There and Back Again.

No civilized journey should begin at 7:03 in the morning but there you are. I'm resigned to being uncivilized. Virgin trains are pretty damn nice these days it would seem but they're a bugger to sleep on - the seats are too upright by far - so I doze fitfully and dream of a recline function until we make it into Birmingham. Once there, we are picking up the train to Edinburgh, which sounds like a much better destination than Wakefield. Maybe I'll just stay on the train. The buffet car doesn't have much breakfast-ish but it does have a rather neat 4 compartment tray with 4 different tiny sandwiches in which do just as well. I'm dosing myself with diet coke to wake me up and put my iRiver onto random. It's definitely a neophile and picks out a tonne of stuff I haven't heard yet from the enormous stash of mp3s my Dad bought with him when he visited. No Bob Dylan yet but a bit of Johnny Cash and plenty of Hank Williams. 10 CDs is a lot but not enough to account for how often he comes up. No matter how I struggle and strive, I'll never get out of this world alive.

--

Who would have thought that so many people using the train going though Wakefield to Cardiff on a Thursday afternoon. I managed to find what seemed like the only free seat on the train but I would have done better to perch in the corridor - I'd forgotten quite how ill travelling backwards on the train makes me feel. Fortunately, the train I've changed onto is much quieter and I'll be able to while away the rest of the trip back watching the world slip by me.

--

Turns out what I took advantage of this for in the end was to sleep for an hour and a half, having managed to find a reasonably comfortable position. Thing like today always tend to exhaust me rather - early start and then you spend 4 hours sitting in a meeting room where you have to concentrate the whole time and stay focused. I'm just going to spend my evening relaxing with a toastie or so, a bit of Futurama and, with any luck a few choice hugs from Alex.

--

( one and a half hours of my iRiver on random )

Credit where it's due

Dear Geneva,

I was reading your entries on my friends page this evening and was reminded just how great you are and I want to let you know that I really really admire you. I aspire to be as clear sighted and principled as you and as considered in my positions. Reading what you write nearly always makes me think again about where I am and I wish that I was better and more determined at putting my own principles into practise in the way that you do instead of letting laziness get in the way.

You're really good at getting to the bottom of something and writing about it to communicate it to us, whether it's a film review that I read and I can see not only what you thought of the film but get a pretty reasonable idea of what I might think of it (I loved the Butterfly Effect which I hadn't heard of until you reviewed it), or writing about celebrating Jewish festivals in a mainly secular household with your family or pretty much whatever - your writing always seems to catch my attention.

So anyway, not to be too gushing or anything, but you rock. I'm really glad that I gave you a code for LJ and so I don't just get to catch up with you at OUSFG parties. I don't comment a lot (I don't seem to be a big commenter) so I just thought I'd say this.

Love,
Jo