Private courses at Well House Manor have been run for a number of organisations and individuals, ranging from Java Bootcamps through to tailored versions of our Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP / Perl Deployment course with all sort of other topics from Tomcat to Soap to basic programming techniques in between.
On site courses seem to have been closer to home than in previous years; a possible course in Malaysia came to nothing, for example. But I would like to thank customers in London, Norwich, Cambridge, Bristol, Nottingham, Milton Keynes and Liverpool amongst others for having me come and present training to them at their offices. See here for details of how such courses are run, and for pricing information.
Most of the delegates on our Melksham courses have stayed at our hotel (those who have not stayed being the 10 to 20% of delegates who live locally, or who have friends and relatives nearby), and that's meant that our courses have continued to be a complete learning experience and not just daytime classes and wasted evenings.
It's been the second complete year of Well House Manor
... and we've found ourselves filling something of a niche for business visitors to the town who are looking for a quite place to stay, where they can both relax and work and can come and go as they please - early arrivals off overnight flights from the USA don't worry us, nor late ones off the last flight into Bristol.
In 2007, with a newly opened business, the hotel had quiet weeks between courses but in 2008 we've seen a much higher room occupancy during those periods - and we've made a number of very good friends who come and stay when they're working in the area.
Moving from a business development to a continuing business situation, we've found that we've been getting increasingly more efficient in how we work at the Hotel. Some tasks such as the laundry which were initially outsourced have been brought in house without the need to add extra staff, and indeed a couple of the staff who helped us in the early setup days (and who were very good in that development role) have chosen to move on to take up other opportunities, and we have been able to absorb their ongoing work into existing schedules, all be it with some overtime and re-arrangement.
And more generally
I'm going to describe it as a year of quiet consolidation on the personal side too, with no major events to report. I've continued to be somewhat active in the community and with the campaign for improved public transport - especially rail - to our town. We had strong flags that we were likely to achieve something of a more sensible service that the current one, but the opportunity floundered once again and I have to say that the more cynical part of me wonders if the various organisations concerned have a policy of raising hopes and torpedoing them in the hope that campaigners will give up.
With local business organisations, the Federation of Small Businesses, North and West Wilts Branch has gone from bad to worse. You can find over a dozen articles I have written here if you're a member. A small handful of people in the organisation's elected and paid roles do themselves great credit, and it's been a pleasure to work with them, but I have better things to do in 2009 and you'll find few new reports from me about the absurd goings on because I simply won't be there.
Melksham's Chamber of Commerce and Industry also got itself into a pickle, and split between the Chamber on one hand and the town centre traders on the other, a number of years ago - before Lisa and I were around. Over the years since then, though, the Chamber has gently ticked along and - with the Wessex Association of Chambers - looks after business contacts and interests at a more local level in a way that the FSB totally fails (and isn't mandated!) to do, town by town and county by county. Lisa and I have been on the committee for a couple of years, and I was honoured to be elected to the role of President last month. You can find Chamber articles here and in this case there will be an ongoing flow in 2009. Indeed - there will be a lot happening and a lot for me to say, but as a representative of the Chamber of Commerce and not purely in a personal role - so I'm holding back until we meet up in the new year and I can go forward with a continued view or Melksham.
And on the personal side
The public domain of this review and forum really isn't the place to tell you about family life and disclose all those personal secrets; the years slow down some of the more mature ones of us, and some of the younger ones continue to bloom to fill roles and life's tasks over and above what the could have done 12 or 24 months ago. A trip with Lisa in September to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to visit family and to attend her 35 years on school reunion, showed how this group of 400 has spread - some locally, some around the world. Some remain fit and healthy, other have had hips replaced and other medical issues, one or two are seriously ill and a some have passed away. And there are mother and fathers, grandmother and grandfathers, and I think we even met the odd "great".
Lisa and I continue to be "empty nesters" here at 404, The Spa, in Melksham and yet with family close by, and we hope to see other closely related, but geographically more distant, family here next year. And we continue to be naturally comfortable as a couple; everyone has there ups and downs (and I know I frustrate Lisa mightily at times!) but you'll find us here next year. And the year after. And the year after. I'm looking for words - and words fail me when they're REALLY important - to describe just how much Lisa means to me; how much I love her. How much I admire and care. So perhaps I had better just leave it with that as my sign off for 2008.