#Darlington

The day did not turn out as expected. At 19:13 I should have been with friends in Oakham and not on the platform of Darlington station with a crowd of other bewildered passengers wondering what to do about our disrupted journeys.

This weekend has been planned for months. Today I was supposed to travel by train to Peterborough to be picked up by friends and taken to Oakham for the night. Then tomorrow I expected to be going to the Burghley horse trials with a a group of my school friends during the day, and then to a school reunion in the evening. My return journey north is (supposedly) on Sunday.

All the above was abandoned this evening because I got caught up in travel chaos due to vandalism of signalling equipment just north of Darlington. The train waited outside the station for almost three hours. When we finally limped into town there was talk of a replacement bus service from Darlington to York. As far as I am concerned, the phrase 'replacement bus service' is one of the most unwelcome in the English language. I, amongst others, decided that enough was enough, and set about making alternative plans for the weekend.

My sister answered my call for assistance. She drove down from Newcastle to Darlington to take me north again. She dropped me off at Newcastle central station, from where I caught a local train west. My bemused parents met me off the train at Hexham. Meanwhile Mr hazelh had decided to drive south to join me. So, I find myself staying with Mummy and Daddy hazelh tonight!

Although it's been a rather strange day, there have been some fun moments along the way. I had good company in the train carriage when we were stuck and the Virgin East Coast staff were superb. My good deed for the day was to offer a lift in my sister's car to someone else who needed to get to Newcastle from Darlington.

Most amusing of all was following #darlington on Twitter. This hashtag was also being used by NASCAR enthusiasts ahead of a Friday night competition at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina in the US. I sent them all a friendly tweet: 'Hello #NASCAR fans! I hope that you don't mind reading of misery of UK rail passengers tweeting about signal failure at #darlington today!'

Exercise today: none.