(part one). Had a great time
We're BACK, from London, with no great difficulty. Slight delay on the train home, so thanks to Jim and Pauline for coming to collect us from the station with The boy Glad to say he was very pleased to see us, and he did not sulk at all that we had abandoned him.
We nearly didn't go to London, because of the weather reports, but decided to "brave it". There was a little snow on the ground when we left home, but it really started coming down by Ashford. London had had lots before we got there, so snow was quite a feature of the weekend.
Had a bonus at the station, we were planning to get the high speed train anyway, but it turns out all normal tickets were valid on the high speed all weekend, so we travelled cheaper, nice! Got to London in good time, no delays for us, though we met some people at the station who'd been stuck at Westenhanger for three quarters of an hour before deciding to change routes, so the normal trains must have been all knackered.
As it was so cold we didn't fancy too much trudging about, although we had shopping to do. Brilliantly we managed to get everything we needed without leaving the train station. St Pancras is brilliant, nice shops and places to eat and drink. We stopped for a restorative drink in the Betjeman Arms in the station, which was good, but a bit pricey. They advertised mulled wine and mulled cider, which excited Clare, but unfortunately they were all out of it. They had a choice of ales, served in handled glasses too which makes a change. Very busy, lots of people clearly waiting for trains, handily there is an airport style departure board in the pub itself. Although there had been plenty of snow, I didn't see enough to make me think it was disruptive, but it must have delayed some travellers, those going longer distances. There are worse places to be delayed than the Betjeman Arms.
More later. I'm writing downstairs in the study while The boy is napping, and it's cold down here.
Paul Clarke's blog - I live in A small town, Kent. Married to Clare + dad to two, I'm a full-stack web engineer, + I do js / nodejs, some ruby, other languages ect ect. I like pubs, parkrun, eating, home automation and other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.