Heading South

I left Celia and Joyce with a feeling of wonder and sadness because they are also heading off on a journey where the destination is not yet clear.  I want to be with them on their journey and I know they have many friends around them who are also wishing them well.

Joyce drove me over to Crewe to catch the train to Gloucester.  The first part of the trip to Birmingham was fine although I was a bit disturbed at the cost.  But the connecting train from Birmingham was cancelled and I had to wait for the Gloucester/Cardiff line to be cleared of a broken down goods train.  The station at Birmingham was chaotic.  I asked a railwayman on the platform about the train to Cardiff and he said "It's cancelled."  

I asked "What does that mean?".

He dismissed me with "Cancelled"

I went up the escalator and found a queue at an information desk.  I had already spotted that the toilets required coins to get through the turnstiles.  When I finally made it to the head of the queue and made my enquiry, the woman on the desk said "You have to go round to customer services."  I tried to stand my ground and she tried to make a phone call but no-one at the other end was picking up so I went out of the platform area and around the corner to a place called customer reception which turned out to be the same as customer services.  The desk people here were obviously trained to calm other people down and I discovered there was a break-down on the line, there was a lack of information about when it would be cleared and they would make an announcement.  They allowed me to use their phone to contact my brother, Dave, who was sitting at home drinking cups of tea before coming to pick me up in Gloucester.

By this time I was hungry, so I ate my apple in the station hallway and then looked around for somewhere to put my core.  Nothing.  "Sorry" said the railwayman, "we don't have them anymore for security reasons."  He shrugged when I mumbled "So what do I do with this?"  I put the core in my backpack and decided that I could not put off a pee any longer and there would be bound to be bins in the bathroom.  It cost 30 pence to get in and there were no bins.  

So I went for lunch - I could leave my apple core on my plate!  I found quite a good toasted sandwich and latte in a place where I could sit down.  I half listened to the announcements but heard no mention of Gloucester or Cardiff so when I came out it was a shock to find the 1330 to Cardiff was on time and it was now 1332.  (I've just been called for dinner so will publish and finish with photo later)  (I'm back)  I raced down to the platform and my train had just left.

This time, however, the railwayman was quite pleasant and suggested that I "get on this one and change at Cheltenham."  His face didn't change expression as he added "There, that put the smile back on your face."  So I got on the train to Plymouth.  

Coming out of Birmingham, the train ran along a canal and I suddenly caught a glimpse of the clock tower of Birmingham University.  That is the campus where I did my first degree and where I played hockey in the University firsts with Celia playing in goal.  I learnt to play bridge on the coach taking us to away matches and three of us from the team shared a flat in Edgbaston where we made stews using bacon bits and mushroom stalks.  At the time, I had not even realised that the campus ran alongside the canal but I gather from my nephew, Joe, that the canal banks have now been gentrified with smart apartments and he now lives in one of them with his girlfriend, Jo.  Joe and Jo are planning to marry in 2009 in Italy.  The world is very different yet the same!

In my next post, I'll say something about life at the old vicarage where my brother, Dave, lives with my niece, Grace and his blended family.