Friday, 18 January 2013

Messages from a train

This conversation, mainly by text and interspersed with a couple of phone calls, started when James texted me from London at about 11 a.m:-
* Snowing quite heavily here. City airport closed since 09.30. Meeting may be abandoned but no help to me as BA will make me wait until 5 before they make a decision. J
* Any news re flights? S x
* Meeting abandoned. 5pm flight still showing as operating. All earlier flights out of lhr and lgw full. will need to wait till 5. J
* Oh dear, pity you can't get on earlier flight x
* Flights all cancelled. I managed to book 3.30 train out of Euston. Now on board train and got a seat after real scrum. 3.45 now and about to set off - only 5 hours to go. J
* Hope you have stuff to read / watch on your iPad. Let me know how your journey goes x
* We have just set off. I downloaded 3 programmes before I left the office! J
* Sounds more fun than what I am doing - still at work & putting together weekly diary for very busy week ahead. Still cold after freezing playground duty - felt as if wind cutting me like knife! x
* 2 hours into journey and just been informed we are already 65 minutes behind. Not moving just now because we are behind a freight train. Why. I just love train travel. May see you this side of midnight. J
* Oh dear :-( I definitely don't think that I'm going to convince you about the joys of train travel any time soon! Keep me informed, I am on stand by to come & get you S x
* Just passed Crewe at 18.40. 3 hours and still only a third of the way. I am climbing the walls here. latest estimate is we are 83 mins late with no chance of making it up. Only comfort is no planes will be going to glasgow from london tonight. J
* I just saw a news report filmed outside Houses of Parliament - strange to see it all snowy after walking past there last weekend! ! Maybe you should start Proust - perfect opportunity ......
* Just left Warrington with an estimated arrival in glasgow of 21.42. Optimistic I think as we stop every 5 mins. Catching up on my Air International backlog and watching polar bears on ipad. J
* Well talking of wildlife don't worry about Jack - he has had some chunks and is curled up in his basket on the table beside the radiator :-) x
* Jack would have the boredom threshold required for train travel. J
* How is journey going? Making good progress?
* Thought we were but window opposite me has been broken and we are stopped at Oxenholme while they fix it. The fun is never ending. J
* How on earth did it break? S x

(At this point James phoned to explain that there had been a thump, maybe something thrown at the window, and the outer pane of glass had shattered. So the train stopped at Oxenholme at about quarter past eight, and two railway personnel, who James referred to as "Hoddit and Doddit" had tried to remove the outer glass with a hammer. In the process they managed to break the inner pane of glass, so the passengers were moved to another carriage. James was sounding pretty fed up by now! The train set off again at 8.30 p.m. and James texted again half an hour later to tell me that he was at Carlisle.

* Thats us at Carlisle. J
* Hooray that's you on the home run now! Let me know when to collect you x
* We have not had an update but the glasgow central website is showing 22.11. I will let you know if there is any change. J
* Nearly there? I am at Renfield street exit of station x

A quick phone call from James confirmed that he was five minutes away from Central Station. Soon he appeared, traumatised by his six and a half hour journey and saying how much he hates travelling by train. Which is a
pity because I love train travel (when it goes well!) And so finally our weekend is about to begin! 

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