Hotter than the Cape

The unseasonal weather here continues and my office is now hotter than the Cape! We are told it's going to get colder toward the end of the week and at least I will be able to turn off my air conditioner then. It doesn't seem to work that well - the office faces west and towards the end of the day can get unbearable as there are no air handlers or ventilation at all.

We've spent the afternoon trying to wade through the complexities of the replacement of our People's Network computer systems. The computers which we were able to install as part of our Government funded scheme are now six years old and although they are still running, they are very outdated and we do receive more negative feedback from our customers now. The difficulty has also arisen that because some machines were put in later they have different operating systems in some cases and different packages. We hope that we can make the case to have them replaced by our ICT department over a couple of years and have already had some indication that they'd consider this over the next couple of years.

Ann, Laurayne and I have been in touch today to sort out a visit to see Elephant at the Theatre Royal and also to organise a session at the Central Library in Gateshead before we go, to meet with the Premier and the MEC's party. It will be great to talk to them before our visit.

Today has been interesting in that Central Government have announced a new scheme to guarantee that school children are given 5 hours per week of cultural experience. It's not entirely clear how this will be delivered yet and we are expecting more information after a local meeting with a number of our local Art and Cultural organisations. There will be a number of pilot schemes which it would be good to be part of and library services have been identified as part of this cultural offer.