Mindfull of my travel restrictions, I left the group at 22:10, leaving myself, I thought, plenty of time to catch to 23:00 train, and the 23:42 interchange. Minor problem; there is no 23:00. Having never left travelling so late before I had no idea of the timetables. Had to go for the 23:21 to Slough, Reading and Oxford. One extra stop, not too bad. Timings would be interesting for the interchange, but worst comes to the worst I could always get a taxi.
I'd spoken to my darling wife at this point, and appraised her of the situation, with rough timings. I got on the train, and promptly fell asleep.
I was woken by my phone ringing. It was my wife. Slightly disoriented, I answered. She asked where I was, I hadn't a clue. I asked the time, 00:15. That wasn't possible. Even with a stop at Slough the train should have been in at midnight. I was suddenly aware that no one was sitting around me, and realisation began to dawn. I disconnected, and checked the GPS. We were approaching Oxford!
Long story short (too late), I rang back, explained, sorted a hotel out near the station, and travelled home the next morning.
Saturday saw the conquering of a minor hangover with some work in the garden. I dug out and compressed the ground for my daughter's playhouse. I then started levelling the ground, but ran out of sand and time. It looked like a storm was coming, so I used the remaining time to lower our cheap gazebo, and sacure some of the more fragile plants.
Sunday was rain. Out went the planned erection of the playhouse. Instead I emptied, cleaned, tidied and sorted the conservatory. Changing it from the semi storage cupboard it had become into a useable space. My daughter has a playdate with 2 little friends today, so I put down an alphabet playmat, and some crawling toys we had got for the garden; now they have somewhere to play.
The weekend finished with ironing and a clean of the kitchen.
Quick rant on the farce that is London Transport this morning. I arrive at Paddington to be told there are sever delays on the Jubillee, so a stay on the Barkerloo, and change at Oxford Circus (reminders of Friday night), I take the long walk to the Central, and the hot train to Bank. Most of the way through the 6 mile underground hike they announce that there are no DLR services to reduce the risk of overcrowding! They suggest I either get the Central line to Stratford(!) And pick up the DLR from there, or the Northern line to London Bridge, to get the Jubillee. Can anyone see the problems with these suggestions? So I pick the more likely. I now find myself at London Bridge, waiting for severely delayed trains on the Jubillee line, with a huge crowd of people in front and around me doing the same.
Sometimes I really wonder why?!
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