On 24/04/11 20:01, Dave McGuire wrote:
I'm in the same boat. My fiancee' and her
mother (who DOES like
me...I've known her longer than I've known her daughter!) went down to
North Carolina to spend a long Easter weekend with family. There are
supposed to be something like eight babies there...
Sounds like the train I was on the other week...
A family boards at Huddersfield, just as the train's about to depart,
tripping the "person stuck in door" sensor on the doors... which the
conductor had to come over and reset before the train set off.
Anyway, this wonderful family consisted of:
* Two babies screaming their heads off, mother and father ignoring them
* Two young kids running up and down the carriage causing utter
chaos, similarly ignored
* Mother talking on her mobile phone. Well, talking is probably the
wrong word. "Swearing like a trooper" is probably more accurate.
In the space of twenty minutes, the Screaming Little Anklebiters had:
* Stolen food from the tables of several passengers (myself included)
* Attempted to steal my MP3 player (unsuccessfully -- thanks partly
to the carabiner clip I use to keep it on my belt).
* Tried to dig through the contents of my rucksack (again
unsuccessfully -- I had tied the pull-tags on the zips together. It
takes a lot of fiddling to undo those knots)
Worst train journey ever. Oh, aside from this one from last year...
I was stood just off to the side of the "First Class ticket-holders
only" divider and the conductor argued that since I was within six
inches of the divider, I was "in first class" and thus had to spend
another ?100 on an upgraded ticket (plus a ?50 "standard fee"). Paid by
credit card, disputed it when I got home, won the dispute and got a nice
letter of apology from the train company in question. Win.
I suspect he had a target for on-train upgrades, and a guy with a day
ticket seemed like an easy target for a bit of "Miniscribe Accounting"...
My life, such fun.
--
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/