Fly by canal

I met up with old school pals Helen and Beth along with Beth's husband Joe and their two tiddlers. We had a muddy walk with a pram along the canal towpath in Audlem, a cute village in Cheshire. After a tantrum triggered by being handed a pine cone we retired to the Shroppie Fly, a great pub on the canal. The hearty grub was just what we needed on a bracing winter's day. I was here 15 years ago witnessing some sort of mass folk music singalong by village stalwarts.

Later I joined the exodus of Christmas travellers on the train towards London. Laden like a packhorse and next to a toilet with an intermittently broken door, it wasn't the most comfortable journey.