First railway, first fatality

The opening of the first intercity railway between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830 also recorded the first railway death. The former President of the Board of Trade William Huskisson was carelessly standing on the tracks chatting to the Duke of Wellington when Stephenson’s Rocket came hurtling along turning the world’s first trainspotter into the world’s first railway casualty.

Despite this slight PR setback railway mania soon gripped the country and by 1843 there were two thousand miles of track linking industrial centres. 

Speed and effectiveness

Firstly, the speed and effectiveness with which P&K managed the transition to lockdown while protecting the health of staff and customers was impressive, even in the frantic few days when everyone wanted flour and toilet paper.  The store was well-organised for maintaining distance, well-stocked under the circumstances,  and the staff were pleasant and helpful at a difficult time.

The online ordering and pick-up service was efficient. It met customers’ needs for both groceries and social distance, was quickly established and worked well in practice. The additional benefit was some distant chatting and banter in the carpark.

Secondly, a more personal acknowledgement.  After little use, my car battery died while in the P&K carpark. Store Manager Aryn McKissock leapt to the rescue, bringing his own car round and attaching jumper leads to re-energise the car.  What he didn’t know was that I have a foot injury, so could not walk to the garage to borrow their jumper leads, which was my plan. His help only took a few minutes but it was massive to me, and I’m glad to have this public opportunity to acknowledge Aryn.

From the library

“Where are we going, Pooh?” “Home, Piglet. We’re going home because that’s the best thing to do right now.” (A. A. Milne). Sage Level 4 advice from Winnie the Pooh.

Staff were working away during Level 3: Sylvia was doing extensive planning for our upcoming events and programmes, and Ali was updating the non-fiction collection – removing some older books to make room for the new ones.  These books are available for sale, so if you’re after something in particular, we can look to see what’s available.

Level 2 saw the re-opening of the Library and we were delighted to welcome our community back through the doors.  We’re doing contact tracing at the front door, so bear with us.

If you are still a little hesitant to venture out, our Libby app is chockful of ebooks and audiobooks that you can listen to at home.  Look for the Libby app on App Store/Play Store, search for “Wairarapa Library Service”, enter your Library card number and your PIN and you’re away.  If you’re not sure of your PIN, give the staff a ring and we’ll be more than happy to assist you.

Speaking of online – “like” our Facebook page and we’ll keep you up-to-date with all our shenanigans. … Continue Reading

From the mayor

Congratulations on the Star being up and running again!

Another sign that things are getting back to normal, albeit a ‘new normal’.  It has been very busy, despite the lockdown, and I would like to thank your three Martinborough Councillors Maynard, Colenso and Jephson for their support. There has been a lot of work by many people in our community to ensure vulnerable people were being looked after, and information was getting out to everyone.

Deserving praise is Reid and Reid, which donated 20 litres of hand sanitiser when our medical centres were struggling – fantastic stuff that smelled of gin. Our thanks!

Now we are moving into the recovery phase, there will be a number of initiatives being implemented over the next few months. … Continue Reading