At this moment I’m sitting in seat 21A, coach L of the 11:45am train from King’s Cross to Edinburgh. It’s 2:57pm, and we’re just pulling out of Durham, so there’s still nearly two hours to go. Fortunately the train has free WiFi and there’s a decent meal service: I have a nice bottle of Lebanese red wine to go with the various snacks that keep appearing.
The flight from Seattle to Heathrow was delightfully uneventful; the Economy Plus section of the B777 on the ORD-LHR leg was almost empty. (Good for me, bad for United.) In a first for me I was carrying on all my bags, so I sailed through customs at Heathrow, caught the bus to Oxford, and made it there before sun-up.
I had a most enjoyable Thursday and Friday with my mother and brother in Oxford. (Friday was Lorna’s 91st birthday.) On Saturday, Alec Muffett came up and he and I spent a delightful time in Oxford. Covered Market, lunch at the King’s Arms, self-indulgence at Blackwell’s, dessert at the wonderful patisserie Maison Blanc, some shopping, and then back to Lorna’s.
This morning I set out to Edinburgh. I was booked on the 9:38 train from Oxford to Paddington, and some deep-seated skepticism made me catch an earlier bus and get to the station just after 9. At 9:15 they announced that the 9:38 train was cancelled. Almost immediately, they informed us that the train at Platform 3 was the 9:05(!) to London. There was a moment of chaos as all of the passengers who were booked on the 9:38 (including yours truly) dashed towards the 9:05….. Fortunately I arrived at Paddington in plenty of time to catch a Circle Line train to King’s Cross and I boarded the 11:45 train to Edinburgh at 11:30.
We’ve just arrived at Newcastle station. I haven’t been here since 1976. Back in the 1970s I was a post-grad student at the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and between 1973 and 1976 I would regularly travel between Newcastle and London. Since then I’ve never returned; even today, I’m only passing through. How strange.