A quick breakfast and then on to my metal steed in drizzly conditions to open a new museum at Portland's YOI. I am not sure exactly how much time my bike saves me, but it is considerable. What took me 45 minutes by bike, would have been 30 minutes longer in a car. Anyway, I was at the prison to officially open two new ventures. One was a museum and the other was an educational suite for prison officers. The museum is located in a building opposite the prison where visitors used to go. The space was given to three former prison officers - John Hutton, Steve Ashford and Chris Hunt - by the Governor Russ Trent, who's just been sadly moved to a tough prison in Birmingham. The three gentlemen could not have been nicer and they'd asked about 30 friends to attend. It's taken a year to clean it all up and exhibit the items, which reflects life in the prison from 1848 to present day. What was particularly ominous was the restraint they used in the 19th century. Basic, crude and rough, with a thick leather belt on which handcuffs were attached, the jacket used to tear skin if the prisoner resisted too much. And then there were many black and white photos of the prison during its borstal years and the pictures of a sports day could have been taken at any school! I made a short speech, thanking all prison officers for the work they do, before the local paper lined us up for a photograph. I chatted to many attendees and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Then, as time slipped by, I was called upstairs to the next ceremony. Alison Manion, the POA representative, told me that the Government had provided a pot of money which was being used to roll out a programme of educational suites in prisons around the country. The IT centre allows prison officers to take courses, send emails to family and friends and educate themselves in subjects like maths and english. The affable Roger Davies is running the show at the prison and he's already signed up 47 officers for one course or another. Running late by this time, I wolfed down two ham sandwiches and raced for my bike. Back to Winfrith where I met Dr Jonathan Orrell, a charming Weymouth GP who is working with the Clinical Commissioning Group to reorganise NHS services in Weymouth and Portland. Dr Orrell was refreshingly optimistic about the future and explained how care could be afforded and hospitals kept open if some common sense was adopted! I agree. We chatted for an hour and I found it extremely helpful and hopeful. By this time the sun had come out, so the ride back home was immensely pleasurable, with the road dry and safe. I stopped at an accident just outside Bere Regis where a car had spun into the bushes. Fortunately for the driver he was (a) all right and (b) had caught the attention of a car full of police officers coming back from a training exercise. I was told there was nothing I could do to help, so back to the office.