...But it never snows in Worthing!
02-Feb-09 - That's not strictly true. We seem to have our regulation one day a year of light dusting, and the county grinds to a halt, of course. Last year it was the 6th of April, and in 2007 it was January 24th. On that latter date I was supposed to be going up to London for a meeting, and I got as far as Haywards Heath before the train was terminated. The waiting rooms and the buffet were cram-jammed full of people desperately hoping for a train, and I froze almost to death on the platform waiting for a connection. In the event, a train did arrive, but it was heading back home again, so I gave the whole thing up as a bad job.
This year the snow started yesterday afternoon, and I was scheduled to go this morning to Great Milton in Oxfordshire to interview Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons. This would involve catching the 07:03 from Worthing to London Bridge, cab to Marylebone, then the 09:20 from Marylebone to Haddenham and Thame Parkway, and a further 20-minute cab ride to Great Milton.
By 18:00 last night I began to realise that this journey was never going to happen: even if I could get there it would probably be mid-afternoon, with little prospect of getting back before midnight, if at all. Jill made no bones about it: "the deadline's not until the end of the month, so why don't you just go later in the week, or next week?" I rang Le Manoir but, of course, it was a Sunday and neither RB nor his PA were there, so I left a message saying that I'd like to reschedule the interview, and left my number. I then cancelled the cab I'd ordered to take me to Worthing station at 06:45 this morning.
It was just as well. I woke at 06:30 this morning to find the heaviest fall of snow we've had in Worthing in the ten years we've lived here - it must have been an inch thick. Yes, I know, that's peanuts if you live in the dales or Scotland, but it was enough to frighten the horses in West Sussex. The National Rail online timetable was in chaos, and trains were being cancelled half way through their journeys or even before they started. All London buses had been cancelled (including night buses, to the chagrin of restaurant and other late-night workers who rely on them to get home), LHR had been closed (perhaps good news for Stuart Gillies at Terminal 5 - see post 23-Jan-09) and the world ground to a halt. Someone on the TV remarked that they close the Trans-Siberian railway when the temperature hits -50ºC. It seems that we have a lot to learn.
London tomorrow for Wine+: train to Clapham Junction and a cab to Olympia... We shall see.
View from the front of The Eversley
This year the snow started yesterday afternoon, and I was scheduled to go this morning to Great Milton in Oxfordshire to interview Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons. This would involve catching the 07:03 from Worthing to London Bridge, cab to Marylebone, then the 09:20 from Marylebone to Haddenham and Thame Parkway, and a further 20-minute cab ride to Great Milton.
By 18:00 last night I began to realise that this journey was never going to happen: even if I could get there it would probably be mid-afternoon, with little prospect of getting back before midnight, if at all. Jill made no bones about it: "the deadline's not until the end of the month, so why don't you just go later in the week, or next week?" I rang Le Manoir but, of course, it was a Sunday and neither RB nor his PA were there, so I left a message saying that I'd like to reschedule the interview, and left my number. I then cancelled the cab I'd ordered to take me to Worthing station at 06:45 this morning.
It was just as well. I woke at 06:30 this morning to find the heaviest fall of snow we've had in Worthing in the ten years we've lived here - it must have been an inch thick. Yes, I know, that's peanuts if you live in the dales or Scotland, but it was enough to frighten the horses in West Sussex. The National Rail online timetable was in chaos, and trains were being cancelled half way through their journeys or even before they started. All London buses had been cancelled (including night buses, to the chagrin of restaurant and other late-night workers who rely on them to get home), LHR had been closed (perhaps good news for Stuart Gillies at Terminal 5 - see post 23-Jan-09) and the world ground to a halt. Someone on the TV remarked that they close the Trans-Siberian railway when the temperature hits -50ºC. It seems that we have a lot to learn.
London tomorrow for Wine+: train to Clapham Junction and a cab to Olympia... We shall see.
The courtyard garden at The Eversley
View from the front of The Eversley
posted by John Radford at
11:45
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