The First Great Western Blues

So, there I was, Monday morning, first day back at work after two weeks off. Rock up to the station at 08:00, to discover - no trains. For TWO WEEKS. Not only this, but the rail replacement coach went at 07:30, meaning I'd missed it by half an hour, and the next one scheduled would mean not getting to work until 10:00. Not good.

So I speed walk down to the town centre to get a bus. Which I then watch pull out and pass me nary a minute shy of the stop. GAH!

Reader, I had to get a taxi. Twenty-two quid to Truro station. Mmph. Although fair (fare?) do's* to the driver, he quoted me that and then turned off the machine when it reached it, even though we were still stuck in traffic a few minutes (and therefore several quid) away.

So I get out the taxi and see the bus to the hospital pulling out across the road and motoring into the distance. GAHx2.

Turns out you can walk Truro station to Treliske in just over 15 minutes (for those unfamiliar, this is quite a long way, and up hill. Usually takes me 25 minutes, and I walk fast at the best of times).

Oh, and did I mention it was raining on me?

So anyway, fast forward to yesterday (which is an odd sort of phrase) and we get on the coach to come home again. Coach won't start. Coach very much dead.

They do, surprisingly, have a replacement, but this is an ordinary town circular bus with very very hard seats. And then there's an accident on the main road home, so we are stuck in traffic for AGES. And all the while the person in the seat behind me is sniffing, wetly and loudly, ALL THE WAY HOME. Ick.

Today the bugger starts, which is an improvement, but when we've oh-so-nearly made it to the final stretch (and just after I've started wondering why we've come this way instead today, which is far bloody longer), an accident just ahead of us blocks the whole road. This means the driver reversing a big coach a long way down a twisty road** in the wrong lane, past the queued traffic and then driving ALL THE WAY BACK to the previous station, to take the other road (the way we should have gone in the first place). And this time I had someone talking very loudly on a mobile right behind me all the time.

So, what's going to go wrong tomorrow do we reckon?



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* Should that apostrophe be there? I can't decide. These things worry me.
** Into Ponsanooth, from the Treluswell end.