Refrain on a train,
Will I see this place again
Next time I come travelling with you.
I woke up in the night and thought of those words. Got up and wrote em in my notebook. They came with a tune but that was a little bit too ‘country’ and probs already sounded like most other country songs so not original enough. Will think of something.
On the 07.30. Someone sat in my seat. Not a biggie although there was only one other person in the carriage so why she chose mine is a mystery.
Well actually she had booked the seat next to me. Why on earth would you choose a seat next to someone when there are loads of others unreserved? When I booked it there was no one else on the table.
It gets worse. She is very talkative. It’s her birthday on Thursday. She is off to London for one night today and then Birmingham for three nights on Friday. She works for the NHS, is a Christian and is using up her holiday at a time of year when nobody else wants to take holiday. Always takes Easter weekend off though, natch.
There you go. And the train hasn’t even left the station.
The Grimsby train has just pulled in on the opposite platform.
Last train to Grimsby. Has a finality to it. In reality it is probably the first. New destination, new beginnings.
Outside, a medium frost carpets the ground. Dappled red clouds frame a fading pallet sky with delicate outlines of trees softening the motionless edge of frozen Lincolnshire fields. Nothing moves. A large stack of straw bales waits patiently.
Quite a few people have got on at Newark. I’ve moved my bag to the rack above, largely to make it obvious that her large bag and voluminous coat on the seat next to her (the one she booked) is a bit anti-social. This does come with risks. Someone might come and sit next to me. I’ve left the aisle seat free as my originally booked seat, the one she is occupying, was the one opposite and I didn’t fancy having to avoid playing footsie.
I expect she is a bit disappointed I am not being chatty. Twirly man, twirly. As it is I never have a good night’s sleep before catching the 07.30. Indeed the only time I really get that train nowadays is if I’m off to LHR which is the case this morning.
Frost does bestow the landscape with an ethereal beauty.
This trip is the next chapter in the dad and lad series of jaunts whereby I take an offspring off on a jaunt with daddy. It isn’t always dad and lad. The next one will be dad and daughter but we are already planning into 2024 for that.
We are currently hurtling towards Grantham. Whilst somewhat melodramatic the use of the word ‘hurtling’ is, I feel, quite appropriate. A powerful momentum. I quite like the notion of not stopping at Grantham even though it is scheduled. The look on the faces of passengers waiting on the platform would be quite amusing. Obvs this is a very anti-social thought and not one that is likely to be put into practice but bemusing nonetheless.
Amusing little footnote to that last paragraph. We didn’t stop at Grantham. It wasn’t scheduled anyway 🙂
I don’t mind chatting with other people on the train. Often do. I’m a chatty kind of guy. There is such a thing as overly chatty at seven thirty in the morning though.
We are pulling into Peterborough. Even a pristine frost can’t make Peterborough look nice.
Peterborough has a new university, opened in 2022 according to the sign.
Swords and ploughshares. Just passed a couple of fields containing ridges created by the mediaeval technique of ploughing. Looked it up. Made me think of swords and ploughshares. Violent death or the slow grinding away of body and spirit.
Moments in time. Moments of madness. Intimacy. Imagine if time stopped, momentarily. Freeze frame.
The clear skies of Stevenage.
The wine society, since 1874.
The Redeemed Christian Church of God United Kingdom
See it, Say it, Sorted.