My journey to Exeter………😱

Yesterday I was travelling down to Exeter for a 2 night stay.
Leigh Boxall, Senior Research Delivery Manager actually invited me to speak at their event last year but logistics meant I had to turn them down. So when Leigh asked me again at the end of last year, I decided to say yes as my calendar was empty at the time😳

I could only attend if they would put me up for the day before and travel home the day after as it’s a 7 hour journey for me😱. You may wonder why I put myself through all this travel…..Well, living alone, if I don’t continue to put everything in place to be able to travel alone – and many things have to be put in place – I would lose that ability to travel. It’s as simple as that. Another case of use it or lose it.

So back to yesterday…….it didn’t start well. After the wonderful travel of the day before today was heading for my usual nightmare journeys……the first thing I heard when I switched on the morning news, was ‘Delays between Selby and Hull of up to 40 minutes🙄. I was travelling to change at Sheffield and only had 30 minutes between trains😱………So I started to write down plan Bs and Cs just in case…….
At the next update ‘Trains suspended’😱😱 But I still had a couple of hours before I left so I thought things might have a chance to improve….🙄

Much pacing of the room ensued……..then I remembered that the train I was catching in Sheffield, also went through York😇 so then I started looking up my buses for York……only to find I would miss the train by 15minutes😩😩
More pacing ……….
I then remembered that Sarah wasn’t on duty today…so since it was only 8am and it was her day off I gingerly txt her ‘Morning!’………and waited…………
More pacing while waiting but silence……….
My taxi was due for the station at 9am so by 8.30 I decided to facetime and say ‘Morning!’ even louder😂……..a blurry eyed daughter smiled at me through the screen……..
‘Are you doing anything this morning’? I smiled sweetly………

So then the plan was hatched to get me to York………..😊 but would I make the train that I have a seat booked on from Sheffield……😳Cross Country is my least favourite train line due to overcrowding and squashed trains……

Well the answer was yes, but then I had to get a ticket from York to Sheffield as mine wasn’t valid😩 but I couldn’t settle until Sheffield until I saw that it was the train I was due to catch……..😖

And then we got to `Sheffield we were later than I expected. The train was full, I was in the wrong seat, someone was in mine so I still didn’t know if I was on the right train…. all very stressful…..The guard was no help as he was in a rush and when I tried to explain, wasn’t listening and just said ‘split tickets are fine’ and rushed off……..I didn’t have a split ticket and he wasn’t helpful😔
What a difference a day makes – stress free yesterday but double stress today……lots of photos being taken to try and chill but none worth posting…..
I didn’t relax until my arrival at Exeter was announced. Having a journey disrupted and seeing stations that I wans’t suppose to be seeing and weren’t on my list just wasn’t conducive to a relaxed journey…….

When I finally got to my hotel, I went out for a walk in the fresh without even having a cuppa……must have been bad…..I found the Cathedral…

And then walked down to the quay, with the help of one or two passers by, thinking I’d be able to walk along the river…….but it was very confusing due to paths being closed and workmen working……

More about the Conference tomorrow,,,,,,,,

so I went back to my hotel and snuggled with a cuppa, or 5……….and watched the nice evening sky develop from my window…