I’m on a train up north to spend a few days with the family as its my sister’s birthday. I’m not a fan of travelling this way during the week – my normal routine is to get one around 6.00am at the weekends, as nobody else has got out of bed at that time and it means that I can sit where I like and not be disturbed by screaming kids or poncy businessmen talking in buzzwords on their phones. As you can see from the image, it’s a cold and miserable day, but this is nothing new – it always seems to rain whenever I go up to Manchester.

As predicted, the train is rammed, but I shoved my way to the front, got on first and bagged a seat that doesn’t have a reservation. I have learned over the years that it doesn’t pay to be polite, unless you wish to stand for the entirety of the journey (how sad, but unfortunately a fact of dealing with the British general public), and I’m currently sitting by myself, listening to Bon Jovi (I had to put my headphones in to drown out the noise of the person opposite playing an online gambling game really loudly on his phone), eating my breakfast and watching a whole bunch of people squabble about who is sitting in each other’s seats. It’s quite amusing – I must look intimidating for some reason because a family have just had an argument about sitting next to me – apparently none of the them want to, one of them remarking that they would rather stand up. Fine by me! Hopefully, I’ll be left in peace to put my make-up on, and get on the blog, when the internet signal permits. Continue reading →