Travelling to Norwich……….🙄

Yesterday saw me travelling south and then East across to Norwich. I don’t think I’ve been to Norwich before….🤔

Ages ago, Bryony Porter, a second year PhD student at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, contacted me . Bryony is being funded by the Alzheimer’s Society and is researching the challenges of multiple medication use in people with dementia.

It was a beautiful morning outside my window this morning. The leaves are starting to fall and unveil the view beyond the trees.

I’d been looking forward to this trip. It was going to take me over 5 hours to get there but Bryony had sorted out a hotel for me and I was being rewarded the following day by delivering a talk to my favourite people – students. This time the audience for the seminar would be a mix of students, researchers, academics and interested members of the public apparently, so very exciting.

The beautiful morning soon turned sour as my travel plans immediately went array🙄. I planned to catch the bus from the village into Beverley. A ten minute bus ride leaving me lots of time to amble to the station……the 10am bus is never late…….it always turns up on time…….I could even use my bus pass so no cost……needless to say on the one day I wanted it to arrive as usual, it didn’t….😳 I gave up and went home at 10.15 as I knew the chances of me catching the train were diminishing fast. But no problem, I’d ring my taxi people and get a taxi to Brough further up the line………
“Sorry Wendy I’m a bit short of drivers today. I can get you one in an hour’😱
I rang Gemma, now in a panic…….no reply to begin with…😶 I tried again and her lovely face appeared on screen🤗 and yes she could take me but at what time?……
“I don’t know🤷‍♀️” was my response as all my instructions were from Beverley🙄
“I’ll just come now then” ❤️😍❤️
Instantly relieved and now the threat of heart failure getting less by the minute, I waited and within a few minutes Gemma was there and I arrived at Brough in plenty of time to catch the train………..🎉I sat on the first train clicking away on my ipad taking happy photos and this morning the windmills looked particularly calming………

…..not a good start to the journey😐 Bryony had txt me from Norwich first thing and I’d told her everything was going fine🤣

We trundled along to Doncaster and I started to look at the notes I’d made…….I saw that I had a 50 minute wait at Peterborough…..perfect…..then notice a 7 minute wait between connections at Doncaster😨how did that happen?! I must have tried to sort this one out myself and not noticed the short change over……..😩……we were late leaving Goole because they couldn’t find the ramp for the wheelchair😳so I decided not to look at the time and just deal with whatever when we got to Doncaster….🙈

For once delays worked in my favour and my second train was delayed for a few minutes so a quick trip to the loo and my second train arrived – phew!
I had to keep saying to myself ‘Get off at Peterborough with suitcase’ as I’d never got off there before and usually trundled straight by……but verbal and electronic reminders did their trick…

I had a 40 minute wait at Peterborough and settled down with a cuppa……..all is well in the world again😊☕️

I’d never been on the Peterborough to Norwich line before so I was quite happy to just sit and look out of the window at all the new scenary……the long flat landscape of the Fens stretching out for miles…

I used to live in the next county of Suffolk and very good friends still live there. Maureen has to do this trek every time she comes to see me🙄sorry!

We got to Ely and then seemed to go back the way we had just come…😶 I had the photos to prove it – the rowers were still rowing, the bridge over the river still got in the way….. No conductor walking up and down to ask…..no announcement reassuring me I was still on the right train……and then I had a brain wave😇 I could track me on the same app that my daughters track me on🏅
And there was my little train speeding along towards Thetford and I could see Norwich after it. We must simply have reversed and changed tracks but with no announcement or guard to ask it was very unsettling for a few minutes…….

One day my nice journeys will out number my scary ones………sure I’ve said that before….🤔

I got to Norwich and Bryony had told me to take a taxi and provided me with a map in case I wanted to wander….the hotel people were lovely and also showed me how to get to Marks and Spencer for my evening sandwich and snacks. On the way I spotted the Castle so couldn’t resist taking a piccie….

And then a nice man told me how to get to the Cathedral allowing me to get my final photo before barricading myself in my hotel room for the evening…..

Tomorrow will be all about meeting the students….😊