There's a tree stuck under a train

You’ve got to feel affection for high winds and slashing rain. Especially when you are leaving your house at the magnificent hour of 7.00am to be faced with hair-messing gales and rain beating on your face horizontally.

There is nothing better than lying in bed listening to the fine tones of the rain hitting your attic window, listening to the wind whistling around the house, and knowing full well that you have just 30 minutes to get your sorry self out into that weather.

As I opened the car door after BF gave me a lift to the station on the way to work, the malevolent wind nearly yanked the car door right out of my hand and blew it away. Nearly.

As I stood on the station platform waiting for my train, the impatient wind did a good job of finishing off the blow-dry that I didn’t have time to complete. And also giving me a ‘just-stood-on-a-station-platform-for-too-long’ kind of look.

However, I should count myself blessed.

I got on my train, into the relative warmth.

We were then told that there was a tree jammed under the next train at H…. so there was little chance of us moving in the near future. As I looked out of my train window, I could see the gloom on people’s faces as they shivered in the wind, trouser legs rippling like flags against people’s legs. I settled down smugly in my seat with my new book, Vikrem Seth’s ‘Two Lives’ , and promptly removed myself from the situation.

After just 25 minutes of waiting at the station ( I thought it was going to be longer actually) we finally moved off and began the journey.

I swiftly fell asleep.

A colleague was not so lucky. She had to spend those 25 extra minutes standing on a platform with NO shelter, quivering under a tiny compact umbrella that proved quite useless when faced with horizontal rain.

So, I am quite lucky really.