And relax

A day of training - railway style. From Kinghorn to Edinburgh, a busy Easter holidays service.

Then Edinburgh to Kings Cross, even busier. There is no unreserved carriage, but we find a couple of seats and occupy them. They’re right next to a Dundee hen party heading for Newcastle. It’s 10:30 and they’re already several bottles of Cava into the day. They’re old but not rowdy, wearing their hen party T-shirts, each adorned with name and rank of the wearer: “Katy - mother of the groom”.

The Hammersmith and City line is remarkably quiet. Taking a wander from Liverpool Street, i sample an appalling half of London Pride while Claire polishes off an overly sweet latte. We stock up on wine and gin at Sainsburys, a box of choccies at M&S, and it’s back past Threadneedle Street to the station.

The 16:00 to Norwich is a different class of busy - efficient, mechanistic, serried. We find seats not too far apart and squeeze in for the 45 minute hop to Colchester. London fades into semi-rural Essex.

The Wivenhoe train is waiting on platform 5. Devoid of city commuters, it’s a quiet service. And both Mandy and Stuart are waiting, with their motors, when we get off. I join Stu in the Bongo plus trailer combo.

Cuppa tea and a trip to Spice in a nearby village for a carry out. “Best restaurant award 2016”. Ancient timbered building, smart shirted posse of waiters, pint of Cobra. Stu tries to drop a wine glass, catches it on the way down to patchy applause from those of us crowded around the bar.

We eat it all up around the dinner table. The Indian theme extends to gin and tonic - although Charlie is not impressed. And then we collapse into recliners and sofas around the living room.

There’s music, wine, and somnolence. We discover that Sydney Devine was born in Cleland and that this was actually his birth name, not a performers affectation. And we don’t listen to any of his tunes.