Trains and laptops

Modern British trains seem to have been designed to prevent easy laptop use.
I'm typing this with the laptop jutting into my stomach and the screen hard up against the seat in front, not the most comfortable. I should've got one of the "seats facing seats" spots instead.

The world outside the train windows is sucked along backwards to strains from X&Y. Grey skies, green land, distant cows and sheep dotted hills. Hedgerows and Pylons, Forests and highways, villages and towns. This is England.

I'm on the 8.54 from Marylebone to Stratford-upon-avon to meet Mom.
It's been a while since I saw her - a few weeks back briefly at Heathrow when she was on her way to Portugal. Before that it had been almost a year.

My journey plan outlined in the last blog worked flawlessley, although not without some luck.

I left the B&B at 7.30, grabbed a bus to Wimbledon Station and got the 7.45 to Waterloo. The journey only took 15 minutes. It took 3 minutes at a steady pace to get down to the Jubilee line via a series of escalators and this is where fortune smiled.

An announcement that the Jubilee line was experiencing severe delays just as a train was about to pull away from the platform. I hopped onboard with seconds to spare and got to Baker Street at 8:13, hopped off and walked literally 100m to a waiting Bakerloo train which got me to Marylebone at 8.20 with 34 minutes to spare.

I'm still amazed at the public transport in this country a month after arriving. I am certain that at some point I will curse it as I'm left stranded somewhere in the cold at an ungodly hour.

I'm looking forward to seeing Stratford-upon-avon again, it's been a while since I was last there. I'm very familiar with the place, having lived in the area for a year back in the late 80's

Hopefully the rain won't start pouring till later - we're in for a wet weekend and the temperature has normalised from it's previous record breaking temperatures. The sun is still shining through the clouds and the scenery from the train is soft and pleasant.

Time to relax for a few days and forget about the world of jobs and accommodation in London...

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5th November, 10.07am somewhere between London and Stratford-upon-avon.
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... The journey back 7th November ...

Uneventful until Waterloo, with train delays. About the only highlight were The Smiths lyrics :-

"I'd like to drop my trousers to the Queen, every sensible child will know what this means"
That made me laugh a bit loud on the tube, although I've heard it so many times before. Classic.