Of taxis, trains and automobiles............................

I seem to have spent the majority of my weekend in a variety of tin boxes, in some cases an enjoyable experience and in others - definitely NOT enjoyable.
It all started when I decided to visit Grantham again for Dad's birthday and Father's Day. Now, remembering my last experience of visiting resulted in my "breaking" my ankle - maybe I should have been more wary!
Anyway, did what I needed to do at work, chaired an examboard and then left at lunchtime to beat the traffic. Ha!

Tin Box #1: My car. Pootling along, M62 busy but not too bad - ipod on shuffle playing bizarre combinations of Mario Lanza, Sweet, Carpenters and Thin Lizzy - to name a few (is my taste eclectic or just plain mad?), sun shining, stomach anticipating a stop at a Little Chef, all was well with the world. Then, as I joined the A1 - they closed it!! Spent the next 3 hours sandwiched between lorries, white van men (out of their vehicles and constantly bemoaning the fact that they might miss the England game that night (by all accounts they needn't have bothered!) and a ferrari (so I was in good company!). Didn't want to play ipod as

no charger in car, so spent the time people watching, gazing into space and occasionally phoning husband for sympathy (ha! very little forthcoming just the usual lecture about the state of the country blah blah blah!!!).
Finally made it to Grantham 5 and half hours after setting off on a 2 hour journey!
After a lovely birthday meal and evening that night, we had a trip planned to spend the day in York being tourist.

Tin box #2: taxi to the train station. Station approximately 2 miles from Dad's so can't have been in the taxi more that 10 minutes - but in that time I learned practically all there was to know about the driver - plays church organ in about 10 local churches (not at the same time obviously!), is an electronics engineer, only drives in his spare time, comes from Yorkshire.......... was exhausted by the time we reached the station!

Tin box #3: train to York. Packed! Hadn't booked seats! Managed to find 2 together and spent most of the hour long journey gazing out the window at the beautiful countryside. Announcer in train rather amusing - (when you read this take a big breath and then speak on the breath release as though you are sooo bored with saying it) "Please check that you have all your belongings with you as you leave the train".
Arrived in York and decided to start as we meant to go on so:

Tin box #4: City Tours Bus. Decided to brave the threat of rain and sit on the top deck. On the first bus was a live guide commenting on various land marks and snippets of local information and gossip. As we got to the Minster we noticed crowds gathering so got off to watch the Yorkshire Regiment Freedom Parade. Very stirring.

The next few hours were spent eating, drinking and walking taking in such sights as The Shambles, Betty's Tea Rooms and other tourist areas - leading to the Jorvic Museum for:

Tin Box #5: the ride at the Jorvic Viking Centre This takes you through a simulation of a Viking settlement with the sounds, sights and smells of that era. Had wanted to do this for a number of years and I have to say I was disappointed! Felt very commercial in a "pack em in, throw em out" sort of way.

Tin Box #6: back to the City Tours Bus to finish the tour. Most amusing moment came when cd of guide (very posh lady voice) was switched to live bus driver (not posh and v. yorkshire) as the route had been amended due to gas works. The driver then gave us a commentary on the detour - imagine a thick yourshire accent - "well, not much t'see ere. Sum 'ouses made o'brick wi'garages" (we were travelling through a council estate) "thur's a dog", etc etc -I think it might catch on!

Tin BOx # 7: train back to Grantham. Packed! Again! Spent most of journey next to bloke who spread himself over his seat and mine, reading a lad's mag and sniffing loudly - every 5 seconds - I nearly offered him a tissue! Guard had minor contretemps with a passenger who had got the wrong ticket and made big show of the fact that he had made the announcement before we set off that tickets like his were not accepted on this train. This resulted in him coming over the PA system everytime we stopped repeating at least 3 times in a very martyrd voice "please, please, please note - I repeat please note that tickets stamped "Caledonian" are not accepted on this train".
The general public can be such a trial!!!

The rest of the weekend can be summed up as spending time with family, going out for lunch and then an uneventful journey home (thank goodness) where I now have to swap suitcases and pack for conference in Brighton starting tomorrow.