Storm Shelter

What was meant to be a straightforward visit to York for a seminar turned into an eventful day.

The train got within a few hundred yards of York station, and broke down. The driver fiddled with it for half an hour and then decided it only worked in reverse, so drove us backward to the previous station where we were rescued by another train.

To keep me diverted while this was going on, I developed a short sequence of poems on Twitter:

train halted ~ outside york ~ a butterfly ~ on ~ the track

the stillness ~ of the train ~ the agitation ~ of the passengers ~ no way forward

train ~ lost the will ~ to go forward ~ driver ~ selects reverse

we set off ~ in the wrong direction ~ everyone cheers

Once I finally got to the seminar it was nice to bump into someone I used to work with about ten years ago, and to catch up on Sunderland gossip.

Then the walk back to the station coincided with a fierce thunderstorm, which led me to take shelter in a covered alley opposite Betty's, although the more sensible option may have been to take shelter in Betty's. I ended up staying in there for about twenty minutes, so to make the most of it I took out my camera to take pictures of the rain.

At the back of the alley, water was pouring down the side of one of the buildings, and that's what led to today's blip.

taking shelter ~ in an alley ~ as a thunderstorm ~ prevails ~ no escape