Good things to say about the trains shock!

After I'd driven into Leeds on Monday, I was left with a railway ticket that I hadn't used, and which was only valid for that day. Since I hadn't travelled because the train hadn't arrived, I thought I was probably entitled to a refund. But I had all sorts of images of being told to send some horrible form to Arriva trains, waiting about six months for my £13.30 and being charged a tenner for having tha audacity to ask for my money back (something of which the trainline is guilty, by the way).

So it was with some resignation that I stood in the queue at Preston station on Tuesday morning. I was all set for a bit of a ruck (I'm a bit grumpy at 7am in the winter).

Not a bit of it. I got to the end of the line, told the guy my story, he stamped my ticket and wrote an explanation on it, and it was valid for that day's journey. Bonus! The guard on the train took my ticket and was full of apologies about Monday's debacle to boot.

Just goes to show - some people do care. Mind you, there was no heating on the train this morning...

So there I was, 7am on a Monday morning, standing in the sub-zero air on the platform at Preston Station.

Because I’m a sensible chap, I’d got up a bit early to scrape the ice off the car windscreen and let the engine run a bit to allow the windows to demist. I’d known to get up early because it had been clear the day before, and as every six year old knows, a clear night in the winter means it will be cold the next morning. Anyway – because I’d made these preparations, I was at the station in good time.

You’d have thought the people at Blackpool station would have know to get there a bit early to make sure their trains weren’t frozen, wouldn’t you? But no. Two trains were cancelled and I ended up driving to work after 9am. I eventually got in at 11.15, more than four hours after I’d set off.

What a great country.

There's an old saying that I think is Chinese (and let's face it they usually are) that goes something like this:

When the father helps the son, everyone smiles. When the son helps the father, everyone is sad.

Now my parents, as I've mentioned, have just moved house, and they've quite a lot to do. We're going down there on the weekend to help out, and I'm beginning to get the impression that Dad's glad of the help.

Don't get me wrong - he's only 65, and still pretty fit. But there's no getting away from the fact that they're both getting older, and it's a funny feeling. After all, we all grow up thinking that our parents are gods. Then you realise that they're not perfect, next you realise they've spent the whole of their lives wrestling with exactly the same crap you have to work out, and then you realise they're as mortal as everyone else.

And somehow you never quite get around to telling them how much you love them.

One thing that’s struck me since I’ve been working back in the UK is how British people don’t understand lunch.

Let me explain. Sweden is a country that is quite rightly not known for its food (unless pea soup EVERY Thursday and Mexican food EVERY Friday is your thing), but they definitely understand lunch. Just off the top of my head I can think of ten places I used to go more or less regularly for my lunch from the office, and I’d sit for an hour or so in the company of my colleagues, pay something between 50 and 60 kronor and have a jolly time.

Singapore, of course, is obsessed with food. There are more places to eat there than there are days in most people’s lives – and again you’d go out for your lunch for an hour and relax.

In Britain, there doesn’t seem to be such a thing as the lunch hour, unless it’s spent shopping. And as for a decent, interesting lunch for under a fiver, forget it. You can get an overpriced sandwich from M&S or somewhere, a burger, a pastie (you don’t want to know) or nothing. And if you want to sit down, you can go and get some processed microwave crap from the pub or go to somewhere like Tampopo, which people here seem to think is the height of sophistication. In fact, it’s overpriced, pretentious and the food is a pale pastiche of South East Asian cuisine.

So all-in-all, I think I might as well just bring my own sandwiches!

Now there's no denying it - my blog is crap. You're reading it, too - which means you most likely have some, erm, issues. But enough of that. Here's one that's very, very good indeed:

Belle de Jour

The annoying thing is that I'm a professional writer and I can't do a decent blog, but this is the best I've ever seen and it comes from someone in an altogether different line of work...

Well, I packed Sam and Isobel off to Paris yesterday on Easyjet (can you believe it was just £70 return for the pair of them?!). Apparently they had a good flight and ended up with a whole row of seats. Well, would you want to sit next to a mother and toddler on a plane unless you absolutely had to?

On the way home I called in at IKEA to get some Swedish things for Christmas. Somehow I can’t shake off Christmas in Sweden – so much more fun and less fraught than in the UK. Anyway, I got some julmust, which is a beery (though non-alcoholic) soft drink that is only available at Christmas – plus a pepperkakor (gingerbread) house that Isobel will like very much I should imagine.

Strange being on my own. Usually it’s me that goes off for work – so I guess it’s my turn.

And by the way - Prince C****** is supposed to have had his c*** s****d by one of his servants. Big deal? Apparently.

Well, another week nearly over in Leeds. I drove over today, and it wasn’t half as bad as I was expecting. It wasn’t good, mind – stopped moving three times on the motorway – but I got to Leeds before 9am having left at about 7.20 so it could have been worse. And the carpark wasn’t as expensive as it might have been, so all-in-all I’m pleasantly surprised.

Samantha and Isobel are off to Paris for next week, to stay with her sister (Samantha’s sister that is – as far as I know Isobel has no siblings). It’ll be strange without them – usually it’s me that leaves them at home when I’m working away or whatever. Still, at least I’ll be busy coming over here every day.

Work seems to be going very well. I did a really nice (even though I say so myself) Direct Mail piece for Sharp photocopiers which seems to have been pretty well received, and there’s a bunch of other stuff in the pipeline. So hopefully I shall be sticking around!