Good news day

First off, a further word about Intu, the new brand at what was the Westfield Centre; thanks to both Martin and Kevin for comments. Intu is the current incarnation of a Real Estate Investment Trust that's been around under various names for quite a long time. It seems to be specialising in shopping malls at the moment, hence the suddenly increased visibility of the name.

I still think it's a daft name though; no doubt some branding consultancy was paid a silly amount of money to come up with it.

Now the good news, part one. Our intended partners for the quiz last night couldn't make it after all, after one of them unexpectedly had to work that evening, so Jo and Wynn left their team of six to save us from sitting in the corner like a pair of Billy No-mates. For once, we were all on form on the same night and fairly laid into a stonking and substantial quiz.

We scored 129 out of 149, and won. Many thanks for a great quiz to Janet, Peter and their colleagues in cunning. Normally, we'd now be responsible for next month's affair, but that's going to be a one off in support of the charity Help for Heroes, so we'll be creating the December edition.

The social life here is one of the strengths of this marina, and all credit to the staff for giving up their own time to make it so.

We've had a relaxed day after all the excitement, pottering about doing a lot of IT stuff, ordering some solid fuel – it's going to be a lot colder after the weekend – and getting the coal box out from the bow locker to reside in its winter position in the well deck.

Good news, part two: there's been a lot of understandable anxiety about the route of the proposed high speed railway line HS2 in the Fradley area, where it was planned to cross the canal three times on big embankments and destroy the tranquillity of the area around Woodend Lock.

CRT and IWA have been pressing for an alternative route which would both avoid the canal and remove the need for a massive contractors compound alongside the Coventry Canal between Fradley and Fazeley. It has just been announced by the Department of Transport that they've won and the line is to be changed accordingly.

Massive respect to all those involved; there should be a plaque to you all at Fradley Junction.