South West Show

Many thanks to both Andrew & Richard for their hard work in organising an excellent Show, probably the busiest SW Show (in terms of both visitors and exhibitors) that I’ve seen for quite a few years!

Seconded!

I’ve just put some photos of the day up on my website; they’re captioned from memory, so hopefully I’ve not misrepresented anyone too much!

The first problem for cars coming off at J22 was that this map shows the A38 Turnpike Road on the wrong side of the M5!

It looks OK to me: the A38 starts out on the west of the motorway, and crosses over to the east just after the A370 forks off. The only issue is that it doesn’t show the actual motorway junction, which might be confusing.

Oh, that and the fact that the hotel really isn’t located to be convenient for anyone travelling in from the north by car on the M5 (although it’s very obvious when passing it at night on said motorway, as you go sailing by for a further five miles). There’s not much that they can do about that, however….

Oh, that and the fact that the hotel really isn’t located to be convenient for anyone travelling in from the north by car on the M5 (although it’s very obvious when passing it at night on said motorway, as you go sailing by for a further five miles).

Surely for the motorway part it’s only a matter of remembering the junction number – so seeing the hotel doesn’t matter¹? I’m terrible with directions in general (including junction numbers²) but when I look at where I need to go via the motorway, I do manage to remember what junction number I need to get off at³.

You can get to the Webbington from the junction 21 – before you’ve passed the hotel – but junction 22 is a little more convenient. (Easier for directions, and almost certainly quicker. I’m not sure if there’s much in it in terms of mileage; IIRC the route from junction 21 is a little winding, but ICBW)

¹ Seeing it when travelling North OTOH is a completely different frying pan of fish – because that way it’s an indicator; if you see it, it means you forgot to take the junction!

² I can never remember what the number is of the one closest to me, for example – and it’s one I use a lot!

³ Probably because it’s a single piece of information in the whole journey!

Many thanks to both Andrew & Richard for their hard work in organising an excellent Show, probably the busiest SW Show (in terms of both visitors and exhibitors) that I’ve seen for quite a few years!

Thirded!

Now to get ready for our stand at the RaspberryPi Big third Birthday bash next weekend. Though we only have a stand on the Sunday:-(
Does anyone else know of any RISC OS presence in the show and tell section?
Anyone else going from the RISC OS community as a visitor?
(It’s ticket only and they all went very quickly)
Unfortunately ROOL don’t have a presence.

I’m going to be at the London (Covent Garden) Raspberry Jam on that day.

Really should have been more organised and got myself along to the birthday bash having been involved near the start. After all, although this is the 3rd birthday it is 3 years 4 months since we had three Raspberry Pi prototypes at the London Show, including one running RISC OS :-)

You can get to the Webbington from the junction 21 – before you’ve passed the hotel – but junction 22 is a little more convenient. (Easier for directions, and almost certainly quicker. I’m not sure if there’s much in it in terms of mileage.)

The shortest route would be to come off the motorway at Sedgemoor Services, but that depends upon the complex having a low-security back gate. ;-)

The problem for cars coming off at J22 is the map shows the A38 Turnpike Road on the wrong side of the M5!

It looks OK to me: the A38 starts out on the west of the motorway, and crosses over to the east just after the A370 forks off. The only issue is that it doesn’t show the actual motorway junction, which might be confusing.

It is confusing, since the map looks like the A38 branches off from “J22, M5” – but in fact that’s just an overbridge! The real junction 22 is off the map much further south; and you leave the motorway on a road heading west, not northeast.

The announcement for the RISC OS SouthWest Show 2016 is still showing the same confusing road map.

Probably drawn by a marketing genius to show that the hotel is easily accessed from the M5 (which it isn’t) – after all once you’ve booked it’s your problem and the marketing genius probably doesn’t work on the front desk to get the criticism.

The announcement for the RISC OS SouthWest Show 2016 is still showing the same confusing road map.

If you have a link to a less confusing map image, perhaps you could post it so that people will find their way easier?

In their defence, there is a link to Google Maps too.