Three Trains and a Cab Ride
I left the house a little after 3pm with the children in tow to deliver them to friend's houses before heading to the railway station. Our youngest was “booked in” to have dinner at her best friend's house, and her older sister at their next door neighbours in preparation for a party later in the evening. After a gloriously sunny afternoon the moment we stepped outside the front door with our bags, the rain began falling – and falling, and falling, and falling.
By the time I had dropped the children off, and made it to the station I was pretty much soaked to the skin. While sitting under a shelter watching the puddles form around me, a lady walked up and sheltered next to me. For some reason she didn't take a seat – she just stood there, looking horrified (I couldn't quite figure out if it was the rain that was causing her consternation, or me).
I sat in the rain and listened to the Carly Rae Jepsen album I bought for our eldest the other evening while waiting for the train. I'm not ashamed to say I like Carly Rae Jepsen – her video with Tom Hanks (“I really like you”) is inspired.
Finally the train arrived, and I was able to do something I very rarely do -not worry about buying a ticket. I had ordered train tickets from the internet earlier in the week, so already had reserved seats and everything. I really should think ahead more often – it took an awful lot of stress out of the journey.
My train was departing from Euston station – which requires an underground trip, and then a walk along the road to the over-ground station. I climbed from the subterranean depths along with an air hostess (or at least shelooked like an air hostess, judging from her bright red skirt/suit) – who then proceeded to run like mad through the rain. I walked. I got wet again.
I had half an hour to kill at Euston. I'm not sure if anybody else is the same, but if I know I have a long journey in a train or plane to deal with, my body seems to go into “must get rid of everything” mode. I hadn't drunk anything since lunchtime, but somehow I had been for about 4 wees – and my body saw 30 minutes to go on the departures board at Euston, and informed me it was time to go again.
Oh, the fun of trying to get into the toilets at a mainline railway station in London. They have turnstiles that only take particular coins – and if you don't have those coins, there are change machines everywhere – or in this case 4 change machines – three of them out of order.
I didfinally relieve myself, and then set off in pursuit of food. Something easy to eat. A cornish pasty! A molten hot cornish pasty that would take me 20 minutes to eat, while trying to stick bits of skin back onto the roof of my mouth.
Finally the train was announced, and I set off among the sea of people at a fair old clip – which was ridiculous really, because I had a seat reservation. I ended up sitting next to a very pretty girl, who I neither looked at, or talked to for the next two hours – although we did both laugh when a little girl a couple of rows away started shouting “Poo!” at the top of her voice, much to her mother's embarrassment.
I fell asleep for a time on the journey – waking up with perhaps half an hour left. I watched the world go by, and read a little more of my book before the PA system crackled into life, announcing our imminent arrival at my destination.
Some further thinking ahead saw me buy drinks and snacks at the station before leaving in a cab for my hotel. It's Sunday night – I had already checked if the supermarket across the road from my hotel would be open. Big fat no – which explains why I'm now sitting in my hotel room with a bottle of sports drink, and a bag of chocolate M&Ms.
I have free WiFi, a good phone data signal, and a clean tidy room. I've called home, unpacked my bags, and now have nothing to do until the morning. My arrival at the hotel was kind on interesting on account of the biggest ass in the known universe being a difficult guest at checkin. He was buying some kind of high speed WiFi package, and was giving the lady on reception hell because she didn't know how much it would cost. Why? Why do that?
Anyway. I have lots of nothing to get on with, if you'll please excuse me.