Sent to Coventry

Another weekend of Public transport mayhem was abound as our whole mob descended on Cov to visit the Grandparents. I am beginning to think that we can't travel as a family without something going wrong . Things don't seem to go wrong if any of us travel separately but once we are all together any disaster that can will strike.

The service from Derby was fine, no hiccups there. Only when we got to Brum did it all start to go wrong.
We got onto our train that would hopefully take us to Coventry in the shortest time. When we got on it was apparent that we wouldn't get to sit down. So we found space in a vestibule (Why do we always end up near the toilet?!) We must have sat there for about 20 minutes when we got a message that they were late because they didn't have a driver. Then they found a driver but he could only go as far as Reading (Train was going to Southampton) then we were told the train wasn't going anywhere so everyone had to get off.
We changed our plan a little as Debz said we could get on the local train as there is a station near Nan's and we could just get a taxi from there. I liked this train as it was a new local train and very luxurious as locals go.

It went to plan and once we got off at the small roadside station a taxi soon turned up and Ange, Rob and the 3 kids all went off. Of course that left me and Debz waiting forever for the next cab and she ended up having to ring again.

We finally got to Nan's knackered and absolutely starving. A lovely meal of jacket spud and roast beef and I felt a bit happier.

It was a bit of a manic afternoon as we only had 3 hours before we had to get a train back. The trains on a Sunday really are atrocious these days I don't know how people cope if they have to commute on Sundays.

Coming home was just as traumatic. First of all we ordered 2 cabs for 5.45 but the first didn't turn up until nearly 6 and the second one actually had rung up my Nan for directions. He didn't arrive until after 6 and as Deb will confirm, I had a real big rant at him as I was now really fed up with the bad service we had gotten all day.
We needn't have worried anyway as our train was delayed by a few minutes going home. When we got on that there were no spaces to be found. Luckily as DNiece was falling asleep, Ange managed to find 1 seat, then as we got into Brum loads of people got off and we managed to find a few odd seats - Only to find that they were all reserved. Luckily the people to whom those seats belonged didn't materialise and only DNephew had to give up a seat and sit on my knee. So I spent the rest of the hour journey with him showing me his trick of pulling out a 2p piece from his arm/ear/head/tummy etc....

You would think that once in Derby it would all be over too but the queue for taxis was massive outside the station and where as the queue of taxis is usually massive there were none to be seen and they came in dribs and drabs. Apparently the reason for this is because the month of Ramadan has now begun so as soon as it is dark, all the Muslims are off home to feed their faces. No offence meant there by the way. They fast all day and can only eat once the sun goes down so I guess you have to be hungry by the evening. Follow the link as it has some very interesting info even I was never aware of.

I managed to get home for Casualty in the end.