My sister has a friend who lives in northwest London and had a significant birthday on Saturday 6 April. My sister can’t travel that far on on her own, so I went south to take her to the birthday party. Our travel should have been

• Bruce: Friday 5 April
  • Edinburgh to Birmingham (train, 15:08 to 20:05)
  • Birmingham to Worcester (train, 21:00 to 21:47)
• Bruce and sister: Saturday 6 April
  • Worcester to Paddington (train, 10:17 to 12:53)
  • Paddington to King’s Cross to Pinner (tube: 13:30-ish to 14:30-ish)

But then came the strikes, so the actual travel was:

• Bruce: Friday 5 April
  • Edinburgh to York (train, 13:00 to 15:31)
  • York to Manchester Victoria (train, 15:50 to 17:19)
  • Manchester Victoria to Manchester Piccadilly (taxi, 17:25 to 1735)
  • At this point, I discover the 18:03 to Birmingham has been cancelled, despite being told a day or so before it would run. So, after munching a masala dosa at Sthan M1:
  • Manchester to Birmingham (coach, 20:30 to 22:55)
  • Birmingham to Worcester (my brother’s car, 23:00 to 00:55) Huge thanks to my brother for booking the coach ticket and coming to Birmingham to pick me up.
• Bruce and sister: Saturday 6 April
  • sister’s home to Worcester Shrub Hill (taxi, 09:20 to 09:30)
  • Worcester to Birmingham (train, 09:55 to 10:45)
  • Birmingham to Euston (train, 11:06 to 13:17)
  • Euston to King’s Cross (tube – we got herded towards the Victoria line instead of the Metropolitan line)
  • King’s Cross to Pinner (tube, arriving about 14:30), where we were inconvenienced again
    
  • Pinner to Baker St to Euston (tube: the first train stopped at Baker St for no good reason)
• Euston to Birmingham (tube, 19:16 to 20:48)
• As we arrive, the station is being evacuated due to an ’emergency’, so we freeze outside for 30 minutes.
• Birmingham to Worcester (train: 20:21 to 21:30)
• Worcester to sister’s house (taxi)

My travel home today was also fun:

• sister’s house to Worcester Foregate St (sister-in-law’s car 12:30 to 12:45)
• Worcester to Birmingham (train, 13:24 to 14:09, 6 minutes late departing and arriving)
• Birmingham to Edinburgh (train, 15:03 to 20:05, stupidly crowded due to cancellations so I couldn’t do any work, 30 minutes late due to backlog caused by flooding near Morpeth
• Edinburgh Waverley to home.

That’s more than enough travel tribulations for now. But it’s all first-world problems – I could so easily be in worse circumstances!