Tableau at Euston

Waiting for the train to Manchester I saw this collection of people assembled around a statue. I wasn't able to find out who the statue was of - there were too many people but he must have been associated with some aspect of the railways.

An enjoyable if, in parts, frustrating day. A very pleasant (and on time) journey to Manchester to work with a colleague on the fine details of our prison contract website and to plan our testing programme.

The frustrating part was having to go through the site with a fine toothed comb, checking every item against our specification. There were far too many errors and omissions for our liking. Things we'd pointed out before remained unchanged, spellings incorrect (I'm a fine one to talk there) and mysterious links to phantom pages.

I don't understand why these errors should be there because, before releasing the site to us to look at, the company was supposed to have carried out its own internal quality assurance procedure. I think they were under pressure to get something in front of us by the deadline of Friday last week. They failed to do this as although they sent out passwords on Friday, they asked that we didn't access the site 'til Sunday (yesterday). We were meant then to report back our defects log by 11.00 today.

That was not going to happen but we managed to give ourselves another day to finish the job. And then write the testing programme......

After work I caught the tram into Central Manchester and found the hotel, one recommended by a blipper following my visit to Manchester last July. Before going out to eat at the restaurant they recommended, I walked a five mile round trip along Oxford Road by the University, where Socal84 studied for his doctorate, and out past the hospital complex.

And what a fascinating walk that was. Such a cosmopolitan road. Many ethnic restaurants and ethnic food shops. Lots of places selling sweet foods too. Plenty of jewellers and clothes shops selling highly decorative Indian outfits amongst others.

One highlight was a rather drunken, or simple, man who was obviously overawed by Chelsea's defeat by Bradford City in the FA Cup at the weekend. He was shouting derogatory comments about Chelsea up and down the street. He was popping his head through restaurant doors and referring loudly about the lamentable shortcomings of Cheslea and was usually greated by a good natured cheer by the diners who obviously shared his opinions about the lack of prowess of that London team.