Season’s Greetings from PTRC! This is the time of year we reflect on past glories – it’s the ’10 best this’ and ‘top unusual animal friendships of the year that’- it is no different at PTRC, as I take this newsletter as an opportunity to reflect both on PTRC’s year and its connection to my infrequent lunchtime exercise regime.
Once or twice a week, more out of guilt than anything else, I use my lunch hour to take a very short, but fairly time-consuming run (my pace is, on average, similar to that of someone on mile 25 of the London Marathon dressed in a cumbersome Teletubbie costume). Our office move in April relocated us to a fantastic part of London, and I am lucky enough that my running route takes me past some of the capital’s most iconic sights. On the days I muster up the enthusiasm to run, I am rewarded with views of Buckingham Palace, Green Park, The Mall, St. James’s Park and Horse Guards Parade. Because I cannot be bothered to figure out another route, I pass these same landmarks each time I run, but I can honestly say that it does not get old. I delight in dodging my way through the sea of selfie-stick wielding tourists outside of Buckingham Palace and seeing the changing of the seasons in the Royal Parks. Once I even saw Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles; their car turned off The Mall right in front of me as I was waiting to cross the street. It was a welcome surprise, most of all because it gave me an excuse to rest for a moment as I was prevented from crossing the road by an armed policeman (they probably thought I was bowing, but really I was just doubled-over wheezing).
Whilst at surface level my lazy athleticism has little to do with PTRC, I like to see my running route as a poor, but perhaps apt metaphor for the work we’ve done at PTRC over the past year – continuing to deliver high-quality courses which have long been a part of our offering, whilst identifying opportunities to add new and timely training programmes to our repertoire. We have concentrated our efforts over the past few months on evaluating delegate feedback and critiquing and changing processes to improve the services that we deliver to our valued clients. This is something we do not tire of, and it gives us an opportunity to be both the stead-fast provider of quality training for transport planners, whilst pushing ourselves to identify and meet new and in-demand training needs. In this way, PTRC is both the predictable, reliable selfie-stick wielding tourist and the surprise encounter with the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall rolled into one transport training provider, and we look forward to continuing to be so in the coming year.
On behalf of Daniel, Michelle, Emma and Jo, I wish you and yours a Happy Holiday season and a prosperous New Year.
Kind regards,
Erika Halsey
PTRC Events and Course Manager