A Trail of Coincidences?

Passengers on the West Coast Mainline must be wondering when all the travel chaos will end after a second new year of travel chaos. There have been a number of vague and unhelpful statements from Network Rail, claiming that the delays and cancellations are due to "infrastructure problems" and The Daily Mail reported that a Network Rail spokesman said A Network Rail spokesman said: A Network Rail spokesman said: 'We don't know anything at the moment, but we're not ruling anything out. My guess is that it is an awful trail of coincidences.' That much bad luck doesn't just happen it, it has to be caused. To adapt the words of Lady Bracknell, to lose power in one location may be regarded as misfortune to lose it in more locations looks like carelessness!

Virgin Trains must be totally exasperated by the problems, but I must congratulate them on the way they deal with the media, I am sure I have commented on it before, but their representatives always sound knowledgeable, articulate and appropriate. I listened to their spokesman Arthur Leathley on Radio 4 yesterday, he had a very nice 'trustworthy' voice (like a favourite grandad), he answered questions sensibly and he was very measured when speaking about Network Rail but he managed to convey the frustration of the train operators and their concern for the passengers. There was a very good piece in the Daily Mail Rail bosses blamed for 'rush job' as 100,000 commuters caught in travel chaos

A Quantum Leap

It is so cold, the snow from Monday is still hanging around, and where the roads and pavements have not been gritted it has become solid slippery ice. Robbie fell over and hurt his back on his way home from work this evening, it is hurting him but he seems to be able to move fairly freely so hopefully it will not get any worse. He'd had a difficult journey to work this morning, there were delays and cancellations apparently this was due to a broken rail somewhere near Birmingham and there were diversions in place as well due to a problem with overhead lines on the Trent Valley.. I He finally got to work just after 11am! I could tell by his texts that he was totally frustrated, the word 'farce' in capital letters was used in every sentence. His return journey was equally frustrating, and he didn't get home until 8.30pm! Tomorrow looks even worse in terms of rail travel because Robbie has just informed me that there are problems on the West Coast Mainline again, this time it is overhead wire problems at Bletchley and more overhead wire problems at Watford. It looks as if Network Rail tempted fate on 14th December last year an unknown Network Rail spokesman boasted "The achievement is massive and the result will be a quantum leap in services." and Iain Coucher said "Now it is complete passengers and freight operators will reap the benefits". Well it has certainly been a quantum leap – in the wrong direction! I think George the cat has the right idea – get as close to the fire as possible and stay there!

The Finger

I don't like the fact that the snow hasn't completely gone, I am worried that there may be more to come. I could really do without the added complication of snow this week.

Despite the West Coast Mainline problems and the snow Robbie had a fairly uneventful journey to work and his return journey was OK too. He even managed to stay upright, despite the very slippy pavements near us. Robbie has a poisoned finger and it has been causing him pain for days. Tonight I finally got him to hold his finger in hot salt water, it was obviously painful but it will have done him good. I am going to dress it tonight to try to draw the poison out, but I am worried that there may be a splinter or something in it. If it doesn't improve in the next few days he will have to go to the doctors.

About Time

We took the decorations down today, so Christmas is well and truly over. It feels very bare without the decorations but it will feel a lot less cluttered when all the boxes are safely back in the loft. Robbie must have caught me in a mellow moment because I let him put that clock up, you remember, the birthday clock with the hideous pattern. Our lounge is painted in coffee and cream colours, the clock has every colour except those two! If I manage to tolerate it for a week I think I will have done very well. Maybe I will make him take it to work to terrorise his colleagues, if not I suppose there is always ebay. Anyway I have added a picture of the clock so you will be able to decide how attractive it is for yourself.

Home Again

Emily is home again she has been away to Embrun in France with her friend Esther, she had a good time despite a cold. They stayed with the family Esther worked for during her gap year, Emily enjoyed the snow and she learnt to ski.

And So To Bed

You know that lovely feeling when you settle down in bed and pull the coves around you ready for sleep? Well it doesn't last long with Robbie around! Last night I was just ready for sleep when Robbie bounced in like Tigger, giving a running commentary along the way. He let all the heat out when he got into bed, then I couldn't get warm again because he kept doing that 'Kenny Everett' thing where he waves his legs around like a dying fly. I was wondering if a couple of bricks in the duvet cover would solve the problem when he settled down and started to list all the railway magazines produced in the UK. It was 2am and I wasn't really interested, but I got all the information, date started, frequency of publication, publisher, price, size, and details of regular content. He went on and on until he got back to the pressing problem of the size change of the Rail Express, I couldn't stand any more so I used the only weapon available to me – I recited poetry to him! My first choice, The Ning Nang Nong by Spike Milligan just made him laugh, so I knew I had to bring out the 'big guns'. Next came Nicholas Nye by Walter de la Mare, that left him quietly confused, so I plunged in with On The Loss of the Royal George by William Cowper. That did the trick, he was begging for mercy. I threatened him with every verse of the Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning, if I heard one more word about trains, so he made the wise decision to turn over and go to sleep.

Drooping Dimensions and Other Difficulties!

Robbie went back to work today and I thought I would find myself writing about getting back into our normal routine after the holidays, but that will have to wait for another day. The silence from Robbie during the day was deafening, he said he was busy but I think he was just enjoying being back at work and working on his beloved train plans. It was a very different story when he got home, I couldn't shut him up, he was so cross it was just a constant stream of moans – about Rail Express! The reason for his fury is that they have changed the size of the magazine, it is now larger and as Robbie keeps pointing out, it is a non standard size. It will no longer fir in his briefcase properly and it messes up his magazine piles because it is too big. Worse of all, when he reads it on the train it 'wilts' when he holds it open to read it on the train, so the pages get damaged. If he goes on about problems with 'wilt' all weekend the magazine will be the least of his worried. Rail Express really should be more considerate, they must know what train people are like, I wonder how many wives and partners have had to put up with a whole evening of moans!

Snap!

Sam had a very posh camera for Christmas, he has already taken some lovely photos with it including these of Meg the dog, Oreo the black and white cat and Dave the ginger cat. The picture of Sam is very rare – he hasn't got that silly hat on!

Trouser Trouble

It is a strange life, when Robbie is at home I want to send him back to work and when he is going back to work I want to keep him at home. He has been challenging at times over Christmas, but I wish he had a bit longer at home. On Christmas Day he was still trotting around in his PJ's when my mum, stepfather and brother arrived at lunchtime, a fairly alarming sight especially when you are not expecting it. He eventually got dressed in his cords and his 'Ho, Ho, Homer' T shirt (that slogan proved too tempting for the kids!) but more shocks were in store – his trousers fell down when he was doing the washing up! I thought that was the end of the trouser trouble, but I nearly crashed the car on Tuesday when we were taking my Mum and step father shopping and out of the silence he suddenly announced that he was not wearing underwear! I sincerely hoped he was joking because he was wearing the same pair of cords that had fallen down on Christmas Day, and it was 'geriatric' day at Morrisons - he could have caused mass hysteria! I really don't know what triggers him to speak his thoughts sometimes, but I really wish he wouldn't, I have far too many grey hairs already!

Totally Sober!

Believe it or not this photo was taken at lunchtime today (well, yesterday by the time I post it) and he was totally sober I dread to think how he would look if he was drunk! We spent the afternoon at my mum's house because it was her birthday. We had a lovely time especially as my nephew Oliver was there too, he is so cute and we all love him.