A week late

Yesterday I had to travel to Denham for a supplier conference. I had decided to travel south on a more interesting route, and to redeem some rewards points to try the first class lounges.

I went into the lounge at Darlington and had a couple of coffees and some biscuits waiting for my Cross Country service to Sheffield. This was a once a day service using the Great Central route from Mexborough through Kilnhurst avoiding Swinton. The old road was slow as expected and the Voyager cramped, but made an interesting change from the usual blast down the East Coast.

I had 10 minutes in Sheffield to change onto an East Midlands Meridian to St Pancras. Considering these are mechanically clones of Voyagers the contrast is stark - plenty of room, plenty of tables that line up with windows. How could these trains have a layout so right when their voyager cousins are so wrong?

On arrival in London I spent an hour in the lounge at Kings Cross - more coffee, more biscuits, plus fruit and crisps. Then over to Denham. It was raining hard in London, but on arrival at Denham we were just ahead of the leading edge of the storm, allowing me to walk up to head office without getting wet.

And that's when I found out I was a week late! But the buyer was very accommodating! That meant that my expected 2 hour meeting lasted half that, so a taxi in the teeming rain to Gerrards Cross (photo) for a non-stop 168 blast to Marylebone, then another spell in the Kings Cross lounge before my train home.