Pain

Date: 06 September 2006 19:45:34

This morning I had a business meeting in the City (the Welsh one). It takes a hour to get there by train. So I figure catching a train an hour and a half before I need to be there will give me plenty of flexibility in case of 'we're sorry about the delay to this service' announcements. I figure wrong.

I bought my ticket and boarded an unusually quiet train. We set off. Two minutes later the announcement comes: 'We are sorry about the delay to this service.'
Hang on... we've just set off at the timetabled time. We're two minutes into the journey. How can we be late?
'Due to the on-going signalling problems at Botheration we anticpate a wait of approximately 25 minutes at Port Smog.'
Fantastic. They knew there was a problem before we boarded the train and we weren't told. I would have taken a bus if I'd known. Never mind, I think, I'll still make the meeting.

At Port Smog it's announced that we're in a queue of trains waiting to go through the 'effected area'. We're stationary for over 40 minutes. I call to say I'll be late for the meeting. Mr Bold in my carriage figures we're owed a free drink and heads off to the buffet carriage. He figures right.
He comes back with coffee. I go for tea. They're handing out free sandwiches and cakes too. I get a 'Pain au Raisin'. It goes a small way towards compensating for pain au journey. I drink tea, eat cake and read the ingredients list (it beats reading work paperwork) It says:
Flour Water Yeast Flour Improver Salt Sugar Milk
Powder Butter Sultanas Custard Apricot Glaze
Apart from the total lack of punctuation and strange line break that leaves me wondering what kind of ingredient 'Powder Butter' is, I am also puzzled by the lack of raisins in my 'Pain'.

Eventually we leave Port Smog and travel at a snail's pace through Botheration. We arrive in the City a full 60 minutes late. I am late for the meeting. But it wasn't that interesting a meeting anyway. I'm sure writing about my journey makes for a far more entertaining read.