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.