I had to go to Swindon with work this week so I set off on Tuesday morning to get to the train station for 8.15am. The first thing that should have told me it was going to be a bad day was that as I was half way to the bus stop I could see a bus drive past the end of the road so I knew I'd missed that one, although the next one was a couple of minutes late I knew I still had enough time to get to the station before the train was due to leave at 8.27, or so I thought.... We managed half of the journey fine but then as we reached the stops at the racecourse the engine cut out everytime the bus pulled up at the stops from there and every stop all the way into town. I still would have had enough time if it hadn't also happened each time the bus stopped at the traffic lights so by the time the engine had started again the lights had turned red so we had to wait twice as long.
I got to the station thinking I had a minute or two to spare so I rang Susie as I got there to see where she was, to which she replies that she was on the train just as I saw it pulling away from the platform. That wouldn't have been too much of a problem, I could just get the next train and meet her in Swindon - except that she had my train tickets as well! So we decided I would get at ticket to Doncaster and meet her there. Sounds simple enough.....
As the train was pulling into Doncaster I rang Susie and she'd checked the tickets and decided we could use them to go via London which is the faster route. I was on a Kings Cross train anyway so I just needed to stay on it and she would get on at Doncaster. By this point the train had stopped outside of Doncaster station to wait for a platform to become free so I was then slightly panicked when Susie rang to say that she was on the train! She quickly pushed her way back off that train and ran to the other platform where my train finally pulled in and we managed to find each other at last!
The rest of the trip was quite uneventful, the disciplinary meeting I was in Swindon for wasn't that exciting but did last a bit longer than expected, when my notes run to 12 pages I know it's been a very long meeting and my writing hand begins to ache. I went to the gym at the hotel which I was quite impressed with myself for doing as in all the times I've stayed in hotels with work over the past 4 years I've never once used a gym in a hotel. We had a quick dinner because we wanted to watch The Apprentice and I was so pleased that Michael finally got fired, it had been too long in coming!!
3 comments:
That story about the train reminds me of when Mum got trapped on that train when I went to London to meet you and everyone else from school, remember? In fact, every time anyone uses the words 'gold dust' I think about Mum telling that story about having to go to York and back...
Why 'gold dust'? am I missing something?
Nifty piece of logistics with the trains!!
Good thing I'd watched the recording of The Apprentice before I read your blog! I like to guess who's next out the door.
Personally I wouldn't hire any of them, they're all useless!
Btw, does that Michael remind you of Andrew Moule when he had hair?
Post a Comment