Well, I made it :P Am in my Travelodge room.
Took me two and a half hours to get to the train station. Hauled bag and case and laptop through the village to the top road (taxis weren't coming to our village. Can't say as I blame 'em). Ended up waiting at the bus stop for an hour and a half in a blizzard. Traffic was nose to tail. People were pulling their cars over, getting out and walking. One woman walked past and said 'you'll have a wait. I've been sat in my car for an hour and barely moved.'
A guy making deliveries for Walkers crisps got stuck on village main street (opposite where my stop is, the other side of the junction.) I saw people coming out of the post office and shops to help him get his van moved. Big van at that. All the side roads were dicey. He managed to get turned round and came back onto the main road. After about ten minutes of barely moving, he eventually ended up next to my bus stop. Offered me a lift ::P I figured what the hell? Loads of people around to see me get in. No chance of suddenly veering off down some lonely lane. One road was passable. The one that ended in town. And that barely, at a crawl. So, there I was after freezing my tiits off for 90 minutes in the snow, having a pleasant chat with the bloke (David) as we crawled our way down to town. That was another hour. But it was warm :P
Bless him, he totally changed tghe complexion of my day. Made it into town too late to get the 11.06 from Halifax (I'd set off to get the 10.06!) but in good time to grab some brreakfast and get the 12.06. Train station, and train staff were brilliantly helpful and friendly. The guard on the train to Wakefield made a note on my ticket and signed it, just in case I got a jobsworth (I didn't, everyone was great) on the train to london, having missed both my available trains for that ticket.
Very few people were stupid enough to travel today *grins* so the train to london was not too packed. I had two seats to myself. Got down to London and then over to Vauxhall on the underground, where a really helpful ticket guy told me I wouldn't need to do another change if I wanted to go to Kew Bridge instead of Kew Gardens, which put me even nearer the hotel. Walked out of station, into taxi firm: the guy said the taxi would be ten minutes, then 3 minutes later it turned up.
All plain sailing once I'd got out of the village.
I'd been slightly worried at what I'd find at Travelodge. Read some very mixed reviews online. And, actually, it is pretty nice. Smaller room than Premier Inn, but cosy. Actually, cosier than Prem's room, which was a bit big for one person. I wasn't quite able to relax into working in the prem room. Giant windows awith floor length curtains and so on. This room is brighter, more neutral colours, with a normal sized windw with curtains, and the desk is facing the window, rather than a blank wall. Here it just seems a better fit. Shower and stuff isn't all sparkly and new like Prem. They don't do as much upkeep and maintenance, and I suspect it's a bit of pot luck as to what you end up with...but seems fine to me. Staff have been helpful and friendly. Food was decent.
All in all a pleasant start
