The 'Liz line', Paddington

A great deal of flexing the plastic cards, 15,000 steps and about seventeen snacks were my theme for the day. Catching up with an old friend, consoling the disconsolate, and having new transport/shopping experiences also played their part. 

I met my friend A at a cafe in Westfield shopping centre, Stratford. To do this I took the Elizabeth (Liz) line from Paddington to Stafford (very quick, quiet and modern) and located her on the second floor, doing a Sudoku, as she'd said she would be! We chatted till she got tired (she has several health issues) and she lent me a copy of her book to read, then she vanished and I rang S, who had been released from.the dentists. Before I could stop him, he'd got to Stratford and we attempted to locate each other at Westfield for some time, as in a bad dream where all the exits and entrances look the same and one person has just had major surgery and doesn't know what they're doing. Eventually we met up outside H&M, and decided to go to a park, because they're quiet and it was sunny. S couldn't really talk at this point. 

When we got to Hyde park, it was sunny and we sat on the mud and I watched swallows or swifts diving, and kids playing football, and planes sailing serenely across the sky. I was so happy to be there in the sunshine, but S wanted to get to Paddington as he thought he could catch any train back to Stroud. 

We got to the station and found the first train cancelled. On trying to board the next option, S discovered that his ticket was not valid until after 7pm, same as mine, so we had a very long wait; so long in fact that I went and took another tube to Edgware road just to buy falafels from a takeaway for Steve. We finally boarded the train at 19.33 and got back into Stroud about two hours later, because of a signal failure. Steve picked us up  and took us home. 

I'm glad:

 I had a good book to read
I met an old friend
I travelled on a new train line 
I saw Westfield for the first time
The sun shone 
The visiting birds are back from Africa
I met a new person on the train 
A toddler in Stroud asked me to do her hair today
That it wasn't me having my teeth done
That I have a comfortable home to come back to

I really, really hope S feels better soon. He is complaining of having aged by ten years today, and feeling massively let down. I suspect that he's considering it all a higry mistake. I wish him a good night's sleep and a few days of rest.