On to Twickenham

I didn't have to start particularly early on Monday. Rachel had things to do in the morning, so I made the most of a fairly leisurely beginning. After all, I needed to negotiate the intricacies of the London rail network, and everyone was telling me that there was a serious risk of my getting lost.

Viv drove me to New Eltham station, thinking that it might make for a cheaper ticket, but it really saved nothing in that respect, however, my memory is that New Eltham doesn't have the steps to negotiate that Sidcup does, so that was good when I had a couple of bags to drag around.

Then came the bad news. There was a power failure (one circulating rumour was that there had been a fatality) at Dartford, and up to 11 trains were queued up, some intended for New Eltham.

Then came the good news. Fortunately, the previous train for London Waterloo eventually came through, about 15 minutes after my train had been due.

Then came the bad news. I realised that my phone was losing charge more rapidly than I had anticipated. I was faced with a quandary: call Rachel now and let her know I was running late, or save the remaining charge in case I needed to phone from Twickenham Station? I chose the latter course and turned my phone off.

Waterloo Station is a vast complex. I actually had to come in at Waterloo East, and transfer to Waterloo main station. It was fiddly, but worked out eventually.

Part of the Waterloo Station concourse.

At Twickenham, I phoned a somewhat anxious Rachel who had arrived at 12:30 and, not finding me, was worried that I might have been lost in London Railways Space - a fate akin to being lost in cyberspace, but less likely to ever be resolved.

We finally connected, and went to Ham House on the banks of the Thames near Richmond. After that we went to the school to collect James and then went home.

Thames bank

Ham House