Palaver

I have to be in London at 09:30, tomorrow, so I took the train down from Manchester, this evening. Seven-thirty train, get in a ten, drop my backs at the hotel, and take my book out for last orders: perfect.

Except that we not only set off a little late, but the previous train had been cancelled, meaning this one was crammed. Luckily, I had a cheap first class ticket but they weren't serving food and the journey through a packed train to the buffet car seemed a little daunting. 

And then we stopped at Stockport. An incident on the line further south. We were there for maybe half an hour, kept in reasonable spirits by the chirpy train manager. In the end, she announced we'd go back north and take a different line south. But we only made it one station further north and we reverted to our original journey or something like it. Our ETA was now midnight. Poops. 

But after some encouragement from the Minx, I did venture down to Coach C to get a sandwich and a bottle of wine. And then I settled down with my book and, do you know what, it the end it was pretty pleasant. Every cloud and all that.

****
Scales batteries are flat
0 words
Reading: I finished book 26, 'Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant' by Anne Tyler on the train, this evening. Three months ago I read Anne Tyler's 'Vinegar Girl' and didn't much like it. However, a few people on Instagram said that she's actually very good and I'd been unlucky to read that particular book. A couple of people recommended this as a better choice. It took me a while to get into it (possibly due to the change of pace as it was straight after a Robert Gailbraith) but I thoroughly enjoyed it in the end. And even if I didn't get much from the story, the writing is brilliant.