Someone Tried To Kill Us Last Night

Okay so maybe my headline is a touch exaggerated but what exactly did the person who pushed a shopping trolley onto the main London West Coast Line just outside Stafford intend? We'd been to London to visit the Grand Designs exhibition where we found plenty of great ideas for our not so grand house in Framlingham and, after a pleasant twenty four hours in which we met Paul and Josephine, we were heading back on the Virgin Pendolino. I'd even treated us to First Class (it's quite cheap on the 20.30).

The omens were not great when the First Class steward announced in a most apologetic voice as we pulled out of Euston that he'd got no food for us. His tone was pleading for us not to blame him although he didn't utter those exact words - he came up with the food equivalent of leaves on the line "they haven't left us any". To his credit, in an attempt to replicate Jesus' trick with the loaves and fishes he did conjure up a cream cracker with a sliver of cheese on it plus five grapes for those who were interested;  at least they hadn't run out of wine although as our car was parked at Preston I had to decline.


The journey was uneventful. I managed to finish another novel (reading that is, not writing one) before there was a metallic grating noise and the train juddered to a stop. We were at a standstill for some time before the train manager announced that, as we might have guessed, the train had hit something and the driver was now out on the track inspecting the train. To cut a long story short, we were delayed for forty minutes. The train had hit said shopping trolley left on the line.


Now, when the trolley dumper was doing his dumping I wonder if the thought crossed his mind that, however well engineered the trains are, there was a possibility that the trolley could have derailed an express train. And if that train had derailed into the path of an oncoming train at a hundred miles per hour, did he think of the possible consequences? I very much doubt it. In the end the consequences were that half a dozen or more people on the train missed connections to far flung outposts of England or Scotland (to their credit Virgin fixed up alternative transport) and the rest of us were very late home. That's a very late night for an awful lot of people.


I've been called for jury service in the near future and look forward to seeing British justice in action. I'll be interested to learn if something like this would earn a slap on the wrist and a petty fine or a charge of attempted murder as, in reality, if consequences had all run against the train, anything could have happened.

A Smashing Time In The Ribble Valley

We went over to Ribchester yesterday to visit friends Mark and Nita Jones. We spent the afternoon watching Manchester City get within touching distance of the Premier League trophy and then went for a very late lunch at The Assheton Arms in nearby Downham. The sun was shining and, being Bank Holiday Sunday, it was no surprise that the pub was packed. Fortunately Mark had the foresight to reserve a table and we enjoyed an excellent meal and wine before heading off to Clitheroe.

Mark and Nita had booked to see Clare Teal who was closing the Clitheroe Jazz Festival at the Grand Theatre. I went with some trepidation as jazz is not my usual cup of tea and I had not heard of Clare Teal before Mark told us about the event. But I needn't have worried; she is a fabulous artiste. Accompanied by a fantastic trio on grand piano, double bass and percussion, Clare performed for two hours mixing a little traditional jazz with a helping of ballads and covers of classics by favourites like Annie Lennox and Snow Patrol. She has the winning combination of a tremendous voice and a sparkling personality and she certainly deserved her rapturous applause from a full house. Her final song Chasing Cars was sung with such feeling that Marion was moved to tears. We enjoyed the concert so much that we bought two CDs in the interval and we very much look forward to seeing Ms Teal perform again. 

I haven't blogged since our Orange Wednesday visit to VUE in Southport when we saw Avengers Assemble 3D. It's probably the best comic book hero movie that we've seen. I know that these films are daft but there's good daft and there's bad daft and this one is very firmly in the good camp. The film is well scripted with plenty of laughs from good one liners and the action is visually stunning; even if it's all done with computers, it's convincing enough for you to sit back and escape into a world of incredible invading aliens from another galaxy. The actors take their roles seriously; Robert Downey Jnr as Iron Man has the same charismatic twinkle in his performance that made him such a likeable Sherlock Holmes and Tom Hiddleston almost steals the show with his wicked Loki. At 142 minutes it's long but it didn't feel like it and that's a credit to Joss Whedon who has made an immensely entertaining film.

With all our plans for renovating the house in Framlingham we're going to make a visit to Excel in London's Docklands one day this week. It's not only an opportunity to get some ideas for the house but it's also our first chance to see Paul and Josephine together since Christmas. Lets hope that when we're in Suffolk we never have to go that long between visits.

Although I've been sounding like Victor Meldrew with my views on football on the blog recently, now and then something good crops up in the sport and even Victor would be hard pressed not to smile at this photo that swept around Twitter like wildfire at the weekend. Seems that Hartlepool fans descended on London en masse for their game with Charlton, dressed as Smurfs. What, with electing a monkey as mayor, it looks like there's no shortage of humour in Hartlepool.