Up early this morning for a day trip down to Surrey for an important work meeting. A bit of snow had fallen in the night but nothing of concern. I got the train - about 10 minutes late - and the journey began.
About two hours into it they announced that the train would be two hours late arriving in London because of a speed restriction due to bad weather! No chance at all of getting to my meeting in time so hurried mobile phone conversations with my team and the client - off at the next station and onto a delayed train back North.
An hour into that journey that train broke down! Complete loss of power. Then a 3 hour wait just North of Doncaster for a rescue train. No food - and few toilets (the doors are mostly electric) - fortunately in my current state the one triggers the other - so I was hungry but not horrible. Some entertainment during the ( inceasingly cold) stop provided by the unmistakeable ecologist and TV personality Dr David Bellamy (he lives in Durham so I see him quite often) - at least he was a distraction from the mobile phonebabble.
A change of train at York - and then, just as I thought nothing more could go wrong there was a problem with the signals and the train zoomed through Durham without stopping! So - up to Newcastle and back again at the end of a long long day.
Eventually home 12 hours (11 of them on a train) after leaving home- and food at last!
The only positive thing about today was a phone message from my consultant Mr Bain apologising for yesterday and wanting to know how I am. He asked me to ring his secretary and make a new appointment - isn't that nice?
Or should I be worried about that...?
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