THG dropped me off at the stayshun at around nine ey em. Lots of traffic for some reason, though all going the other way. Fortunately she is off to B&Q to buy some screws or g-clamps or a router or something. Plants that’s it. Hopefully the traffique will have died down by the time she needs to get back.
Bit of drama before we left the house. A buzzing sound could distinctly be heard from the bathroom. THG’s electric toothbrush would not switch off. Oh dear. It always needs charging anyway. Now I know what I can get her for Christmas. Don’t tell her will you. She will just have to make do somehow until then. I once saw a Robin Hood film with Sean Connery where he brushed his teeth with a bit of twig. Maybe I can suggest that as an interim solution. Or let her borrow mine. I don’t use it that much anyway.
Slight bit of drama when collecting my tickets.I don’t normally use paper tickets but I’m changing at Kings Cross to go to Gatwick Airport from St Pancras and apaz paper is the thing for doing that. Anyways I entered my collection code in the machine and it said please touch or insert the card you used for payment so I did. Uhoh “this wasn’t the right card” or similar. Hmm. I dug out the confirmation email to check and yes it was the right card. I tried again but inserted the actual card instead of tapping the phone. Bingo. Out chundered my tix. Three tix actually. The receipt, the ticket and the seat reservation(s).
Only one other person in coach E which is a bit of a result. Makes for a comfortable trip. The young girl sat in a wheelchair at the end of the carriage is “doing her eyebrows” using her phone as a mirror.
It may interest/nay shock you to hear that I have declined a bacon roll for my on train breakfast and settled for just a cup of tea and a glass of orange juice. There was quite a bit of bacon in the fridge at home that needed using so I made a bigger than usual bacon sarnie.
The train is now trundling at a relaxed pace towards Collingham. Bare fields in various browns fill the landscape windows, some already planted with the next crop and some left fallow. A blue sky is dotted with low lying wisps of white and grey clouds. We had some rain overnight but none in prospect for today. Certainly not in Malaga which is my final destination today.
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Train arrived a few minutes early and I arrived at Platform A with 4 mins to spare before the next Brighton/Gatwick service. At Farringdon every tourist under the sun got on, oblivious to the fact that this is a First Class compartment. You have to ask why I bother but I have been sat in First Class on this service when the train inspector came along and “did” a yoof sat nearby. Keeping my eye on my bag which is on the luggage storage rack in front of me.
I remember after one of my parties at the Phoenix Arts Club @Matt Russell got on a late train to go to his hotel in Gatwick but fell asleep and woke up in Brighton. Had to catch the first one back in the morning.
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I am, I believe suitably attired for this trip. Shorts, tshirt and blue linen jacket. The jacket is more for wearing back in the UK as it is going to be in the high twenties/early thirties in Ma lah gaa but I have limited luggage space so it is easier to put it on for travel. Also wearing my broad rimmed straw hat.
I’ll be spending a lot longer in the lounge than planned. When you book a train with a connection they always leave far too long between arriving and departing. I think I’m going to be an hour or so earlier than I thought. I imagine I will find something to do 🙂 Look at the airplanes etc Always better to be too early rather than late.
Bloke in shorts got on at East Croydon and started a conversation with the guy already sat opposite. Both know each other. Broad Laandan accents. They both work for the train company and one of them has forgotten his pass. Left it on the table in the kitchen at home. “It’s alright I’ll just claim it back but it irks dunnit. £28 return.” Sounds like they are union reps. I heard the word branch.
Carriage seems to have emptied out at East Croydon.
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In the lounge, Gatwick South. Rammed. Slight miscalculation of times. 3 ½ hours until boarding. Problem is if I had caught the next direct train and there had been a problem it might have been cutting it a bit fine. Food looks pretty unappetising but I’ve had a bowl of thin potato and corn chowder and rubbery bread roll.
Lots of talk of golf around plus mentions of “all inclusive”. Never been tempted by all inclusive. “Anyone want some fizz”. People always say that when it isn’t champagne. There is champagne if you go and sit at the cocktail bar which I might do in a bit. Don’t want to get there too early. Not to drink champagne per se. It’s more of somewhere to sit and chat with a neighbour.