White and Gold

It was a long day at the office on a day of cloudless skies. Fortunately, it was very productive, but I was ready for a break in the sunshine when I left. I was due to chair the Leeds Writers Circle Manuscript Meeting in the evening and had arranged to meet up with a fellow writer for a beer an hour beforehand. My train had reached Kirkstall, when it stopped. After ten minutes or so we were informed that we weren't going anywhere anytime soon. A sniper with an air rifle was taking potshots at passing trains! Nothing was being allowed to pass.

The conductor was very apologetic. I could see the canal towpath a few yards away. He could easily have let me off to enable me to run into Leeds. I did ask, but I knew there was no way he was going to allow me to do that. I've tried before in similar circumstances. The other obvious solution was for us all to lie on the deck and let the driver accelerate through as fast as possible. I thought that was a decent solution, but once again, no go. It really annoys me to find how little imagination is ever applied to these kinds of problems. No one in charge is ever prepared to think out of the box.

So, I said goodbye to my beer and a chance to see some sun for the first time all day. I was pretty much resigned to missing most of the meeting too, when after an hour of sitting stationary, the train started to move, slowly at first, but then at quite a speed. I ran from the station to the Carriageworks, stopping to take a quick portrait and then this shot, my only photographs all day. 

It turned out to be a night of very good readings. One of the members had an expensive evening. Similarly stranded, trying to get into Leeds, but before getting on a train, he took an Uber ride to make the meeting.

At least this represented a decent excuse, better than the one I find increasingly being dished out: "This train is cancelled because of an unscheduled change in the timetable." You couldn't make it up!!