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.
Heathrow Express or Not
From where I live, Heathrow Airport is not the easiest place to get to. If I was going for a week or so, I’d leave my car with the valet parking and drive. C and I once went by bus from Newmarket and that was fine, except that they are every two hours. When will they learn that to get people to use public transport, you need a decent frequency.
I will take the train from Whittlesford and then the Victoria Line into London. But instead of taking the tube to Paddington, I’ll do a cross-platform change to the Piccadilly Line at Finsbury Park and go straight to the airport. London Transport say it is 20 minutes slower than the Heathrow Express, but it won’t involve any humping of baggage up and down steps.
The Anonymous Widower 