A homecoming queen, make that baroness

Yesterday was Kendal and Hebden Bridge, today saw the roadshow reach Bradford, where Jeanette Sunderland generously hosted a cream tea. Home made down to the jam, with some excellent tea and great company, it gave Ros an opportunity to meet some members in a less formal environment.

In fact, Ros has a Bradford connection, in that her father's family came from Bradford, and she frequently visited the area as a child.

I got to spend some quality time with Mat and Jennie, who'd come from Brighouse to enjoy the sunshine and strawberries. Jennie's meteoric rise to blogging fame has been evidence (if it were needed) that gender isn't a barrier to successful blogging, but the ability to convey a message is. It would be fair to say that our styles are somewhat different (I write like a bureaucrat, she... doesn't) but I follow her blog for the quality of the spleen-venting.

We'd spent the first part of the day relaxing in our hotel room. Whilst the events themselves are a lot of fun, the travelling can be very tiring, with crowded, noisy trains making it very hard to relax. Add to that the tension caused by late-running trains and missed connections, and you can understand why we take a lot of trouble to ensure that the schedule leaves as much recovery time as possible.

And as the campaign hots up, my role as travel co-ordinator becomes more important. There are two aspects to the task, making the travel efficient and, equally important, stretching the travel budget as far as possible - this isn't cheap, let me assure you, and finances are limited. I've learned a remarkable amount about the way the various rail companies price tickets as we've gone on and you'd be amazed at the apparent insanity of it all...