Next day up early (8am) for full English breakfast, and then into town. The end of Tuesday, one lad had lost his wallet, I was so pleased when it turned out the taxi driver had picked it up off the floor of the minibus! I was glad that there was not much money in it, but the hassle of reordering bus and train passes would be annoying. So glad it was dropped (in the taxi) and not pick pocketted as I feared!
Taxi into town, wandered around, the usual TOO long choosing records, drink in coffee shop, bit of walking, shopping in Primark (so busy), walking, photos, walking, lunch in Wetherspoons (once I’d got my bearings), walked to train station. I thought we could use the 1st class lounge, but no it’s Virgin train customers only – grr, the South West only has “Cross Country” trains, but still uses the old Virgin trains repainted! We had a drink, sat around for a bit waiting for a platform.
We got on the train. Phew! By this point, everyone was feeling tired. The one niggle was the knowledge that it wasn’t a through train, we had to change at Birmingham New St. Heads up for those who’ve never been there: it’s a BIG station, all the platforms are downstairs. There is a corridor that goes over them, a LONG corridor, with the main station in the middle. I’ve been here many times, and with a 14 min change over, I know not to go to the main part of the station, there isn’t time. The way to do it is, get off train, find departure screen, take note of platform next train is going from (and if delayed), run upstairs, go down corridor to platform number, run downstairs, jump on train! This was not so possible for us:
1. Our train was delayed 10mins
2. There were tons of people on the platform
3. People didn’t want to run up stairs (one chap isn’t too fast, esp on stairs, another won’t use esculators)
4. We couldn’t get to the screen to find next platform!
We jumped in the lift, went up, ran along and hoped for the best! We found a screen, checked platform, and ran for the lift going down to that one! A bit of a headless chicken moment where we tried to work out which bit of the platform the train was on…then we realised it wasn’t there yet, it had been delayed too! Woo! The only annoyance was that we needed to get to the other side of the train, and there was tons of people waiting/getting on the train. We jumped on a carriage before ours, and walked through. We found our seats, and collapsed happy to be on the final leg home! Unfortunately we hadn’t eaten a “meal” on the first train, and this second train was out of both “meal” options!! They managed to scrape together two bacon rolls. We painfully split the HOT rolls between the 3, and then one said he didn’t want it!! Laura could have screamed at him! Back at St Davids, we got a taxi back to the house, and check they were all ok, and escaped home!
It was a funny two days, our fears never materialised, and all the problems we faced were solved. It was a prayer answered trips for sure! We prayed to see Take That, we did (all be it from outside), we prayed to find the wallet and did, we prayed for the next train to be delayed and it was! We prayed for good relations between the lads, and everyone got on really well, even when tired and cranky.
I am SO thankful for Laura, she was such a blessing. She kept the lads entertained, and laughing. Anyone looked like they might get irritable she got them smiling. It was a silly-filled trip, but they seemed to love it, and that is what is important! Through the whole two days, there was many poking “fights” had, and caps turned round, removed, pulled down, move to someone elses head…! It’s a bit like youthwork again really!