Trains, planes, less trains and more cars

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.

Childish Elbows

At 6.30am this morning I found myself sat on a train heading to Manchester, where I am currently sat in an office near the airport watching the world go by drinking very strong black coffee.

Luckily, the train was relatively empty when I got on, so ignoring my seat reservation for my non table seat, I found an unreserved table seat and spread myself out so that I could use my laptop properly. Three hours on a train is a lot of time to catch up with work which was what I needed to do. At Coventry a guy got on and sat down next to me, as by this time the train was full. He then proceeded to read his copy of the Sun with his elbows extended as much as possible. This meant that his left elbow was not only on my side of the arm rest but was often jabbing into my side. I asked him a couple of times to mind his arm and he seemed to suddenly become deaf and unable to turn his neck to acknowledge me.

So, when he got up to get off the train at Stoke I did what any other sensible person (who is nearly 32) would do and tripped him up.

Childish – yes. Satisfying – yes. Point made – I like to think so.

Seating dilemma

When travelling by train I like to sit facing the direction of travel. In fact I’d go as far as stating that I almost insist on sitting in the direction of travel. Now this isn’t a mild case of OCD, rather just a preference as to being able to see where I’m going as I gaze out of the window. As well as a deep subconscious thought that should there be a train crash I stand a slightly better chance of not being decapitated.

Travelling from Oxford to Bournemouth once a week presents an interesting dilemma, now that I am making that journey by train rather than car. (It takes only about ten minutes longer by train and I get a lot of work done on both journeys – I seem to have gotten sensible in my middle age). The train departs from Oxford and heads towards Reading, after which it goes in the opposite direction back to Bournemouth. So, if you sit facing the direction of travel from Oxford, then from Reading to Bournemouth you end up sitting the wrong way.

Now I could move seats at Reading, but that would be silly, especially as the train is usually pretty full from Oxford and even fuller from Reading. So, as I board the train I try and find a forward facing seat and accept the fact that for the first 30 minutes I’ll be sitting facing the wrong way – no matter how much it annoys me.

It’s only money, oh deer…

I had a shock this morning when filling the Jeep up with petrol.

The petrol light was on, and currently the Jeep is the only car I’m using, so the tank needed filling to get me through the week, although with the trips I have planned it would actually need to be filled twice.

The 350z is sat in my garage not feeling very well. The other week on a late night dash back from Salisbury, I encountered an already dead deer on the road. At ~60mph I wasn’t going to avoid it as I saw it far too late. Thankfully the impact was somewhat offset by the cars position and so the only damage I suffered was to the back box of the exhaust. However, the car is loud anyway, so having no back box means that it is far too loud to even contemplate driving. I started it up the other day to run it to the local garage to we could get it up on the ramps and have a look underneath and it was embarrassingly loud. Still the local chavs seemed to approve. Apparently it is ‘wicked innit’.

I have bought a new back box off Ebay and am waiting to arrange delivery so that the car can get back on the road. A couple of people told me I should put a fancy sports exhaust on it, but subject to me agreeing the commercials with a new sponsor, the 350z will be sold to the race team and turned into a very fast (hopefully) and lightweight GT race car for use at the tail end of this season and the whole of 2009.

As I have to to go Bournemouth, Birmingham and London (twice) next week, I shall be using the train rather than driving the Jeep I think.

In other shock news, I have bought a pair of Skechers this morning. Rumours that I might be getting slightly trendy are strenuously denied.