London Victoria

A day's travelling to and back Stoke-On-Trent for a meeting about the prison work I'm involved in. Relatively smooth, except for booking a forward facing window seat with a table for both journeys between Euston and Stoke and having a backward facing, airline style aisle seat on the way out and an forward facing aisle seat on the way back. Why?

I'm not a great fan of the Virgin Trains carriages, they are too enclosed and seats too short and close together and who in the right mind puts seats where there are no windows to look out of?

A good day though and some very interesting and useful feedback on the appearance navigation of the secure website we're developing. Didn't see much of Stoke though, just the small portion between the station and the destination. There was a statue of Joshiah Wedgewood (I think that's right, it was only a fleeting glimpse) outside the station that was set against the backdrop of the railway hotel and framed by autumn leaves which, if I'd had more time, I'd have shot instead of this one of London Victoria.

I arrived at Victoria 2 minutes late for an earlier train, I might have caught it if the Stoke train was on time but it was over 5 minutes late arriving at Euston. Had to settle for the all stations rattler to Bearsted which itself was 11 minutes late arriving in Bearsted.

Shades of Reggie Perrin - "sorry I'm late Joan, train 11 minutes late owing to a signal failure at Surbition - take a letter Joan to British Railways - all your trains are 11 minutes late, why not retime them by 11 minutes and then they'll all be on time?" (Or something like that).