Day 40 - London - Linslade

I was up at 7.15 this morning but Stewart and Jeanette had already gone off to a client and will be out all day. I had breakfast while watching the England V’s Georgia World Cup game.

I left the house setting the alarm and then walked to the bus stop at the end the street and travelled to the Morden South Railway Station. This station is part of the National Rail network and not part of the Underground network. I had pre purchased my tickets via the Internet and when I arrived at the station I had to stick my credit card I had purchased the tickets with and then enter some information into the touch screen pad and out pop the outbound and return tickets plus a receipt.

I had twelve minutes till the train arrived and went up to the platform and sat to wait. I had only been sitting for a few minutes and an announcement came over the speakers that the train was going to be ten minutes due to staffing issues. This caused some issues for me as today being Sunday the trains do not run so often and the route I have to take includes going on four trains.

The train eventually arrived and it was fourteen minutes late so I was going to arrive at Wimbledon right as it was time for the next train to leave there. I missed the train but was quickly on the right platform and the next train was only ten minutes later. The big problem was that the next train I had to get at Clapham Junction was obviously gone by the time I got there and the next train from Clapham Junction to Watford Junction only run every half hour and I had just missed the train I was meant to get.

I rang Doreen in Linslade to tell her I was going to be late so she would not leave home to be there for the original train. I told her I would have to ring her when I knew what time the train would be leaving Watford Junction and therefore what time I would be at Leighton Buzzard station for her to pick me up.

I had a snack while I was waiting for the train and then was able to get a seat on the next train which was quite packed with people. The train trip was about thirty five minutes and when I arrived at Watford Junction I went down to the exit and looked at the timetable and made my way back up to the correct platform.

The train was the next one to leave and I had a quick trip to Leighton Buzzard arriving about fifty minutes after the original train I was due to be on. Doreen was waiting at the station and after I packed my luggage into the back of the car we got in and I was greeted by her dog Bo who I had met last trip three years ago. It is a very friendly dog and is no problem at all.

We arrived back to Doreen’s home and she had made some lunch so we sat and ate a good hot meal. During the afternoon her grandson Harry came to visit, I had met him three years ago and in the meantime he had grown a lot. He is 15 at the end of the month and is very good help for Doreen around her home. He is very handy with fixing things and also grows some vegetables in her garden. His father Stephen is a film cameraman and has arranged for Harry to film the local football teams home games, Harry showed he the filming he had done yesterday of their FA Cup first round match. The club won the game 4:1 to progress to the next round.

Later in the afternoon Stephen came around and we went for a drive to the local section of the Grand Union Canal which goes from Birmingham to London. Doreen took Bo for a walk along the canal edge and Stephen, Harry and I sat and had a drink at the outdoor tables of the Globe Hotel looking over the canals edge. A while later we dropped Doreen and Bo back home and then drove to another pub called the Grand Union at Stoke Hammond further along the canal for dinner. We sat inside the pub for dinner and whilst we were eating there was a huge rain storm that fell.

Back at Doreen’s I said my thanks to Stephen for taking me out for the afternoon and he arranged to take me out again for a few hours tomorrow to visit some of the local villages. I then sat and talked to Doreen whilst we watched some television for the evening. I went off to bed about 10pm due to being tired and was asleep very quickly.