What an extraordinary story and one with resonances for today. Here is a clip from the rehearsals: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009cs7g

Well that concludes my Edinburgh diary for one year. The next stage is to sift through our notes to see what we might realistically bring to Corsham, Wiltshire and South Gloucestershire in the year ahead. I just wish Caledonia was a smaller production as it would be great at The Pound!

Edinburgh Festivals - Day 6

The best part of today was discovering I had 100 followers on Twitter. And... I had Champagne to celebrate my centenary too! But the worst part was in discovering they had reduced to 99 by the end of the day!

Such is life... It’s been a mixed a day with beautiful moments such as the Impressionist Gardens Exhibition at The National Gallery to a few disappointments as well. Both the disappointments were very different in their lack-lustre performances. In one case it was the play itself, in the other the lack of audience:

The Gay Geese: The problem here was not so much the acting but a rather ridiculous and outdated plot – the one where the 17 year old best friend comes out as gay much to the horror and repulsion of his best mate who can’t handle it (for a while). And then there’s the revelation that his father was caught in bed by his mother with another man so he had to leave. On meeting his father for the first time after many years he confesses that he ‘doesn’t do that anymore’ (therefore it is alright because he’s not really gay anyway!).

Something Relevant: Obviously judged as being irrelevant to most Edinburgh festival goers as there were only about 5 people in the audience. Apparently that is the average size of audience for an Edinburgh show so at least it hits one target but it must be really hard to be a lively up-beat band when there are more on stage than in the audience – especially when you have travelled all the way from Mumbai! The seven guys in the band were loud and confident – a bit to loud for me – fine for one number but the thought of having my eardrums pummelled for a whole hour was too much so I had to leave.

I was pondering as to why this group had not caught people’s attention. Could it be the rather bland name ‘Something Relevant’? Could it be the uninspired title of the show ‘Feels Good to be Live’ or could it be that despite coming from India they seem to have severed all their musical roots to become yet another western jam rock band? I would have loved to see and hear a little more subtlety – especially at the start of the show and some exploration of the sounds of India and the west.

Edinburgh Festivals - Day 5

Getting to that mid week waning of energy, enthusiasm and interest but still managing to keep going. The plethora of reviews often are anything but a vague guide as to what might be worth tracking down but more often its down to word of mouth, instinct and sheer good fortune.

Songs by Michael Topping about gay geriatric sex was enough to blow the cobwebs away this morning. Then an extraordinary part sung / part spoken monologue about a young woman’s gradual decent into madness and ultimate suicide brought me back down to earth.

An afternoon with Hardeep Singh Kohli’s Chat Masala sort of put things back on the rails before a mesmerising red electric south African cellist and a very bleak and ghostly musical/opera about a disintegrating family!

Fortunately, our colleagues Michael and Martin joined us at the end of the evening and after a few beers in the Broadway Baby bar and Underbelly bar we staggered back to our flat.