What a day! (sorry for all the text).

Today I have been to Ascot, however I almost didn't make it.
I left the house this morning in plenty of time to meet the girls in Birmingham.  Unfortunately the traffic was terrible, and there were hardly any parking spaces at the train station.  I finally parked and ran to the platform only to discover they had changed the platform at the last minute due to previous delays.  I ran to the other platform (up and down stairs with a case, handbag, bag of food and cooler bag with 6 bottles of wine).  I made it onto the train with what I thought was a minute to go, to discover the train was delayed.  It finally started moving but after about ten minutes stopped as it had caught up with the previous delayed train.
I got to snow hill station with about 15 minutes to get to New street so decided to jump in a taxi.  The Taxi driver put his foot down and got me there with five minutes till my train.  I ran to meet the girls on the platform only to discover I needed my ticket (which was with Julie on the platform) to get through the barrier.  I tried to explain to the man on the gate that my friend had my ticket and that I was about to miss my train but he did not seem to care.  He eventually let me through but it was too late - I had missed my train and the girls had gone without me.
Feeling very stressed, hot and sweaty I headed back up to try and find out how I could get to Ascot.  A very helpful man from Virgin trains told me which train I needed to get and even walked me to the platform.  After explaining what had happened, the lovely train manager also let me get on the later train without having to buy another ticket.  The girls waiting for me at Reading where they had to change and I could finally relax and the drinking could begin.
Considering the very stressful start to the day I have had a fab time.  It was lovely to see Tessa (in pic) and Julie who I haven't seen for a while, and the rain also stayed away.
After a full day of drinking some of us were too drunk/hungry to carry on, so Julie, Claire, Mandy and I headed back to the hotel, and we were in our PJ's waiting on room service by 10pm.  Some may think we are boring, but I think its the perfect ending to a great day with friends.