I got up just before 6 am and was out of the house for just after seven. This was to be the start of 800 miles of travel today, for a job interview in Swindon. It never happened.
I mentioned before about the BROD. If I see rabbits on my journey — those cute and cuddly little things — I am doomed for bad luck. I didn’t realise at the time, but seeing a huge gang of them on my train journey just before Durham would spell out the ultimate disaster.
I managed to get as far as just outside Sheffield when the bad news started. Quite frankly it was unbelievable. It is an apparently frequent problem around these parts that some chavs steal a length of signal cable and renders that part of the track dangerous. Ten years ago it wouldn’t have mattered; but now the announcer insists that the train would have to terminate at Sheffield. I was rather hoping it would get me to Bristol Parkway, as per my ticket.
I was still hopeful I might get there in time for my connection; however the coach drivers were particularly rubbish. Derby is around 35 miles away from Sheffield, but somehow it managed to take an hour and a half via Chesterfield. I had to cancel my interview.
And so my journey back began. It seemed they had now fixed this cabling problem, but had not sorted out the train cancellations as I had to stand from Derby to Wakefield-Westgate for the return leg. I managed to get back home for about a quarter to five. And when I got back, I received a letter informing me of another interview for next Tuesday — and really is another story.