Enroute

Sometimes technology is just plain cool.

Today I begin a weeks holiday and I'm on my way to the big city of London. I only have one true errand to do while I'm there and that's to submit my passport renewal. In doing this, it means I will be without any 'official' picture ID which means no airports. So something I've been meaning to do for over a year is to take the train to London.

The night security guard (Bob) at work told me about taking the train a while ago. If you plan far enough in advance you can get a single one way ticket for 14.00 GBP so 28.00 in total for tickets there and back. On the train quite often its cheaper to get two singles than a return ticket, go figure.

But I digress...

So I've been meaning to take the train to London for a while now. It's a great way to see the rest of the countryside, no long security line ups, no sitting around for endless hours in an airport lounge waiting for your delayed flight, more space etc. The journey in total is approx 5.5 hrs which isn't all that bad. A quick flight to London is easily very close to that when you include the train journey out to Preswick Airport, the sitting around in the terminal, the time of the flight, the train journey from Stanstead airport to the city centre.

But I digress...

Technology, that's what I started this with. National Express has now offered free wi-fi on their trains. It used to be only first class got that privilege, but they've now opened the service up to the rest of us in the peasant seats. Granted it's not a fast speed (which is why no pictures with this post) but it's better than nothing. There's even an electrical socket next to my window seat so I don't have to worry about power - my laptop battery just doesn't hold much of a charge anymore (neither does my mobile, but that's another post altogether).

So yes, some days technology is just plain cool.

It's 10:14AM on Saturday, I'm looking out the window at some very green fields and gray sky. So far I've seen lots of sheep, a few horses and even the odd cow (but no Highland Cooos).

For the first part of my journey from Glasgow to Edinburgh I was subjected to 8 loud 20somethings from New Zealand complaining that the Royal Mile in Edinburgh looked really far (it is a mile after all) but apparently there are lots of cafes and coffee shops along the way. One of them had too much to drink the night before and couldn't handle the bright sun. One of the girls was to vain to wear her glasses and the others were teasing her endlessly about what she kept thinking she was seeing.... "Is that a dead sheep?", others, "No, it's sleeping"

So far it's been an interesting journey. 4 hrs to go.