Friday, 17th January
Chilson to Gatwick
Start of the holidays with an air of expectation! Weather forecast for St Lucia looks like a mixture of wind and rain – no mention of wall to wall sunshine. Car left at De’s and train to Gatwick from Charlbury. First incident at Charlbury station. There was a white car parked right in the middle of the car park in front of the ticket office – nowhere near any kerb – obviously someone who expected everyone to work around them! I had already bought tickets the previous Wednesday at the station having had difficulty buying online. The online app had tried to force me to book tickets changing at Paddington and then Farringdon to Gatwick. I didn’t want the trouble of traipsing across London with the suitcases and thought the best route was to change at Reading and get the direct train to Gatwick. We were in the waiting room when I overheard a conversation between a lady and whoever was manning the ticket office. (Gary as it happens.) The lady was complaining about a return ticket to Gatwick and being told to go via Farringdon and East Croydon. I got up to offer my experience, but quickly gave up when I realised the lady was probably the owner of the white car in the car park. She had already bought her tickets via Trainline and was berating Gary for the route she had selected! I decided to leave her to it. Her main gripe was that she didn’t want to return from Gatwick to Charlbury via East Croydon, or Farringdon come to that; she wanted to return via Victoria as she normally did. Her to and fro with Gary wasn’t helped by the fact that both of them had missed the point that Trainline had a) selected the fastest route from Gatwick to Charlbury on the date and time she had presumably requested, and b) Trainline had then sold her a split ticket with two legs, one from Gatwick to East Croydon and the other from East Croydon to Charlbury. The lady continued to moan about having to change at East Croydon, particularly as she would arrive at 18:41 and was supposed to depart at the same time. Gary wisely said he couldn’t do anything about it and she should contact Trainline. In the end she gave up and went out in a huff, with the final remark that she wasn’t going to pay any parking fine! (I think for overstaying her time at the station, not her awful parking!) Still, it made waiting for our train more interesting, if a little frustrating by the lack of understanding on both their parts.
Charlbury behind us, we arrived at Reading in time to buy lunch. Jo settled for a bag of quavers and a can of gin and tonic. Following Jo’s lead, I had a prawn sandwich, bag of crisps and a can of gin and tonic as well. Now for my moan. For a train going to Gatwick Airport, it would be reasonable to expect space for luggage, but, oh no. A train full of passengers with huge suitcases blocking seats. With our meagre suitcases we took up four seats. A couple the other side of the aisle took six seats for them and their luggage. Luckily the sight of two old people drinking G&Ts out of cans put off anyone who thought of asking us to make room for them.
Highlight of the day was meeting Sam, Chloe, Seb and Max for a drink at the Hilton where we were staying for the night. Waving them goodbye we had a light meal at the Japanese restaurant – very tasty, not too large and reasonably priced. Off to bed for an early night and setting an alarm for 5:30…
