Nothing is ever simple in my life it seems.
I was so engrossed in my final meeting yesterday that I missed my evening train from Manchester Airport. This meant we had a very small window to drive to Manchester Piccadilly to I could get the train there. We raced across to the station, only to get stuck in traffic. Clearly we were not going to make it. I rang National Rail enquiries to confirm what I already knew – that was the last direct train back to Oxford. There were other trains but they involved multiple changes and invariably for the later ones going into and then out of London.
So we decided to try to beat the first train to its next two stations on its way south. We failed, traffic was against us at every stage. I either had to stay up in Manchester last night and come back this morning, or find alternative transport to get home last night.
I had an idea. I could hire a car from the airport and drive home. As a Hertz Gold Club member, I had visions of the finest Mercedes being laid on for me, so when Hertz informed me they had no cars whatsoever I almost capitulated to inevitable defeat. I stuck my head around the Avis office and asked them if they had any cars and they did and joy of all joys it was only going to cost £70 for a one way hire.
They asked me for my driving licence and I had this terrible feeling in my stomach, just the other day I’d taken my photocard out of my wallet and it was on my desk at home. Luckily the DVLA was still open (at 8pm who’d have thought it?) and they verified my details. Ten minutes later I was driving out of the airport in an understeery automatic Peugeot 308.
When I got to the Avis drop off site in Oxford, I saw the train I should have been on, just pulling out of the station.

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