Home!

Well it's dark, late and I'm tired and hungry (by the time I got to the train shop all the sandwiches were gone) but at least I'm home! I love travelling on the train (wry smile).

Actually, it's not bad. For years I avoided train travel, thinking I much preferred to be in control. I drove everywhere. Then I started to realise it was becoming a real pain to get into London, something I was having to do more and more often. I actually used to drive down to one of the outlying tube stations (Hatton Cross, to be precise, just round the corner from Heathrow) and catch the Piccadilly Line into the centre. If you included driving time, rest stops, train waits, etc it used to take me around 5 hours to get from home to anywhere in Westminster.

When I finally woke up to how mad that was and started taking the Virgin service from Manchester to Euston I cut my journey time by about 2 hours and I had chance to work, or write, or read a book. Amazing. For someone with an allegedly high IQ I can't defend how long it took me to come round to the benefits of letting the train take the strain.

Plus there's the added bonus of the amusing announcements from the train manager. Today's was: "The Quiet Zone is located in coaches A and H. These coaches are the Quiet Zone and must...remain quiet."