Janet and John go to London
Okay - it was actually Karyn and John that went to London, but no-one ever thought to include my name in a series of children's early readers, so what can you do?
Yesterday - a very windy morning - John set off to London for work as usual. A little while later, I did likewise, having agreed to run a workshop for some of my colleagues on behalf of my boss, who has been ill for some time. While I was on the train, I got a text message from John to say, "I hope you've left already - the trains are running late and slow." I had noticed - our train was crawling in to the city, which our driver had announced was due to a blanket speed restriction. This, we later discovered, was in case of trees on the line.
John was late for work. My train took well over an hour to make the 35 minute trip, and I was also behind schedule. I took a tube from Euston to Victoria, then stood waiting for my connection to St James's Park. Nothing. I walked to the London office in a howling headwind.
After my workshop, I walked back to Victoria - once again in a headwind (the wind must have shifted!) and caught the tube to Goodge Street and then walked through the howling gale to meet John for lunch. We spent a very civilised hour eating Scandinavian food, then parted company - he back to his office, I to get the tube to Euston and thence home. Or so I thought. Ha!
I arrived at Euston to see the word CANCELLED across every scheduled train. The friendly announcer advised us that no trains were leaving London from Euston for the rest of the day due to high winds which had stranded several trains out in the middle on nowhere, blocking off lines. Enquiries revelaed that all other north London stations were closing as well. The station forecourt was jam-packed and all around me people were calling friends, relatives, taxis, car hire firms, hotels. Others were swarming into the tube station which was substantially more claustrophobic than usual. Very quickly, the hotels and taxis cottoned on to what was happening and the prices started to rise.
I headed back to John's office, this time on foot, since I couldn't bear the tubes under such crowded conditions. The wind was by now 99mph. One little old lady was offered the arm of a complete stranger. Isn't it amazing how adverse conditions bring out the best in us - if only the same applied to the hotels and taxis!
John set me up in one of their offices, with an Internet connection and I was able to access my emails and stuff as if I were in the office. Isn't technology great?
But we still had to figure out how to get home. We had made all the calls to cancel cell group and let the kids know what was happening, but we were determined to get the heck out of Dodge. I got several worried texts from Torvy, begging us to find a way home. John tried every car hire firm he could think of, but even at £130 for a day, they were fresh out. We wound up hiring a taxi at £260-odd (which Marchpole will cover... and no doubt claim back from the rail company... who will no doubt claim it back from their insurance companies), sharing the ride with two of John's colleagues who were more or less on our way home. The taxi arrived shortly after 6pm, and we were on our way by about 6:15, eventually arriving home at about 9pm.
The roads were much clearer than we had expected under the circumstances, and many people had a far worse time of it. Some of my colleagues got stuck in Birmingham, hired a car and made it as far as Rugby before becoming gridlocked and having to find a hotel for the night. Someone else we know was "fortunate" to find that coaches had been laid on from his station - he got home at 2am.
Nevertheless, the stress must have got to me, because I faded soon after we got home, and really struggled to get up this morning, in spite of having had a full 8 hours' sleep for the first weeknight in ages.
The trains are better today, but still not back at 100%. John has (of course) gone to work - diligent little soldier that he is - I just hope he gets home okay! I am back in my office, hearing stories from all over of the sort of night that people had.
No wonder English people talk about the weather so much!
Yesterday - a very windy morning - John set off to London for work as usual. A little while later, I did likewise, having agreed to run a workshop for some of my colleagues on behalf of my boss, who has been ill for some time. While I was on the train, I got a text message from John to say, "I hope you've left already - the trains are running late and slow." I had noticed - our train was crawling in to the city, which our driver had announced was due to a blanket speed restriction. This, we later discovered, was in case of trees on the line.
John was late for work. My train took well over an hour to make the 35 minute trip, and I was also behind schedule. I took a tube from Euston to Victoria, then stood waiting for my connection to St James's Park. Nothing. I walked to the London office in a howling headwind.
After my workshop, I walked back to Victoria - once again in a headwind (the wind must have shifted!) and caught the tube to Goodge Street and then walked through the howling gale to meet John for lunch. We spent a very civilised hour eating Scandinavian food, then parted company - he back to his office, I to get the tube to Euston and thence home. Or so I thought. Ha!
I arrived at Euston to see the word CANCELLED across every scheduled train. The friendly announcer advised us that no trains were leaving London from Euston for the rest of the day due to high winds which had stranded several trains out in the middle on nowhere, blocking off lines. Enquiries revelaed that all other north London stations were closing as well. The station forecourt was jam-packed and all around me people were calling friends, relatives, taxis, car hire firms, hotels. Others were swarming into the tube station which was substantially more claustrophobic than usual. Very quickly, the hotels and taxis cottoned on to what was happening and the prices started to rise.
I headed back to John's office, this time on foot, since I couldn't bear the tubes under such crowded conditions. The wind was by now 99mph. One little old lady was offered the arm of a complete stranger. Isn't it amazing how adverse conditions bring out the best in us - if only the same applied to the hotels and taxis!
John set me up in one of their offices, with an Internet connection and I was able to access my emails and stuff as if I were in the office. Isn't technology great?
But we still had to figure out how to get home. We had made all the calls to cancel cell group and let the kids know what was happening, but we were determined to get the heck out of Dodge. I got several worried texts from Torvy, begging us to find a way home. John tried every car hire firm he could think of, but even at £130 for a day, they were fresh out. We wound up hiring a taxi at £260-odd (which Marchpole will cover... and no doubt claim back from the rail company... who will no doubt claim it back from their insurance companies), sharing the ride with two of John's colleagues who were more or less on our way home. The taxi arrived shortly after 6pm, and we were on our way by about 6:15, eventually arriving home at about 9pm.
The roads were much clearer than we had expected under the circumstances, and many people had a far worse time of it. Some of my colleagues got stuck in Birmingham, hired a car and made it as far as Rugby before becoming gridlocked and having to find a hotel for the night. Someone else we know was "fortunate" to find that coaches had been laid on from his station - he got home at 2am.
Nevertheless, the stress must have got to me, because I faded soon after we got home, and really struggled to get up this morning, in spite of having had a full 8 hours' sleep for the first weeknight in ages.
The trains are better today, but still not back at 100%. John has (of course) gone to work - diligent little soldier that he is - I just hope he gets home okay! I am back in my office, hearing stories from all over of the sort of night that people had.
No wonder English people talk about the weather so much!
posted by karynr at 10:32 am
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