Worse At The Weekends

My wife and I decided to get away this weekend. A change is as good a break, someone might have said once. We thought we'd go somewhere easy to reach - just a single train ride from Bath - so we chose Weymouth.

In hindsight, I can't believe I was stupid enough to use FGW for a weekend break. The journey down on Saturday morning went smoothly enough. In fact it was almost entertaining; if sitting in a live episode of Little Britain is your cup of tea. We were surrounded by yoofs "Yeah, but, No but"-ing their way from Westbury, Frome and Yeovil all the way to Weymouth.

Interestingly, after listening to the said yoofs discuss tactics for fare evasion (going to the bogs when the collector arrives, hiding their booze and asking for child tickets etc), they all got away without buying tickets after the train manager announced that his machine was broken and would people please buy a ticket at their destination. It'll be no surprise to you that none of them did upon arrival at Weymouth.

At least half the people getting off at Weymouth had no tickets - I hope FGW don't use a lack of revenue as an excuse to shut down this line.

After a wonderfully relaxing weekend, we went to get the 14:00 train back to Bath. This is the first of only 3 trains that run on this line on a Sunday, the others at 18:00 and 20:09. However this train was cancelled. The SWT staff at the station had no idea why is was cancelled, or indeed if the 18:00 would run, only that a bus was being provided. I phoned FGW to find out why it was cancelled, since there was a train on the platform, and was informed that it was due to staff illness.

Outside, sure enough, a bus was on the forecourt to take us as far as Westbury where we'd have to pick up the no doubt already packed service from Portsmouth.

The journey didn't take too long as we only went to one of the intermediate 10 stations (Yeovil Pen Mill) on the way. I hate to think what information was available at the others, particularly the unmanned ones. I suppose most people just had to wait the four hours for the next one.

We arrived just after the 15:58 had left Westbury, and no-one will be surprised it didn't wait, then again, we could have been hours yet, had we stopped everywhere. A long wait was therefore on the cards, but thankfully the coach driver offered to take anyone who wanted, a lift back to Bath or Bristol given that he was headed back to Bristol. So we got back on the bus and arrived in Bath around 45 min late. It could have been a lot worse had the kind driver not gone above his duty.

Question is though, given that the bus was dispatched from Bristol, the staff illness mustt have been known a wouldn't have been easier and cheaper to send a train crew in a taxi? Or was the staffing shortage so bad that there was no spare crews anywhere?

It's Nice To Go A Travellin'....

Frank Sinatra was absolutely right when he sang this, in one of his less well known hits. However, I'm not so sure he was completely right when he continued;

... but it's so much nicer to come home.

Hmmm. I can kind've see where he was coming from. It was comforting to come back to our flat last night, it was brilliant to get a good night's sleep on our mattress again, rather than the unbearably soft B&B mattresses of the last week. But I'm pretty sure when singing the line, Frank wasn't thinking about all the bad things about coming home; the bills on the door-mat, the rank, stinking milk in the fridge, you forgot to pour away when you left, and of course worst of all, having to be back at work on Monday morning. Still the train was on-time, and I'd slept well, so I was as cheery as could be expected.

The Holiday was great. Quite hectic, what with rushing up and down the country, but an excellent balance of beery nights with friends, catching up with family, and quality time with A up in the hills, where the weather was fantastic, as the BBC weather man told us it would be.

To summarise my holiday, Glastonbury is a nice place to visit for the day, the ruined abbey is quite spectacular, and the shopping is mighty strange. The place is a hippy/new age magnet and all the bookshops sold books relating to magic stones, healing hands and guardian angels. Not my cup of tea, but a very interesting experience.

The horse racing at Haydock was a brilliant day out, though I did get a bit burnt by the sun (and the bookies).

The Peak District was amazing, as always. This place is probably less than 2 hours drive for most people in England, it's no wonder it's the 2nd most visited national park in the world, behind mount fuji in Japan. You can even get their by public transport as the Sheffield-Manchester train goes right through it with lots of stopping points. And yet despite this, and the Easter holidays, we walked for hours without seeing anyone. Absolutely magic. We climbed Bamford Edge (pictured), walked the Pennine way as far as Kinder Scout, and walked to the very interesting village of Eyam.

Eyam is where in the 1660's the plague came and killed most of the population of the village, but the villagers stopped it's spread to neighbouring towns and villages by isolating themselves, sacrificing themselves for the good of others. A very moving tale, and the village has a really nice little museum and the church is also worth a visit. I recommend it if your visiting the Peak District and need something to do if it's raining, or if like us you're knackard after 3 days walking.

What else happened? Well Pompey beat United, Watford Thrashed Pompey, then Watford gave United a game, but we're eventually thrashed. Not unexpected, but a little unjust as we played better than the scoreline suggests. Oh well. The football season is pretty much over for us, but Luton are nearly down, so that's cheered me up.

So, with the football effectively finished, I turn my attention to Cricket. Thanks to Mr K for having spare tickets to the first test at Lords - I shall see you there. And this week we look forward to the first knock-out game of the largely dull, cricket world cup. England vs South Africa. Should be a good one.

Just a shame I'll be at work.

Last Day Of School Feeling

I'm trying really hard to motivate myself to do some work today.

Ok, you're right, I could start by not wasting my time writing this blog.

But it's so difficult because it's a bank holiday this weekend, and I have the whole of next week off too! Woo Hoo! I'm like a small child - too excited to sit still.

10 whole days off!

My first holiday in ages. And the first time off without the feeling of guilt that I should be writing my thesis for a year.... if not longer. I am a free man!

Am I gonna sit and relax, watching tv whilst racing through season after season on Football Manager. Am I 'eck! - have you seen the weather forecast?

No, tomorrow (after an extensive lie-in), A (the fiance) and I, are gonna head out into the countryside for a bit local exploration. We might go to Glastonbury, apparently it's not just a festival! I'll let you know if it's worth a visit.

Then on Saturday it's off to my old stamping groud of Manchester for an afternoon at Haydock Park races, and Dr M's stag night. I hope you've got a copy of the Racing Post on order, and your best drinking trousers dry cleaned and ready sir!

Then, after a visit to the family on Sunday and Monday, it's back up north for a few days walking in the Peak District with A. I'm so looking forward to some time away. I can't wait.

I'm in such a good mood that not even the weekend railway engineering works or another loss for Watford will bring me down.

Maybe.

P.S. If you're going to 'boro don't forget the we are outta your league chant. That was magic 7 years ago.