The train to Thame

Hi all and welcome back, this blog post is about what happened when I decided to take a day trip to see my cousins. So are you sitting comfortably? Good then I'll begin. (that sounded way too children's T.V for some reason I turned into Watch with Mother .... oh well)

A few days earlier my mum and auntie had gone to London to visit a friend and had decided to stop at Thame on the way back, now I love Thame it's my home from home if you will so I decided to go on the train and meet them there and I can tell you that with a 5 am start and 3 trains it was a 

long kind of stressful day.

Now the night before my trip I was at my Ballroom and Latin class till 22:30 pm then had to go to my auntie's to check on her dog and was home by 23:30 pm and was asleep by 1 am not the earliest night I could have had but seeing as I am normally awake till 4 am I didn't think that 1 am was too bad. So I was nicely tucked up in bed with my dog Shadow curled up by my side ready to have albeit short a good night sleep, but no that did not happen every hour I kept waking up my mind buzzing with information and paranoia that I was forgetting something, in fact at 2:30 am I had dreamed that I was late for my train it wasn't till I was fully dressed and grabbed my phone and noticed the time and Shadow was just grumpily staring at me as if saying 'what are you doing you idiot'. After a couple more hours of disturbed sleep it was time to get up now I'm not the best in the morning, never speak to me until I have had a cup of tea or coffee or I may kill you. The worst thing about getting up was leaving this sleepy little cub of mine but I got up and was out of the house by 7:30 am.

So I was in Piccadilly train station by 8:30 and I was hoping it might have not been too busy thinking that most commuters had already gone to work but no no no no I suddenly felt like I was in the Lion King and I was Simba caught in the wilder beast stampede but there was no Mufusa to save me I was on my own. Luckily I managed to weave my way through the crowd and found a Starbucks where I happily sat for an hour with my cinnamon chai tea latte and book and before I knew it, it was time to board the train.

The train to Birmingham was probably the least stressful as it was just a 90 minute journey and I was fine, maybe slightly stressed about my change over or thinking that I will fall asleep and miss my stop but all together I was fine I had found my seat I started watching Miss Potter a brilliant film about Beatrice Potter with the beautiful albeit slightly foggy English countryside whizzing by.

 Ok so after the easy train to Birmingham I had to change from Birmingham New Street to Birmingham Moor Street and for the first time in my life I had actually planned ahead cause I could have booked the train that would leave twenty minutes after I arrived in Birmingham and I'm sorry but twenty minutes is not enough time for a break down that I would inevitably have and then get a train so I booked the train that would let me have an hour to figure out where I am going. Before you ask yes I did get slightly lost but it wasn't my fault the Bullring is huge and I had my dad distracting me on the phone so I blame him.
Can I just say how beautiful Birmingham Moor Street train station is, seriously it feels like it belongs in Downton Abbey not Birmingham there's such a contrast New Street station is massive and full of people running around in their suits trying desperately not to spill their coffee as they dash towards the train where as Moor Street is more relaxed and serene, I mean there was
even a flower stall and a proper waiting room. Could you get anymore British?

Soon I was on my second train of the day on my way to Banbury where I had a five minute change which I was not looking forward to, to say the very least but I did it 40 minutes after leaving Birmingham I was at Banbury station where I saw my next train already there so I instantly got off one train and get straight on the other thankful the station wasn't too crowded as I wasn't sure if I was going to make it but I did and I was on my last leg of my journey, a journey which started at 5 am and finished at 13:15 pm so as you can imagine I was quite tired but never the less happy when I arrived at my cousins's where I spent the day building block towers with my little cousin and watching friends in front of a roaring fire before getting in the car and setting off home. 

I was quite proud of myself that day and you may ask yourself why I mean lots of people get the train for some they do it on a daily basics, well I haven't much the only train journeys I've been on basically on my own was to London last year which granted my brother was with me and Halifax earlier this year but these are both pretty straight forward direct journeys. My journey to Thame was anything but with 3 trains and 2 changes I found it pretty stressful as I'm not really good at giving up control, now I'm not as uptight as Monica Geller but I can be a bit of a control freak and I didn't like not knowing if my trains where going to be in the right place at the right time but I did it I successfully got myself up (which is a triumph in it's self to be honest) and made it to Thame. 

Well that's what happened on my trip to Thame I hope you enjoyed my story and if you have any stories about stressful trips you've had, write them in the comments I would love to hear them. 

Talk soon 

Heather xx