The daily commute

You might have noticed that the blog only gets updated after the weekend. This is mainly because our mid-week life, while fun to us, is probably not as exciting to you. A typical day goes:
Get up at 6:45, have breakfast, leave house and catch 7:42 to London. Tim heads to his office and I catch the Picadilly line to Hammersmith. Work. Leave at 5:30 - I head back across London and catch 6:15 train back to Bedford. Arrive back home at 7:15. Tim catches Thameslink from London bridge and arrives home at about the same time. Have dinner. Go to band/choir/badminton/pub. Come home. Go to bed.

This may sound terrible to some people, but we don't mind it. And (ignoring the commute) you probably have a similar daily routine. Every now and again though, some aspect of our day goes horribly wrong and all you can do is laugh. Here is the tail of my commute home yesterday...

Leave the office at 5:20 - slightly early to make sure I catch the 6:15 train. Forget to check the transport for london website, so don't realise until I get to the station that the Picadilly line is suffering severe delays.

Not a problem - decide to catch the district line, change at Victoria and take the Victoria line to King's Cross. Catch the district line.

District line is slow. Get to Victoria at 6:00 and join the slow moving seething mass of commuters trekking down the stairs, round the corner and onto the Victoria line platform. Reach platform to hear an announcement that King's Cross is closed due to overcrowding.

Not a problem - decide to get off train one stop early at Euston, and walk to King's Cross. It will only take 10 minutes, I'm already too late to catch the 6:15 but I'll be in plenty of time for the 6:55.

Victoria line is not slow and (surprisingly) not too crowded. It rattles along and slows up at Euston, but doesn't stop - the driver announces Euston is closed due to overcrowding. We then drive straight through King's Cross, which is also closed due to overcrowding.

Problem - I am now at Highbury and Islington (I have no idea where this is in relation to anywhere else in London). I wonder if there is a bus?

Follow the slow moving seething mass of commuters along the corridors and up the stairs to the outside world. Try to phone Tim but the network is busy due to all the commuters ringing their friends to complain about being in Highbury and Islington.

Find a bus stop, interpret the map and work out which bus and which stop I need to get to King's Cross. Find the bus stop, sit and wait for the number 30.

10 minutes later catch the number 30 towards King's Cross. Bus takes another 10 minutes to reach the station. Still, I'm in plenty of time to catch the 7:30 train home.

Get home at 8:20 - Tim, alerted to my plight has dinner waiting for me. Laugh at the succession of calmities which has caused me to have the longest commute home so far - three hours door to door.

What can you do but laugh? getting angry doesn't help and just makes the situation worse. And days like yesterday really are the exception rather than the rule.

Oh well - look forward to a post full of fun activities after the weekend!

where we live

Overheard on the train on Thursday evening:

"Bedford? That's in Lincolnshire, isn't it? Yes, I'm sure it is. Lincolnshire... yes, definitely Lincolnshire"

The temptation to turn round and say "actually, it's in Bedfordshire" was very strong - you'll be pleased to hear I restrained myself...

A weekend of amusements

Thursday was a busy day at work for both of us, so it was nice to have Friday off and go on a boat trip. Saturday was spent relaxing at home, then off to St Albans in the evening to watch Bellowhead, who are even better live than they are on their albums. Then Sunday was spent with the newspapers and a quick walk around some 'arable uplands' (the book's description) of Bedfordshire.

All in all, a pretty good weekend. Oh, and Tim bought some new fish which may also make an appearence on here at some stage...

Sorting and tidying

The plan for today was to go for a Walk, with the aim of continuing the walking fun we had in the Lake District. This Walk depended on catching the slow train from Bedford towards Bletchley, but it turns out this service doesn't run on Sundays! So we've postponed the Walk until another day. I did some pilates instead this morning and as usual have discovered muscle groups I never knew I had before.

In lieu of walking we decided to have a blitz on the study. As well as containing the computer, this room tends to become a dumping ground for 'stuff which we need to sort out'. So today we sorted. As a consequence of this we have cleared out a whole load of books we'll never read again, and made some room on the bookshelf - see above. The photo gives you a pretty good idea of our reading tastes as well: I own the Ruth Rendell/Barbera Vine books and most of the crime/sci-fi. Tim on the other hand prefers Jasper Fforde and Alexander Mcall Smith. There's a random assortment of 'classics' and 'modern classics' as well - we're pretty wide ranging in our reading habits!

The books on the top of the bookshelf are our 'to read' pile, ones which one or the other of us haven't got round to yet. The exception to this is the 'Competitive Strategy Dynamics', which is one of Tim's textbooks - I can't see either of us reading that one for pleasure...

What we did on our holidays, part 2

After a week of sunshine in the Lake District, we flew out to Malta for five days of relaxing - oh, and a bit more sunshine. It turned out to be an even better holiday than we could have imagined - the hotel was wonderful and the town we were staying in (Mellieha) was hardly influenced by tourism at all. Once you moved away from the main street there were no touristy shops or restaurants, just quiet streets full of houses and tiny 'corner' shops. It was lovely to have a few days of sheer relaxation, along with a little bit of sightseeing.

Completely randomly, we managed to stay for the week of mellieha's festa - a week long celebration leading up to a solemn mass on Saturday with the procession of the Saint's statue through the streets. Every night the Church was illuminated, brass bands paraded through the streets playing marches and fireworks were let off. As you can imagine, Tim very much enjoyed the bands. We played 'hunt the band' round the streets on several evenings, and spent Friday night in the parish square listening to the music, eating nougat and enjoying the fireworks. It was great to see the whole town involved in the celebrations, and a shame that we had to come home before the main procession.

I could post loads of photos, but here are just two more, showing me and Tim in typical holiday poses:

Elspeth the 'information hound' (Tim's new nickname for me)

Tim relaxing in the pool!

What we did on our holidays, part one

Last week we went camping in the Lake District and in spite of the dire predictions of my workmates, the weather was lovely. We're back now and re-packing for our trip to Malta, but here's a summary of our holiday so far.

Saturday: after a lazy morning and a cooked brunch, head up the M1 towards the Crocker family B&B. A long hot day in the car, relieved by afternoon tea at the Mouseman cafe and afternoon tea number two when we reached my parents'.

Sunday: A Walk up Pen-y-Ghent, continuing our aim of conquering the Three Peaks in three years.

Monday: a drive up through the Dales and into the Lakes. Lunch at the artisan cafe at Booths in Kendal - yum! A short Walk around Brother's Water and up to a waterfall, before arriving at the campsite.

Tuesday: Another Walk around Haweswater and up to High Street. This included a very precipitous descent and much smugness when we reached the bottom of it and met a family about to climb up the same way.

Wednesday: Some walking wear shopping in Ambleside, followed by a quick Walk over High Rigg - a small lump by Lake District standards, but ideally located for great views over to Helvellyn, Skiddaw and Blencathra. The walk also passed a tea shop, which would have been a great stopping point if the owner had been a little less surly. We walked on instead and found afternoon tea later in Keswick.

Thursday: A Walk just North of Mosedale - well it had to be done... a good walk this, with a very steep ascent then great views of the clouds from the (very windy) top. The sun came out after lunch, and we strolled back to the car and found afternoon tea on the way home.

Friday: no walking today as the clouds were very low. Instead, a trip to Honister Slate mine to marvel at the engineering involved at hollowing out a mountain without making it fall down. Then a Lakeland Tea at Bryson's in Keswick - yum!

Saturday: a drive home, broken by visits to Grange-upon-Sands and Ingleton. Fish and Chip dinner when we got home - this is fast becoming a tradition of our holidays, and one we're happy to keep.

Sunday: a day at home to wash and re-pack. To keep up the exercise, we head to Willen Lake and attempt the trim trail. Elspeth discovers she has no upper body strength.

We're all packed now and heading for Malta tomorrow. See you in another week!