Later than usual

I didn’t do my walk this morning. I wasn’t sure if I was feeling quite right or not. But I started work at 9:30pm. 

I did spent some of the afternoon trying to write regular expressions to extract some data about tide times and train times for Siri Shortcuts. The results are a long way from perfect but I can ask Siri if there are any disruptions on trains from Raynes Park or Ryde and I’ll get an answer: who knows how accurate it is. I wonder if I can automate a regular check so that I capture lots of scenarios. 

As I was working on the shortcuts I realised there were problems into Waterloo. So we left a little earlier than planned to head off for our train to Portsmouth Harbour. We were aiming for the 7:30pm train but disruption was such that the 7:00pm didn’t leave until twenty-past and, as we were worried about making the ferry connection, we hopped on the earlier one. 

Tonight, Wightlink were running additional services at 9:20pm and 10:45pm which is a much better connection for us. We were aiming for the earliest of the two additions.  There are not many nights when they run these later ones; it seems to be a test. Fingers crossed it becomes permanent because it makes coming down to The Island much more accessible from London. 

When we arrived the Wightlink terminal was quiet (and it felt quite deserted) but, as boarding time approached, there were more people. The later services appears to be have been outsourced to a smaller boat but it did have the advantage of having a cafe-bar on board. The evening had been very cold and I did not get particularly warm on the train, so a hot chocolate on the ferry was very welcome. 

We walked to the flat. The corner shop was just closing but I managed to pop in for some milk. It turned out we had left some last time which would have got us through the evening. We brought dinner to heat in the microwave- there is still no oven - and had a nice evening. We had never tested the heating in the flat and so were worried we might find out that it didn’t work but after a bit of turning dials and trying to work out settings we managed to get some warmth.