On the train again!

Travelling back from London to Manchester on the train, I am struck by just how much space some people take up on the seats. The young man sitting next to me is an example. It’s not just the man-spreading - and there is a fair bit of that, so that his large thighs impinge on my space - it’s also the fact that he is generally large. I suppose he must be quite tall as even sitting he seems to give that impression. And he is wide to match.

It’s a good job I am not equally large or we would spill out into the aisle.

Across the aisle sits a young woman who takes up almost half of the seat next to hers. When did people grow so big? Even some of the children on the train seem larger than expected!

I woke this morning to a brilliant blue sky and sunshine to go with it. So we made plans for the morning. But first I had to pack up my goods and chattels. I had thought my bag would be lighter on my return journey. After all, on the way there I was weighed down with a stack of birthday for the small granddaughter. So there should have been a load of space. No way!

Instead I was loaned a number of books and given a bag full of clothing that the small granddaughter had grown out of. This last I am to pass on to small granddaughter’s even smaller cousin. And so we do our bit for recycling.

After breakfast we put my stuff into the car and drove down into town and then walked to the park. There we made shoe-prints in the slight snowfall on the children’s playground. Surprisingly my boots turned out to have swirling sunshine patterns on the soles. Who knew? Obviously I have never looked at the underside before.

My daughter-in-law and I tried to persuade the small granddaughter to go on the new, space-age, hi-tech chrome see-saw by getting on it ourselves. She would not join in but we did make her laugh.


It was bitter cold so we did not hang around long in the playground but walked downhill to the pond, where ducks and geese and seagulls were busily skating! The ice was clearly not thick enough to support people but the ducks were occasionally fooled as they came down to land on the water and found themselves sliding. Always good for a laugh! We skidded sticks across the ice to see whose could go farthest!

Our progress to the station was slower than planned, so we forewent the planned hot chocolate and I got straight onto the train to Euston Square. Except that as it set off it changed its destination and told us it was stopping at Harrow-on-the-Hill. This did cause me some stress but eventually the driver reassured us that it was just this train that was having problem. It had been badly graffitied earlier in the morning and was being withdrawn from service for cleaning.

There would be another train from Harrow-on-the-Hill within minutes, he promised, and this proved to be the case.

And so I was in plenty of time for my walk from Euston Square to Euston Station to catch a train which was on time and without problems.

Apart, that is, for large fellow passengers!