Week Notes S1 E5: On the fringe of the fringe
Originally published on Medium on August 29, 2018.
Travel of the exhausting kind precluded Notes for the last couple of weeks, firstly back and forth to Devon, then rallying up to Edinburgh and the highlands last week.
I’ve had the breadth of the best and worst the rail network has to offer from hot seating enroute to the Fringe, desperately hoping I wasn’t going to be turfed out my seat with the corridors overflowing with humanity escaping the summer heat whilst exchanging consulting war stories with an Ex- Deloitte Australian couple.
I’m forever impressed how many have come from and wide who now think of London as home; it’s where so much of the energy and diversity of the city comes from and I’m desperately hoping Brexit won’t change that. Equally a fact that stuck with me was how apparently London is pretty unique in the scale of its use of contractors; a reflection of how so many see the big smoke as transitory place for material gain and experience over an opportunity to put down roots.
After a swing through the Fringe, a bike race and a couple of days playing in the rivers, hills and distilleries of the highlands I had the far more welcome opportunity to get the Caledonia Sleeper back home, something that’s been on my bucket list for quite a while. The experience was like stepping back into the bygone age of rail travel; from a windswept platform in the middle of nowhere I was welcome aboard by name and escorted to my cabin for the night. The cabins themselves, whilst small are very comfortable with plush beds, storage space and a hidden sink for bedtime essentials.
With a little music to distract from the gentle(ish) rattles and bumps of the journey, the night went pretty smoothly awakening to sunrise over the Home Counties and breakfast in bed before pulling into Euston with plenty of time to get into work. It’s an experience I’m sure to replicate in my journeys across South America and a specific journey I want to do again in reverse (awakening in the highlands is far more fun than vice versa!).
A couple of days of work later I was off again, back to Devon via Bristol for the bank holiday (thankfully smoothly…), returning in time to crack on with hosting for a self-made pizza night with wine flowing.
But my journey of the last 200 (ish) hours doesn’t end there, since I’m currently writing this from the train heading south from Rugby back to the city, why you ask? Well a friend’s wedding is up here next weekend, and the only way to ensure I had everything I needed (plus acting as a shuttle of the happy couples stuff) was to preposition today before dashing south. If anyone knows of a good visualization tool for google maps timelines, please let me know since I’m sure I’d be shocked by mileage and associated carbon footprint.
Oh well, we do what we must. Tally ho and all that.