June 21st: Homecoming... a very wet homecoming

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June 21st: After yesterday's travel debacle I didn't really want to take any risks, so I set off nice and early. I don't want to get too poetic but there is something lovely about walking in England after a brief spell of rain, the air smells so sweet (apart from the car exhaust fumes).
Collected my ticket and, though I was planning on staying at the station, I've popped off to subway for a quick breakfast... not too much of a risk hopefully as I plan on being back at the station 30-40 minutes before departure (famous last words).
~slightly later~
Well luckily I was organised; I got to the station and was told to go to platform 1, found that the only train going from platform 1 was to London Kings Cross (I'm going to Leeds via Ely and Peterborough)! So I asked someone else and he said, "oh no, you want that train on platform 4... the one that's just leaving (!!)" so I ran along and the guy there told me "no, you want the Norwich train on platform 5" ...I am now on the Norwich train and they've said that Ely is one of the stops, so "whew!"
~later~
The rest of the trip was fairly simple, Ely looked like it only had a couple of platforms so it wasn't too hard finding the Peterborough train and from Peterborough the train I was catching terminated in Leeds so that was easy pease.
Got plenty of my book (Stephen King's "11:22:63") read, and saw a nice bit of English countryside into the bargain.
Arriving in Leeds was strange; I haven't lived here for over 3 1/2 years and yet, as I exited the station I felt as though I'd just been away somewhere for the weekend and was coming home. After a quick bit of a wander I got my HSBC acount back up and running (my library card was a lost cause though) which was great as it meant I could deposit all my pounds and not be carrying large sums of money around on my person!
I went to the courts and my friend Emma took me in to say 'hi' to everybody. It was great catching up with people though there were a lot of faces I didn't recognise.
Went down to long term filing (my job for most of my time in Leeds) and as soon as I got in there the sights and smells "took me back" as did the sight of Dave Masters, my musical swami. We had a cup of tea and a good old chat just like we always did, sadly he can't make it to the drinks tomorrow bedcause he's off to see Bruce "the boss" Springsteen, but i'm sure he'll have a good time nonetheless.
I then went with Emma out to 'Mabel' her alarmingly-yellow little car and we braved rivers, tsunamis and lakes as the rain came and kept on coming!
Emma's boyfriend Gav had a guitar at the house, so I was able to break my week of guitar-drought!! Gav, Emma & I hung out, watched Portugal vs Czech republic in the Eurocup (their player Ronaldo seems like a bit of a self important arrogant tit) and had a few beers. By the time it came to sleep there was no problem... oddly I'm still feeling traces of jetlag. When I came across here in 2007 it hit me hard for a couple of days and that was it, this time it hasn't been as intense but boy oh boy does it have stamina!

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Photos

Leeds
Leeds: note, photo taken on a sunnier day than the one I arrived on!

Comments

[anonymous]

Ronaldo
I believe the general consensus round the world is that Ronaldo IS in fact a self important tit