Looking at a polar bear, exit stage right…

To London, for dinner with Ros and a visit to my parents. And that means a trip on newly-nationalised Greater Anglia, with its fairly new, quite nice, Stadler rolling stock, with a hot cup of tea to drink and some Viennese whirls to keep me going until dinner. Well, I say that, but Greater Anglia offer, as entertainment, what I tend to describe as “the first class lottery”, in that you can never be sure if your train will have the scheduled first class carriages, regardless of what they’ve sold you even an hour before.

But I digress.

One of the things I enjoy most about train travel, and regular readers will know how much I like train travel, is looking out of the window, watching the world go by. Naturally, I like to do this in comfort, one of my rare extravagances.

The first half of the journey south and west to the capital is something I look forward to, although you do cross into Essex just before Manningtree. It does have one unusual feature though, i.e. polar bears. Now I acknowledge that polar bears are not native to Suffolk - at least, I don’t think that they’ve been native for a very long time - but the recent addition of polar bears, the first rescued from a zoo in Sweden that was closing, with others following from Nuremberg Zoo, means that Suffolk boasts the largest dedicated polar bear enclosure in Europe. And, as trains pass by, it’s something to look out for.

I do acknowledge that there are many people who don’t really approve of keeping such animals in captivity, and I do wonder how captivity affects the animals concerned, but where an animal cannot easily be returned to the wild, it seems logical to at least give them the best environment possible for them to live out their lives and to give the public an opportunity to put these creatures into context more readily.

Today, one of the bears was lying on its stomach, seemingly watching the trains. I wonder what it was thinking? Are polar bears potential trainspotters?

Time to bask in the glow of achievement... for now, at least...

I have been gloriously re-appointed as Suffolk's member of the National Assembly of the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), representing our county on the national stage in the town and parish council sector, and I ought to thank my fellow colleagues on the Board of the Suffolk Association of Local Councils for giving me the chance for what may be one last go-around in the role.

I do have another set of roles to decide upon, which offers some interesting questions. NALC elects its officers and committees for a two-year term, something that I will not be able to complete, as my eligibility comes to an end in May 2027 unless something extraordinary happens - a new Ipswich Town Council may have elections then, but I'd have to run (and win) in a town where Liberal Democrats are not often elected.

It would be foolish of me to count upon such happenstance...

On the other hand, I appear to have the respect of my colleagues on the National Assembly (which never ceases to surprise me), and I think that I add value as the current Chair of the Smaller Councils Committee and Co-Chair of the Micro Councils Network (we may be small, but we're often perfectly formed...).

I have a fortnight to make up my mind.

As encouragement perhaps, I find myself in the rather unusual role of panel member for a discussion of Local Government Reform at the Liberal Democrat East of England Regional Conference in Colchester on 15 November. Unusual, mostly because I really wouldn't consider myself to be an expert. Luckily, I'll be in the company of Chelmsford City Council Leader, Stephen Robinson, and NALC's Head of Policy and Communications, Justin Griggs, who both know more than I do and can look and sound intelligent whilst I try not to panic.

As I write this, it dawns on me that there isn't a woman on the panel - note to self to have a word with the Regional Conference Chair on this point.

I also ought to think about what I want to say, and an opportunity to do that is offering itself in just over a fortnight.

In the meantime, there's stuff to do, and I really ought to get on...

If I die, can I come back a Valèncian?

I’m at an age now where, if I can avoid a very early morning flight time, I will. Of course, that does potentially mean that my choice of destination may be limited as a result. And so it was with the getaway I’d organised for this weekend.

The original idea was to try for somewhere in “classical” Spain - not Madrid, or Barcelona, but rather Seville, Granada or Cordoba. But the flight times weren’t right, or the fares were a bit stiff and so, after a bit more research, we ended up picking València, somewhere I had been once before, for four hours, unplanned, three years ago, and whilst it seemed nice enough, I had my reservations - would there be enough to keep us occupied for five days? But I found a good hotel, got flights on British Airways, and we were set to go.

And so, you’ll be wondering how it went.

València is marvellous, with fascinating architecture, pleasant back streets to walk in and dotted liberally with good cafes and neighbourhood restaurants. It has an excellent public transport system, the largest aquarium in Europe, large sandy beaches, and a marina with water so clean that rays can be seen gliding beneath the water’s surface. And the weather’s pretty good too…

We started off with an exploration of the area around the City of Arts and Sciences, with its spectacular architecture which gives you the decided impression that you should be impressed - València is no provincial backwater. Building big structures in white would be bold in England, but on the Mediterranean shore under blue skies, it all looks that much more spectacular.

Days 2 and 3 were dedicated to gentle strolls, some astonishingly good paella and an exploration of Valèncian beach life. València has a beach which reminded me of Rimini - it’s a long way to the sea but the beach stretches far further along the coast.

A València Card includes free public transport, and with buses, trams and a metro system, you can get anywhere you need to go efficiently. There’s also a bus which circles the inner city core which is helpful.

But, on top of this, cafes and bars are priced in such a way to encourage you to stop and linger, and a reasonably priced beer is entirely welcome on a day when the temperature is in the mid-eighties.

Sadly, our last day was impacted by the weather which caused severe flooding in the Balearics but, luckily, we’d already decided that the day would be spent at the aquarium. The shark tunnel alone was enough to justify a visit.

So, all in all, a successful trip. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we went back…