Do you have the time to listen to me whine?

[venta]

Argh. Once upon a time, my ability to break trains was legendary. Lenny, who worked on the platforms at Darlington station, used to ask my parents to warn him when I was coming home, because he knew there would be massive rail disruption that night.

I thought, in recent years, the trains and I had reached an understanding. Apparently not. We are without car at present, and I have been late for a variety of things because of act of train.

Today the plan was: train from Ealing at 10:46, change onto a fast train at Slough, get to Oxford in time to catch the one o'clock bus to Katie's, ready for a Mabel practice at two.

And lo, the gods pointed and laughed, and twiddled with the signals in Langley. I may get to Oxford in time for the two o'clock bus. Or I may not, in which case I will catch the next one and arrive at half three for a practice which finishes at four. Excellent.

On the plus side, when my train finally pulled in I sat down opposite dr_bob and we had a nice hour-and-a-quarter chat during our twenty-minute journey.

Comments

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

We were on a southbound Cross-Country train this afternoon that was advertised to stop at Reading West only, not Reading (I noticed on our outbound journey that there were Rail Replacement buses between Reading and Reading West). As if I needed telling, I am convinced the world has gone mad.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

When I was coming through at lunchtime we weren't even allowed to get a train at Reading West. (This is how I ended up at Theale, because they would give us a bus to there where a train was waiting...)