My travel experience helps... but...

[Suff]

A weekend like last weekend was not what I'd define as "normal".

On Friday I left work at 3pm to head to Edinburgh Airport. Bus to Hannover Street and Tram to the airport (well that was new and, relatively, painless).

The airport was all new all over again. The Tram entrance is new to me, but once I'd got into the airport it was a similar route although the security is diametrically opposed to where it used to be. Signs are useful. Security was easy, the food at weatherspoons was too much, not exactly what I'd ordered (I didn't order a double burger even if I got one) and not very good, but it was fuel for the journey ahead.

I started to recognise things were going downhill when I arrived 5 minutes before stated boarding having done the obligatory pit stop on the way (I hate aeroplane toilets). Looked out at the gate. No plane... Magic, minimum 25 minute delay.

So the saga started. 40 minutes late boarding, 1 hour late taking off, 35 minutes late landing, ages to get to the gate, queue at passports. This got worse as I realised my mistake. 1 booth serving EU passports with the "all passports" sign lit, 5 booths serving All others. Which was moving much faster.

30 minutes to get through passport. 10 minutes to make the train and I didn't have my usual stock of tickets. To the train. Running late. Announcements of disruption, the slow train left before the fast train then the fast train went slower than the slow train usually does.

Arrived at Montparnasse 30 minutes after the last train south had left. Had to buy another ticket and find a hotel. Fortunately I've stayed around there before (same issue), €105 in a dive hotel. Well it was warm and comfortable anyway.

2.5 hours sleep as I had a stinking cold and could not get to sleep easily. Up at 5am, off to the train for 6am. Got on the train and called Mrs S to let her know I was moving. Train breaks down at Tours and we had to wait for an engineer to come and sort out the signalling stuff. Arrived 45 minutes late. Mrs S, as usual, did not bring either phone or money and had to keep leaving the free parking and entering again.

At least the central heating was easily fixed. Blow off valve had operated as designed and the boiler was protected. The boiler had been completely incorrectly reassembled and was not fully bolted down on the chamber, easily fixed but irritating as was the location of the pump sensor and temp gauge sensor. I did have to replace the 90% bend in the flue pipe with a T so I could rod the chimney liner which was completely blocked. One job done but my hands are ingrained with carbon again.

House warm.

Woke up at 3am with a blinding headache, took tablets, went to bed, back to sleep at 7am, up at 11 and walked the dogs. Mrs S has hurt herself spraying, plastic sealing and insulating under the eaves of the room over the workshop, so I gave her a break.

Sunday I didn't do much and headed back to Paris for the flight. No train issues, no metro issues, no RER issues, flight on time. Then the bright sparks at Edinburgh filled the back bus first and the front bus last, leaving me behind everyone in the queue and blocking the first bus from leaving immediately it was full. The park and ride link bus had gone and had to wait half an hour for the next one. My friend had left anyway and had to wait for me, she did bring a book though. Arrived back, had a cup of coffee and it was 11pm...

4 hours sleep...

Crawled out of bed this morning, headed for Edinburgh on the train. Got off at Haymarket and realised I'd left my travel card and weekly ticket on the seat. Had to go on to Waverly and get a driver to let me look in the train I'd just been on. No travel card..... Fortunately my weekly ticket ran out tonight. But I'll have to go and get another one which is time and a pain in the rectum. I do, however, still have two photos left...

I got a phone call today telling me that the apartment which took up my time at work to look at and has been hanging for days, had gone to the other prospective tenant. Since I had thought that was the way it was going, I had taken an AirBnB for a month on Friday and said so. The agent was annoyed with me. Not half as much as I was annoyed with her. I also got a mail over the weekend to say that the property I had viewed in Dunfermline was also gone and I had offered double deposit on that one.

I have learned another salient lesson which I've never had to learn in the UK in the last 30 years. I will, now, not view a property again as a prospective rental until the owner pre agrees to me as a tenant. Simply not worth even bothering about.

There is a whispered voice going on in my head. "Welcome home...."

[meriad]

the way rentals work here is a bit very very odd.... I remember years back when a friend and I were looking to flat share; we had made a few appointments for the same day and literally had to carry our deposit / proof of finances with us and more or less sign there and then. Thankfully we found a perfect flat, but if we hadn't signed at time of viewing it would have gone to the next person. No such thing as "well I like it, but there are two others I'd like to see as well" - you risked not getting any of them

And any prospective viewer after us was on a lost mission because we took the flat


Re your train travel - just remind me never to travel with you that sounds a horrendous journey

[saundra]

Ho dear stuff not good in health
And flat deposit want your wealth
Welcome to the UK in 2016
I do hope your cold gets better tho

[Suff]

Cold is getting better now. Everyone in the office is sniffling to some degree or other so I'm not standing out. I've had about every cold there is in Scotland so my resistance id pretty hight.

Ria, most of my travel is fairly smooth and routine. But when it goest to hell it does it in style because I'm never just getting on a plane or on a train any more, there is always a multi element journey involved...

Made some progress with Mrs S though. She's been rabidly against me having a bike for decades now even though when she met me I had been riding bikes all my adult life and ran my uncle's bike workshop. She's talking about keeping the current bike for transport to, potentially, Bordeaux and also buying another bike for Scotland....

I'm still working this out. Flights from Edinburgh seem to be stupidly expensive right now and the cheap providers seem to think that Thursday is the day to fly not Friday.

Air france (HOP operated), is off the agenda right now which is annoying as I would have my silver card back by April and my Gold card by the summer.