Monday 25th May 09

Beth woke me up at sometime after 7 as I needed to leave the house at about 8, in order to get to the nearest station by 8.28, to get to Peckham Rye by 9.30 and meet Anna. A quick breakfast and goodbyes, walked up to the station, got a ticket to where I wanted to go and caught a train four minutes earlier than expected all the way to Victoria, as suggested.

However, when I got to the ticket barrier at Victoria, it wouldn't accept my ticket... and the member of staff looked at the ticket and pointed out that it said 'not valid via London' and he said that I'd have to speak to the barrier person at platforms 1-7. So when I did this, they wouldn't let me through either, and told me to go to the ticket office to get sorted out. I did this and the only option was to be sold a ticket from Clapham Junction to Peckham Rye for another £2.10. This meant that I got through the barriers and on to Peckham Rye by 9.30, and Anna arrived with my keys, a teeshirt and NewScientist. So much for leaving in a hurry the previous morning...

I gave Anna a book I'd got at the conference on Sunday morning which I thought she'd be interested in... she was delighted as it definitely was right up her street, so her walk to the station was worth it for her too.

I got the bus to Kings Cross, waited for the platform to be announced and got on the train which left at 11. I had some nice chats with the family sitting in the 3 seats with me, but I couldn't use my laptop for very long as the plug socket in the carriage wasn't delivering any power, and the battery on this thing doesn't last very long without the mains, perhaps about 30 or 40 minutes!

Anyway, York appeared soon and I cycled home via Country Fresh and Freshways, getting in at 1.30.

The boys were delighted to see me, they'd all had a good time, with a visit to Scarborough and fun with Simon and his son, and Gill was pleased I'd got such a lot from the conference. I don't think she missed me, perhaps as I did ring every evening to see how things were!

I had lunch and Gill asked me to go and do some shopping, so I did that and then spent some time in the garden, planting beans, squash, peas, and weeding and piling stuff into a couple of dalek bins. Nice to be back!

Gill made a quiche and cooked the potatoes I bought, and we had a lovely evening together, watching Ideal and talking over some of our weekend.