The Anonymous Widower

Travelling with Time to Spare

Since I’ve had the stroke, I try to make things easier for myself. 

Take yesterday, as I had to get to Heathrow for BA 027 that left at 21:25, I decided that it would be a good idea to get my taxi to drop me at Whittlesford to catch the 16:30 train for Tottenham Hale.  There it was to be the Victoria Line and Piccadilly Line to the airport for about an eighty-minute ride with just one walk across the platform at Finsbury Park.

But two things happened.

I forget to take my driving licence and we had to go back.  It was only a delay of about five minutes, but it made things tight. 

And then the automatic machine at the station wouldn’t serve me any suitable ticket.  What I wanted was an open return with my Senior railcard.  In the end I settled on a single to Tottenham Hale.  I know in the cost of the this trip, it is a small thing, but if you do look after the pennies, you can afford to do the bits where the style is worth it!

I’d been on the train for a couple of minutes, when I noticed the train was going to Broxbourne.  Weird! Then I found out the lines were down and it would be a bus from Broxbourne to Cheshunt.

Oh! Well!

I still had plenty of time.  But then we waited and waited outside Harlow for well over half-an-hour after a bit of a crawl from just before Bishops Stortford.  I was starting to get worried.  I do seem to worry more, but perhaps it’s just worried about being worried and stressed. Perhaps, I should try Yoga!

We got to Harlow about six and I saw a taxi and asked the driver to take me to the Tube.  I had thought about Redbridge or Walthamstow, but he suggested rightly that Epping would be better.

And so I had a marathon ride from one end of the Tube network to the other with just a change from the Central Line to the Piccadilly Line at Holborn.  I was safely in Heathrow at eight-fifteen after an hour and three quarters and forty stations.  Note that this isn’t far out from the formula of two minutes a station and fibve minutes for a change.

I wish though that I’d missed the first train.  I would have found out what had happened and the taxi could have taken me to Cambridge, where I could have gone to Kings Cross at speed.

But I didn’t!  In the end nothing really happened except more stress than I wanted, which could have been avoided by better thought on  my part and better information on that of National Express.

May 12, 2010 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Airlines, Heathrow Airport, Trains