A couple of weekends ago, I skipped out of work slightly early and caught the 17:30 to Glasgow. ChrisC spotted, months ago, that there were cheap tickets on one of the Virgin West Coast lightning sales, and we thought hey, why not? Glasgow is, after all, one of the biggest cities in the UK and neither of us really knows it.

( ...when I called you last night from Glasgow )

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 ( Read more... )

Mostly what I have learned this week is that you lot are much more into jam jars than you are gig reviews. Still, I shall press on :)

( Helen Love @ The Lexington )

I got back into Ealing Broadway around midnight last night on the train. Ambling up the platform and vaguely patting my pockets to make sure I hadn't lost something, I became aware of some shouting ahead and looked up in time to see a bloke dropping down between the train and the platform ( Read more... )

Anyone who travels round south-east England on the train is probably aware that Reading's undergoing major changes. Having been away over Easter, then driving to work last week, I was lightly surprised on Monday morning to pull into platform 13A.

Last time I was there, Reading didn't have a 13A. In fact, while the station was shut over Easter ( Read more... )

Aargh.

( A very dull rant )

Public Service Announcement (for anyone who uses Reading railway station with low-to-moderate frequency[*]).

( They've re-numbered all the platforms )

When I began commuting to work by train last year, I was surprised at how frequently the train stopped in a station in such a way that a person sitting where I was couldn't see the station name board. After three months, I can recognise the ten or so stations on my line, and am much more attuned to the stoppings and startings of my train ( Read more... )

I remember, I remember, back in the day, when laptops were things to be marvelled at. Anyone on a train with a laptop computer would find people looking, pointing, maybe trying to sneak a glimpse at the wondrous machine ( Read more... )

I met elethiomel for dinner on Friday night. ( Haven't seen him in a while )