Betwixt the Winterim 2019/2020
“Beez are always at the front”, said Martine of the LNER EAST COAST AZUMA train staff. The customary pre-sedentary scrum was about to take place as despite making “reservations”, the train company likes to have fun by not naming the carriages. (Ah, Beez Seez and Deez…..I get it).
This dear Reader is an interim Betwixt bloggage before returning to major Stateside activities in 2020, thus we involve UK travels, with a snatch of Parisien Eurostar poured in (myself and colleague and buddy on A French Pont):
But back to Yorkshireford. There are some expressions in our English language that can still warm the cockles. One, of course, is: “Welcome to the Skipton Train”. This is spoken in a mid-Kensington BBC announcer kind of accent, so consequently totally incomprehensible to the Yorkshire passengers contained within said vehicle…. still we made it, and I was indeed relieved to be back in the freezing torrential drizzles of West Yorks, 2019, as it was.
Return. Then.
Still. In the first class compartment of “Azuma” heading southwards to Londiniumshireford, the chap next to me when offered a sandwich asks “Anything Vegan?”. The most harrassed Trolley Operative replies “yes, Brie and Cranberry”.
After this excitement I ventured to the WC, though how it manages to contain baby changing facilities yet eschew anyone more than 26 inch waist (my ship sailed years ago) from actually sitting down on said Khazi, heaven knows.
Oh dearest of Readers (where’ve you gone?). Don’t worry, overseas international travel tales will reappear from April 2020. Meanwhile….
We switch to the NHS in January 2020 and my imminent cataract operation any minute now imminently, for three and a half hours. Soon. Am greeted by a door that says “No Way In, No Way Out”. Brexit cutbacks methinks? I then go into the Pellet Room, whereupon a pellet is inserted into my eye. Nice. I’m wondering whether the window view of fog over the Thames and Big Ben is actually a symptom of my problem, my treatment, or simply Fog Over The Thames.
Well let’s face it, a 48 minute operation followed by five hours of further tests and 15 eye drops a day following a liquid squeezing out additional procedure akin to a tyre being let down to ease the pressure, this really is the sort of thing most loyal followers would do without.
So let’s just say, roll on Spring (which sounds like a painful deodorant).