Robbie had terrible journeys to and from work yesterday. His train arrived at the station more or less on time in the morning but it remained rooted to the spot for over 40 minutes as it lacked one vital ingredient - train crew. Apparently there was some sort of obstruction at Coventry and they had been stranded. His homeward journey departed on time but it terminated at Rugby due to multiple signal failure. I received a series of increasingly frustrated calls from Robbie, but eventually they were on the move again and Robbie estimated that he would be at Northampton by 7.35pm. I was having my own day from hell, car problems, road works causing massive delays and children needing me to be in two different places at the same time, but I agreed to collect him. More phone calls and the time was gradually pushed back, until at 8pm I had to abandon my wait for Robbie and dash across town to pick up Sam from his school. He had been helping at a parents evening as a science representative. He should have been ready by 8.15pm at the latest, but after the impossibility of trying to park I found that he still wasn't ready, and after waiting around for 20 minutes I had to get extremely assertive to force someone to go and find him. Having got into the car park, getting out again was even more of a challenge!
Finally I was able to head back to pick Robbie up, his train had eventually arrived at 8.20pm - two hours late! He was now cold, tired and ravenously hungry. I expected him to be furious about the chaos, but thankfully his spirits had been lifted slightly because his missing trousers and his new briefcase had been delivered to work that day. I'd been quietly insistent about Robbie needing a briefcase on wheels because he gets so much pain in his back and legs, but I had to wait until Robbie accepted the idea and ordered it himself! He made a very good choice, he is almost as fascinated by briefcases and bags as he is by trains and he spent a very long time telling me about all the features of the bag - apparently it even has a light inside!
By the time I got Robbie and Sam home, I didn't even have time for a cup of tea before I had to go out again to collect Laura. It must have been about 10.40 before I finally got home. Robbie was still talking about trains and in the course of his very detailed account of his home bound journey, he explained that the progress between Rugby and Northampton was painfully slow because the hand signaller had to walk ahead before the train could leave. After a day like that, a completely different kind of hand signal sprang to mind!
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