Monday 18 December 2023
Goodness, it’s a week until Christmas Day. There is no point commenting further, I have resigned myself to a scraping-by kind of Christmas. I’ve sort of done most things I really need to do. Sort of. I now have loads to get done (not Christmas-related) before I head for London again on Thursday. I can’t imagine, no matter where I live, not having loads to do in the run-up to Christmas. And this year I only have one Christmassy thing planned, though potential for last minute plans, which are my favourite kinds of ‘plans’.
One of the joys of Scottish train stations, other than the very big stations like Edinburgh and Glasgow, is that the parking is free and unlimited. Before heading to London almost two weeks ago, I parked, well within a space. When I got back on Saturday, I immediately noticed that someone had scraped my car. It is ‘only’ a scrape, but I hate the fact that some incompetent ‘driver’ managed to damage my car and just drove off. I don’t know what you should do in that situation, but it seems so deceitful to just drive off.
However, by that point, my main aim was able to get my suitcase full of Qatari nuts, dried fruit and spices home without incident, which I succeeded in doing.
I caught a train from Euston at 09:30, a Glasgow train, which I disembarked at Carlisle. I caught as early a train as possible as I took advantage of jetlag and having been used to three hours ahead of UK time (re-reading this, I realise I am repeating myself from my previous post – too much on my mind in December and it later transpired that I had Covid at that point). I also knew that not having a reservation on a Saturday train in the run-up to Christmas might be quite tense. Every seat in the reserved carriages seemed to be booked. I didn’t bother looking in the unreserved carriages because most people had already boarded by the time I got to the train. Fortunately, sitting in the first row of the first carriage, at the front of the train thus furthest from the gateline, no one came to claim their reservation and I had two seats to myself until I got off the train. I had to leave my case in the next carriage along. Why on earth do UK long distance trains leave so little room for luggage?
Returning to Scotland, it’s made a big difference to the temperature indoors now that it’s more than 10°C warmer than it was when I left. It’s not toasty, neither is it warm, but it’s a lot easier to manage. That said, there is a part of me increasingly enthusiastic about returning to London and the warmth of the flat.