Wednesday 23rd November 2011 Take 2

I have started this post again - it went a bit off course  - things should be "back on track" now!
Wednesday was such a good day for me, not because of a particular monumental happening, but because I saw it as a manifestation of things to come at Broadway. It was triggered by two things, a large turn out of volunteers, which included several new starters, and the first days work by the Worcester College lads. I hope they don't mind me calling them that but they all look so young!

I have always been a great supporter of helping young people get a good start in life in whatever  small way I can. The youth of today always seem to hit the headlines for the wrong reason, and yet for the great majority they just want the opportunity to apply themselves in whatever way they feel is right for them. On Wednesday there were  4 students spinning their trowels and just dying to show us old timers what they could do - and frankly they did. With a  gentle steer from their tutor and guidance from Ron and John Crawford (a new Volunteer) they set to on the block work for 1 B. It was  great to see.

First Foundation Blocks laid on 1B

Therein lays my euphoria for the day. The  various activities being carried out by the 24 people on site seemed to be energised by having the students there - if we could have tapped the efforts as electrical energy, we could have lit up the whole of Broadway.

In terms of jobs being carried out by the rest, they seem mundane but oh so important to the grand plan. Dumper loads of reds were brought up from the stash of Honeybourne bricks in the car park. When I looked at the heap of bricks when it was originally delivered  it look fairly modest from a numbers point of view, but in fact we must have already got 5000 out of the pile and there is still more to come. Chris Helm, always a glutton for punishment, started to extract(with a pick!) the remaining surface bricks off platform 2 - I say glutton for punishment because he and David then have to clean them! Work continued also with clearance down in the car park - we badly need dear old Dot going to do some serious levelling. The DOT Doctor says she need anew hydraulic pump and because of her age, they are difficult to come by.

I had to leave early on Wednesday and I haven't yet received Peter end of day report - like myself he has been subject to some pressures at home and I know he will pass photos and information on as soon as he can.

As far as re stocking with bricks is concerned there is the possibility that we may be able to recover the old Railway Stable building by Ashchurch Station. If anyone has any old photos of it in its "hay" day please send them in.

Sorry if this is a bit of a hotchpotch of a post - the family attended the funeral of a grand old lady yesterday, who spent her life  looking after the need of others and we shall miss her. RIP  MR