under another sun

Devil trains part two today. Lorraine dropped me near the station early today, and I was able to catch an even earlier train from Brighton. Arrived at Clapham to find it in chaos. Obviously the all the Shepperton trains I catch to Hampton were cancelled, but so were those to Kingston. Spent almost an hour there before being able to catch a train in the right direction. Arrived with exactly the same lateness as yesterday, but with the earlier start that was well over three hours. Work again fine. Pat there too today. Went to the pub at lunchtime with The FB, Pat, Keith and Joe, where we sat around the bar in the Jolly Coopers, and unlike yesteryear, I had a shandy and a fish finger sandwich, before repairing back to the agency. The FB bought a signed copy of Magnificent Grace from me which I signed for his boy Elijah.  Left with Pat and caught the train with him, and again was home easily. I had been briefed with lots of copy to write, so it was agreed I could work at home tomo...

Horrid nightmares last night. Up early and had a shower. Lorraine off early to go to the gym. I opened the front door into a deluge at 7:05 this morning. Ducked back in for my golfing umbrella and then walked down to Preston Park in diabolical horizontal rain, and a crack of thunder overhead as I was threading past tall trees holding my metal rod aloft. The gutters rushing like brisk mountain streams. I bought a cup of tea from The Daily Grind by the station, and the woman next to me said, 'this is like the end of days', which made me laugh. Everything in my rucksack soaked, luckily my laptop still worked. Even after reached Hampton, (slightly late due to train delays obvs.) my jeans weren't dry till about two o'clock in the afternoon. A pleasant enough day, although the client had moved all the goalposts, thus reducing the amount of work to be done.  Nice chat with Keith, and with Bouncy Max,  who was financial controlling for the day. She is in good form as ever. My...

Up with the larks, and down to Preston Park to attempt, unsuccessfully, to get a pass backdated to cover yesterday for twenty minutes at Preston Park. The man there ended up stamping my old tickets with a permission to travel today. He poked them into my travel card holder, where they instantly smudged unreadably. Tweeted to Southern, no joy. Arrived at Clapham Junction, got off the train which then killed someone as it pulled out of the station. Luckily I did not see this, nor did I attempt to ghoul. Felt  horrible about the poor soul who, as I read later in the day, had died instantly. Utter mayhem again. I phoned Lorraine in the middle of it, feeling really stressed. No trains at all, a helicopter landing nearby and so on. After huge delays, and being shepherded to another platform,  we were told to travel into Waterloo, (where I had to make various explanations about smudged, unorthodox tickets) then back out to Kingston. From there I caught a pink taxi, for the fairly s...