Thursday 11 October 2007

Nice Things

Visaman's friend joined us on the train today. Apparently the 7.18 is more like catching the train at lunchtime for him. This Jolly decent fellow went to buy us all tea from the buffet which was very nice. Sadly I have lost my thermos flask - left it on the train earlier this week. A part of me wondered if one of the regulars might have noticed and picked it up for me but to be honest I didn't really expect anything. The Lady Wife informed me that the flask was £3 from Wilkinsons so not a great loss... actually the price of 2 cups of tea from the buffet.

Very high quality of announcements today - sadly not the quite brilliant Roy Harley but this chap gavce details of where we could travel to if we wanted to get off the train at places like Oxford and Didcot. The possibilities are almost endless - if you include Reading, they are ACTUALLY endless.

I'm waiting for when we hear the annoucement along the following lines: "Laydees and Gennelmen, we are now approaching Reading. Change here for trains to the south west, south wales, connections to the North and the rail air coach link to Heathrow Airport with connections to Africa, America, South East Asia and mainland Europe. Those passengers wishing to take the Mars Explorer will need to go to Terminal 4 and take the 0900 hours BA flight to Houston from where they may take an onward service into Space."

The other one that I notice at the moment is "Laydees and Gennelmen, we are now on final approach for Reading and we should be at the platform in 2 minutes. Please remain in your seats until the train has come to a complete halt at the platform and the driver has turned off the seatbelt signs. CREW: Doors to manual and cross check."

Hmmmm, anyone missed out on a career in aviation?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Is it Stroud or Stonehouse where you are only allowed to use the first 2 coaches of the train due to teh length of the platform???

I was on a train recently (Paddington to Cheltenham) where there was a Very Posh Lady who obviously hadn't travelled on a train in many a year who hadn't listened to the Very Funny Train Manager (Imagine Billy Connely but short, fat and not funny) who said that 'passengers wishing to alight (is that a word that is used anywhere but on trains) must use the first 2 carriages. Needless to say Very Posh Lady had NO IDEA at all and tried to get out the 7th carriage...and when failed came running in with arms flailing, Gucci bags fling around and shouting...'I can't get out'....unsurprisingly the regular commuters looked at her in an amused sort of way (we needed light relief as we had been travelling for 95 minutes and most laptop batteries (with the exception of my MacBook Pro) had run out. Anyway...she waddled up the carriage to find a door that:

a)opened

b)didn't involve a abseil to ground level

Some bright spark was heard to comment that 'she probably had people to sort out things like this'.

Trains...the great leveller.

WWJD - Probably have helped her and mentioned camels and needles.

WWJBD - Probably have realised that she was unwittingly carrying the launch codes and must be stopped before El Akbhar Sharif could remove them from her...

NOTE: J - Jesus, JB - Jack Bauer