Disastrous week all round with commuting. Wednesday evening after a dodgy mushroom risotto in a restaurant that I will never return to, got back to Liverpool Street station feeling distinctly unwell with excruciating stomach pains only to find that there was overhead power failure and all trains were subject to 'severe delays'.Arrived back at Colchester at 1am in the morning having spent FOUR hours on the train. I have never been so glad to get home in all my life. I will draw a veil over the events of the night. Thought I had suffered enough for one week, but not so. Was turfed off a train at 5.45 pm on Friday night which decided it was going nowhere and the only way I could get home was to get the Stansted Express to the airport where buses would be waiting to take us BACK to Colchester. This time it was overhead power failure married to signal failure. The double whammy.
The journey home turned out to be quite fun in the end. Sat next to a very chatty bloke on the train who was getting out at Harlow who insisted on buying me, and a lady who had got on with me, a drink. So she had a gin and tonic and I had a vodka and we yakked all the way to his station. He departed and I ended up talking to this lady whose face was very familiar to me and we realised that we had both attended choral concerts in Colchester, she had seen ex-husband conduct and so we enjoyed each other's company to the airport. I shepherded her out to the car park where she was being picked up by a friend and waved her off (she could not give me a lift as she was going in the opposite direction) and I then joined the queue for buses. Got on a coach and a chap sat down next to me called Baz.
Turned out to be a really interesting journey home chatting to Baz. Two degrees, one in mechanical engineering and one in architecture, seemed to have houses all over Suffolk, including one in Southwold which is a beautiful place; we talked about Aldeburgh, music festivals and then he mentioned a terrific festival he had discovered The Suffolk Villages Festival and did I know about it? Told him I had been its chairman for ten years to cries of Well I never... We then got talking about music and Italy and opera and books and university and had a thoroughly entertaining ride home.
The journey home turned out to be quite fun in the end. Sat next to a very chatty bloke on the train who was getting out at Harlow who insisted on buying me, and a lady who had got on with me, a drink. So she had a gin and tonic and I had a vodka and we yakked all the way to his station. He departed and I ended up talking to this lady whose face was very familiar to me and we realised that we had both attended choral concerts in Colchester, she had seen ex-husband conduct and so we enjoyed each other's company to the airport. I shepherded her out to the car park where she was being picked up by a friend and waved her off (she could not give me a lift as she was going in the opposite direction) and I then joined the queue for buses. Got on a coach and a chap sat down next to me called Baz.
Turned out to be a really interesting journey home chatting to Baz. Two degrees, one in mechanical engineering and one in architecture, seemed to have houses all over Suffolk, including one in Southwold which is a beautiful place; we talked about Aldeburgh, music festivals and then he mentioned a terrific festival he had discovered The Suffolk Villages Festival and did I know about it? Told him I had been its chairman for ten years to cries of Well I never... We then got talking about music and Italy and opera and books and university and had a thoroughly entertaining ride home.
When I arrived at Colchester station it was total chaos and police cars around. Wondered if there had been rioting but knowing cowed commuters probably thought not. After collecting my car it took me 25 minutes to get out of the car park as there were cars practically parked in tiers. It actually made the Radio 3 news on Saturday morning - the rail company, One, had sent out a message telling people not to travel today because of the severe overhead damage and, according to the bulletin, the police were called in because people were getting fed up and fists were flying. This week on two nights I have spent 8 hours travelling home from London on what should be a 50 minute journey. And for this I pay £3400 a year (yes that is right £3400....)
There is a pay/repay form to fill in and I get compensation for delays £5 an hour. This of course comes in the form of vouchers to spend against ANOTHER train journey. Do you think if I asked they would give me Amazon vouchers instead?
