The Pryordurkins

Posts Tagged ‘train’

It has been a couple of months since I last used this East Coast Main line to get from York to London, via Doncaster, Grantham and Peterborough. This morning however has me travelling from York on the National Express service that leaves at 8.36am.

There was an air of excitement around York station as I waited for the train. I couldn’t put my finger on what was creating this atmosphere until I noticed quite a few Events Co-ordinators (evidenced by the big bright yellow jackets which said Events Co-ordinator!). They were putting up posters that would direct people who were clearly expected to visit the station and view the new Tornado Steam Engine which was due to pass through. Watching the preparations kept me amused for a while as I waited for my service to arrive into platform 3.

I boarded the National Express East Coast train and we left York bang on 8.36am. The outside of the train looked a bit grim, with old style doors and a lot of winter dirt. However inside was very pleasant indeed. I’d decided to upgrade myself and was happy to find a double seat with a table all to myself. Who says I’m miserable?

A few improvements seem to have been made since I last travelled. The at-seat menu has been revamped and you can now enjoy full dining at any seat in first class. The prices are quite high but I suppose they do have a captive audience and when you think about the space they have to work within to prepare food, it is quite a feat that they can produce so much for so many when they are so full.

In the interest of research I tried the freshly cooked bacon and tomato toasted sandwich (£3.75) and it was nicely prepared and tasty. Another change they have introduced is that you now find sparkling and still bottled water all ready placed on your table which is a nice touch in my view. Along with complimentary biscuits (which I avoided in the interest of my waistline) they served up fresh coffee which was passable and hot. I do wish they would invest in better beans though.

The staff were a little grumpy and barked requests to each passenger …… Coffee?……Milk?……Tickets?……. I just felt they could have been a little happier in their work.

Finally, I should mention the ticket prices. Since I last travelled the open return ticket to London seems to have gone up by £36 since early December. By my reckoning that is the equivalent to a 15% increase. This is on top of the price rises they introduced earlier in 2008. However I do recall a news story which explained National Express pay the government billions of pounds for the privilege of running this service and have to sell several thousand tickets each day before they earn a penny to cover their own running costs. Tax by another name me thinks?

Anyway we continued our journey and arrived into London Kings Cross bang on time.

Pryordurkin rating 3 stars.

With the weather having turned very cold and snow being forecast I decided to get the train from York to Reading today, instead of driving, as has been the norm for the last two weeks. Paul dropped me off at York station just after 8am and with my train due at 8.27am I was pleased to see it being reported on the information boards, as on time. I had therefore had a little time to sit down in the Costa Coffee bar for a medium Americano. The lady serving, well girl, was on her own and a little underwhelming with her friendly personality and broad smile.

Anyway as indicated, the Cross Country train from Newcastle to Reading via York, Doncaster, Sheffield, Birmingham New Street, Leamington Spa, Banbury and Oxford was on time. I took my seat in carriage A. The carriage was clean and quite warm but the seats were a little more suited for short commuter rides than long distance inter city journeys. There was also not a great deal of luggage space and had the carriage being full this would have been a problem. As it was for most of the journey I had the carriage more or less to myself.

There was a power point for my laptop and each seat had either its own table or a shared table. Being the miserable sod I am, I always try and get a seat on my own. There is no free wireless access though and if I didn’t have my own mobile wireless network card, this would have been a big problem. As we pulled out of York I immediately noticed that this wasn’t going to be one of the quieter train rides I had. I am not saying it was noisy, but the rumbling that was immediately evident would no doubt start to annoy me after about an hour of my four hour journey that lay ahead.

The train offers up light snacks to keep you going and where I was sitting, complimentary drinks and Bacon Butty’s were a very welcome treat. The service from the young lady was attentive and regular. With a genuine warm smile on her face as she asked if you needed any more refreshments, I compared her with the cold hard faced witch that I so often came across on the National Express East Coast mainline train service.

The toilets were those that come with an electric door, which I hate. You never quite trust these things and I have seen a number of people suitably embarrassed because of the inadvertent opening that continues to be a high risk. As for their cleanliness, it left a little to be desired and I will even more fervently follow the rule of no number twos in a public loo!

A good thing about this journey is that it is certainly more scenic than the usual East Coast main line which I know so well. This line trundles through many a town and village offering the bored commuter, who has finished doing any preparation for work and exhausted the morning paper, a chance to see other parts of old blighty. With much of the country being covered in snow today, this is quite a treat. The only slight problem is a pretty poor wireless network signal as you travel across the countryside.

There was of course a momentary panic as we pulled out of Birmingham New Street train station. The journey up to that point had me facing forwards in the direction of travel. For a brief moment, I panicked that I was on the wrong train as upon leaving Birmingham New Street, we suddenly started going backwards and continued to do so for the rest of the journey. I could have just moved seats, but this one by now had taken the shape of my cheeks and was nicely warmed through!

Anyway we are now nearing the end of this journey and while it has been a long one, it has in the main being comfortable, relaxing and on time.

Pryordurkin rating 3 stars.

After a weekend that took an unexpected and unfortunate turn for our friends who had originally planned to spend it with us, we woke this morning to find a very nice covering of Snow over much of the UK.  Listening to the excited BBC News presenters (makes a change from the credit crunch I suppose) you would think this was a completely new phenomenon.  However I can remember having to dig my car out of several feet of snow when I was a lad, not so many years ago.

With Priscilla taking ownership of the garage Paul was not best pleased at having to scrape down his car from the snow and ice that had covered it overnight, before taking her off to the garage for some minor repairs.  However the scenes in and around our home in York more than made up for the mild inconvenience.   The picture to the right was taken ‘out back of house’.

We did momentarily think while enjoying what is turning out to be a fantastic British winter, about Marg in Australia and the recent reports over here that they are enduring their hottest summer for many years.  So we thought we’d share a few winter pictures as a little light relief to all those down under.

As the evening sets in, we hear on the news that tonight we can expect another 20cm of snow, so while Paul prepares the evening meal, having taken a few pictures, I’ll now be busy closing all the curtains, turning up the heating and lighting a few candles for an evening in front of the box.

Of course, tommorow is where all the fun starts because I need to get to Reading by 2pm and Paul has ‘volunteered’ to take me to the train station for just after 8am.

We’ll see….

While I was working in Reading today I received a text from Paul.  It read “Well I have forgotton my poster and now I have thrown coffee all over me!”  You could say I was surprised.   You’d be wrong.

Let me take you back a little and imagine how Paul’s morning went.

6.00am. Woken by Sooty walking over face….Lay in bed wondering why it’s all so difficult.

7.00am Got up, fed Sooty and Tia.  Sat down in ’silent’ lounge with bowl of cornflakes.  Contemplated for a few moments.  Contemplated for a few moments more.  30 minutes contemplation later decided to ring Michael on his phone.  2 minutes later, hung up clearly realising Michael was fast asleep before I rang and is now grumpy.

8.00am.   Showered, shaved and sh….ould have gone to gym but started up laptop and did some work instead.

10:15am.  Taxi sounds it horn.  Look around house for keys.  Put coat on. Say good bye to Sooty and Tia.  Put shoes on (laces untied) and leave house.  Remember to lock door.

10:36am.  Sit on train at table with three strangers.

10:48am.  Realise the poster due to be presented at scientific conference in London (purpose of trip) is still at home.

10.50am.  Need to console myself.  Order up coffee from the trolley.  Try to open milk.  It doesn’t comply.  Try to squeeze milk carton.  Squirts, hand hits cup.  Coffee goes flying.  Clean white shirt now covered in and smelling of coffee.  Three travellers mopping up coffee from table, legs and bags.  Face a lovely glowing colour… not from heat of coffee currently burning legs.

11.00am.  Sent text message to Michael.

11.38am.  Received call from Michael who said.  You’re special…..

It’s been a quiet week for me having been working at home.  No travel by train, no being herded along on the underground and no being fed bad food in a sad boring hotel room.  One of the benefits was finding the time to get a decent haircut from Cube in York, where Alex, my stylist promptly remarked on how he thought I’d lost weight.  This was either a genuine comment (doubtful), clever marketing that would engender continued custom (he need not worry) or a result of interesting lighting in the salon.

Regardless, I was happy and feel sure Paul (like many of you) will confirm I just get better looking each day!

As you know I am never one to harp on about my ailments or complain about being under the weather.

But……

I’m all alone in London and suffering the most awful sore throat imaginable.  I blame all those rude and inconsiderate people who travel by Tube and Train for my predicament and if I were Prime Minister would make it an offence punishable by one week in public stocks for anyone who coughed or sneezed without a handkerchief.

I’m hoping the night nurse will see me through till morning until I can find someone who’ll listen to me moan all day about my Man Flu and perhaps offer me just a tiny little piece of sympathy.

Poor me…. and er yes…. OK I do harp on….

Our holiday in Cyprus ended as it had begun; in style.  We finished our final day with a four hour session in the Spa. Two Pampered Poofs having the full works (Thanks Lee  ), we started with the full Thermai Experience that includes a variety of heat rooms and ice rooms followed by a deep tissue Indonesian Massage for Paul and a Australian Aboriginal Kodo Massage for Michael, followed by an early evening dinner where to our complete joy (Marg will understand why), we met up again with Thomas, the stunning waiter we met working at the resort last year.  We pointed out that we remembered him for his good service (and stunning good looks – but we whispered that bit!) and we think he remembered us and our Australian friend! Our week was complete   We will load the photographs into our gallery soon.

Wrapping up we headed off to the airport, content with our lot and having completely forgot about how cruel the pyordurkin effect can be at times.

The plane boarded on time; we had good seats and we set off ahead of schedule.  We even landed in Gatwick 15 minutes ahead of time.   This is when it all went horribly wrong and we just knew the pryordurkin effect was now also back from it’s holidays.

It started with us having to wait 15 minutes on the plan while they found some steps for us to disembark.  The heat and temperature of the passengers was rising when we eventually started to move.  The babies and kids by this point were tired, crabby and playing up. We got onto the buses to be hearded back to the airport terminal to find massive queues at passport control.  Thirty minutes after landing we eventually got through passport control to then discover a problem with EasyJet baggage handlers. Apparently they were ’surprised’ by the arrival of six ’scheduled and on time’ flights arriving within the same hour and were therefore unable to off load the luggage from each plane as it arrived.  Utter chaos….  By this point there were screaming kids, it was 2.30am and my temper was well past its best.  Having landed at 12:50am we eventually got out of Gatwick baggage pick up area two hours later to then discover…. wait for it, there is more…. that the first shuttle bus to our hotel would not leave until 3.16am.  So in the freezing cold (5 degrees) we stood around waiting and waiting and waiting.  I was cursing and swearing under my breath by this point.  Of course the shuttle bus was late!.  When it did arrive I was ready to draw blood as we took our seats.  The driver then gently informed us that he would be making a small diversion on the way to our hotel, via the depot to change drivers.  Apparently he had finished his shift.  I was incredulous..

Falling into our hotel beds at 4.00am having landed at 12:50am I was too wound up to sleep, so tossed and turned for the next few hours eventually giving up and jumping into the shower at 9.30am telling Paul to get up, it was time for breakfast.

A brief respite over breakfast was had.  It was served up in the hotel which I’ll review later, by two nice ladies and we checked out ready to continue our journey home…..

We got to the railway station at Gatwick to discover the trains were not running through to Kings Cross today due to engineering works.  Instead we would have to get off at London Bridge and drag our cases through the underground, which of course, was jam packed by other miserable looking travellers.  Eventually getting to Kings Cross, now hot and sweaty, we boarded the train to York and took our first class seats (by this point I was ready to pay anything to avoid people and get home in comfort).

The train arrived into York having sat outside for five very long minutes while a platform became free. As soon as it did crawl in, we legged it to the taxi rank and joined what seemed like tens of thousands of other people trying to leave York by road.  It was a long journey that hit pretty much every red traffic light on the way out of the City centre.

We finally arrived at home sweet home……  Wait.  That is not the end of it…..

Opening the letters that had piled up while away I spotted an invoice for the windows we’d recently had repaired.  Instead of the £300 we were ‘verbally quoted’ it was now asking for £800!  Words cannot describe…….

So anyway, there you have it, we’re back home from a wonderful holiday in a wondereful hotel on a wonderful island, to find life returns to normal with a bang.

I legged it from the office yesterday wishing them fun while I’d be away, to meet up with Paul at Kings Cross who had just arrived having returned from his conference in Switzerland via Heathrow.  With minutes to spare we managed to bag a couple of seats on the 4.00pm train to York.  As we settled in, Paul was keen to get back on line and check the Internet to see what I had been blogging all week.  He hadn’t quite realised just how much attention the story of Fred and the double bed had been getting. It was fun watching his face :-)  I enquired how the parting from his room Buddie had gone earlier that morning and apparently their last few shared words included “we probably won’t see each other again..”.

The end of a good story.  What will I blog about now?

Expecting to work in London the early part of this week and packing my suitcase accordingly, I now find myself on the 5.30pm train from Kings Cross back to York this evening.  The only downside is Paul is still away in Switzerland so this rare occurrence of my being at home mid-week will only be enjoyed by our two cats, who I am sure will show excitement and pleasure at my walking through the front gates when I eventually arrive back just after 8pm.  Of course this does also now present me with the problem of what to cook for dinner.  I don’t normally have to think of such things during the week when living out of a hotel room with restaurants nearby and room service a phone call away.

The moon, stars and planets must all be aligned at the moment, because the effects of combining a Pryor and a Durkin are truly kicking in today.  The morning started with me asking when I woke up; “Why does the clock say 5.40am?”, followed by, “Why didn’t the alarm go off?”.  We had set the alarm for 4.30am because Paul needed to catch the 6am train from York to get to Heathrow for his flight to Switzerland.  I won’t repeat what Paul said, when I repeated (and this time he heard me say) “Why does the clock say 5.40am?”

Having accepted the 6am train was no longer an option, we checked the train timetable and realised that with a bit of luck the 7am train would still get Paul to Heathrow in time for his flight.  So we got ready and headed to the station after a spot of breakfast.

Having bought the tickets at the station, the lady then kindly pointed out that there were service restrictions today and the train that normally takes two hours to get to London, would take three hours as it was going via Leeds.  She added for good measure that the 6am train was not affected and had run on time! I pointed out to her that she was not helping our mood.

Paul’s face sank. He would miss his flight.  We um-med and arr-ed a bit and then realised the only way was for me to drive him to Heathrow.  Thankfully the roads were quiet and I dropped Paul off at the new Terminal 5 just after 10am, turning round to drive straight back home again.

Paul caught his flight and had landed in Switzerland before I was anywhere near home.  The traffic coming back was horredous with holdups being caused by the repairs to the carriageway at the spot where we saw a car veer of the road and into the barriers, on our way down!  (the other side we might add!)