Best made plans… I had planned to be up, out and sat on a train to Manchester by nine to pick up some of the drawings that Mel had done for me as Christmas presents to the clan, then down to London to see A, then train to Tonbridge to catch up with my brother, then train again, deeper into the Kent countryside, to see the folks.
By the time I got onto the train to Manchester, it had already got dark again. Last night had it’s revenge and then there was the 5,675 little things to do before leaving the flat for a few days. Unload the washing machine so the clothes don’t go mouldy. Wash up so new civilizations don’t form in tea cups and begin to war with other civilizations on the saucers. Make people leave.
I had to see what could be salvaged from my day and therefore got to planning. I rang Mel as the train left Liverpool and she arranged to meet it at the platform in Manchester with the drawings. This she did, the drawings look great – photorealistic – so we swapped with a bag of presents from me to the Manchester contingent, and jumped onto a London train leaving minutes later.
Christmas good cheer had rubbed off into Virgin Policy and they were allowing people to upgrade to 1st class for the normal Saturday / Sunday small charge. So a carriage to myself and further journey planning made possible. Having made good time it was now easy for me to make it to Tonbridge and then on to see the family. But A had offered accommodation at hers and so I’ll put the second part of the trip off until tomorrow. It’s not lax – it makes sense.
I like the way it’s possible to start a 300 mile, broken journey, at four in the afternoon and be sat happily in Brixton by eight with a glass of wine. People put too much effort and stress into planning their journeys. There’s people who would have planned Liverpool – Manchester – London months ago. They’d have brought a hamper. People plan these trips as if it’s 1860.
The thing about trains is, unless they go wrong (which I’ll admit they often will) once you’re onboard there’s nothing you can do to influence the progress of your journey so you might as well just not think about it and do something else, like go to the buffet car, play Pub Pool 3D on your phone, or find someone to chat up. Your arrival time is normally pretty concrete, you know where you stand, and so you’re travelling without having to concentrate on getting anywhere. But people don’t see it like that, they will sit on a train, or plane, and fret. Which is like doing a parachute jump and fretting that you might go up instead of down. You’re definitely going to reach the ground so you might as well enjoy the process.
Lovely evening at A’s. TV and wine. In the hit song ‘Mistletoe and Wine’, Sir Cliff Richard sings the lines ‘Christmas time, Mistletoe and wine’ when in fact he should have sung ‘Christmas time, TV and wine’ because that’s correct. He should know better, but being a Christian is wrong about lots of things and probably thinks the whole thing is actually about the Baby Jesus when it’s not, it’s about the X-Box 360, socks, and raging rows.
I’m joking! I’m joking! It’s about the Baby Jesus. And Cliff Richard. If only there was an X-Box 360 game devised by Cliff about the nativity then I think everyone would be happy. Apart from kids, Christians, Microsoft, and Mr Richard.
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