Thwarted

Had a really good all-staff day in the office today.  We spent the morning discussing strategy (which was actually really interesting and constructive), and we had an interesting session with an external consultant in the afternoon, looking at personality types.  That ended up being good fun, and we learnt quite a bit about each other.

I stayed for a quick beer after, and a nice chat with several of my colleagues - then hurried over to Paddington to catch my train.  I needn't have bothered - it was cancelled.  I got on another one half an hour later, though was really unsure if it would get me all the way to Exeter, because services were being cancelled left, right and centre due to Storm Ciaran.  This one was still due to go all the way, but then someone pulled the passenger alarm at Newbury because some of the carriages were filling with smoke.

We ended up waiting at Newbury (outside of the train) for ages - maybe an hour or so - then got on another train to Exeter.  That one did get me there, but it was an hour and a half after the last train to Barnstaple had departed.  We'd anticipated this, and lovely Tim had booked me into a Premier Inn in Exeter.  It was a mile from the station though (the one right by the station was already fully booked), and there was a huge queue for taxis, so I had an amusingly wet and windy walk through Exeter city centre.

Finally arrived at the hotel at 11:30pm, exhausted and soggy.  Spoke to Tim for a while, got myself settled in, and dry, and had a cup of decaf tea.  Eventually got to sleep about 1:30am.  Knackered.com