YES CHEF! Issue 9 put to bed

13-Mar-09 - The Milton Keynes Travelodge is really not at all bad. The room was big, the bed comfortable and the heating worked, and - not having had food of any kind all day - there was a halfway decent Indian Restaurant next door called The Silk Road, where I had polished off a chicken dansak and a bottle of something obscure (the wine list is not very adventurous) before heading back for a crash last night. There's no WiFi in the hotel but in the UK I have my O2 dongle which is slow but gets there in the end.

The final edit for YES CHEF! Issue 9 went very smoothly except that we lost a whole article: it had been a very optimistic review of a new restaurant launch in London full of ambition, pride and positivity... But the chef had walked out between writing the piece and publication date. We were, however, able to use the space for a big plug for our new website which is now all-singing and all-dancing... Well, at least it works.

I also sussed the mystery of the direct train from MKC to East Croydon. This had been mooted for months but never appeared on the timetables, and then, one day, I was on the way to Victoria and it overtook us. My thinking was twofold - to save money on a taxi between Victoria and Euston (and back) and not to have to change at Clapham Junction (where you have to be a marathon race-walker and there are no lifts).

This was a mistake. The direct train stops at every station between CLJ and ECR and engenders a three-minute change between several platforms at ECR (no lifts, no escalators). Indeed, I would have been better changing at CLJ which would only have involved two flights of stairs and two platforms. I shall know next time.