Tuesday 5 November 2013

Day 1..........Paris Here We Come.

As I write this blog I am currently perched on a temporary seat in the baggage hold of the 2.30 pm  Eurostar London to Paris. This was not how our adventure was supposed to begin but unfortunately due to Mother Nature having a strop last night and battering the country with her vengeance this is exactly how it has begun.

Last night we had resigned ourselves to the fact we were going nowhere and a week at home was inevitable.............................This morning however Mr DG had marched us out of the door into the car and plonked us all on the station with determination in his eyes and a no nonsense to the British weather kind of attitude. We waited for hours for the train to take us to London and watched as the time slipped away before us knowing that we had well and truly missed our ride to Paris, I will admit to exclaiming several times that I wanted to go home and give up but he was having none of it. I vented my anger at the first train of the day for a station full (and I mean full) of people only having 8 carriages and threw a epic tantrum when the announcement about unclaimed baggage rang out over the tannoy for the 100th time......................."I DON'T CARE ABOUT UNCLAIMED BAGGAGE.....................................................................WHY ARE YOU NOT RUNNING MORE TRAINS WITH MORE CARRIAGES AND GIVING US UPDATES ON THE TRAINS THAT ARE RUNNING"........................................

I know I should of cared but quite frankly we were all tired, hungry and fed up of standing on a miserable station. Trains on the other side whizzed past and we were just kind of left in limbo. I knew things had dropped to an all time low when an actual employee of British Rail exclaimed that he had no idea why they weren't running any trains as the lines were all fine...............ARGHHHHHHHH!!

Finally we managed to get onto a train with all of us standing the whole way to London...............Not fun when you have 2 kids and a bad back. Mr DG remained unnervingly positive and kept winking at me...................................................I vaguely remember thinking I might poke his eye out if he did it again.......................

Once at St Pancreas station we marched our way to the Eurostar ticket office where they very kindly managed to get us on this train....................................................................
Unfortunately they also managed to get everybody else that was late on the same train thus resulting in some of us sitting in the cheap seats................................The Teenager has had a total look of disgust on her face for the past 30 minutes as people from the posh seats are giving us that type of tilted head "Oh Dear, poor you........And you have kids" look which has sent her into a full blown Teenage "OMG WE LOOK LIKE WE ARE POOR" kind of mood...................Such Fun. The Whirlwind has taken a different approach and is relishing in the fact that we are right next to the bar and is spending most of the  journey fetching crisps, drinks and peanuts to us. He has expressed a concern about the choice of flavours in the sandwiches but has assured us that the staff are really friendly and have offered him a job..................................................Quick, type him up a CV.............

To be fair we are on the train when I honestly thought we would be at home by now and we are through the tunnel and in France.......................................................Its not quite what I imagined but we are here.

The Train manager keeps coming through and checking we are all fine (I think my notebook and pen are making him nervous) and has assured us that should any seats become available within the next hour he will let us know. I cant quite imagine under what circumstances seats will free up unless whole families may suddenly throw themselves from the train but I'm going with it anyway.

The Whirlwind is back now with some type of pastry, The Teenager has relaxed slightly and I think I even saw a smile and Mr DG is looking totally happy with himself and has just winked at me again.................................Right....That's it..................where's my pen..???

Will write again tomorrow
Lots Of Love and Au revoir.......

Me
xxxx

5 comments:

  1. I love his positive attitude and I'm glad you managed to get away. I'm also delighted to hear you too have paper notebook and pen as so do I! I never leave home without them.

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    1. Oh yes indeed, never leave home without it just in case. Thanks so much for reading my lovely xx

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  2. Aww bless you Sam! How frustrating for you, I hope you got to Paris!!

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  3. Oh no, how hugely frustrating. I hope the rest of the break makes up for the horrendous start x

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  4. What a horribly frustrating start to your break - it can only get better :) #MMWBH

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Love to hear your comments, and I will always try to reply xxx