On that southbound train and gone

I'm on the train - and writing this post offline before posting it, because East Coast Main Line have 'improved' their free wifi by restricting it to 15 minutes per standard class passenger.

Nonetheless, we're on the train, that's the main thing. Southbound for Christmas.

Seriously southbound. The plan this year is to skip Christmas, and to celebrate J's 60th birthday (I must already have mentioned that this is the year of the 60th birthdays?) in Italy. durham_rambler and I are doing the trip by train, first to London, then via Paris to Milan and on to our destination in the Lakes.

The snowy weather has been making us a little nervous about traveling, but the worst of the snow seems to have cleared. There are still piles of grey ice around the city, and some of the pavements are still covered with a sheet of ice, but the threatened second wave hasn't materialised. It's very cold (-3°C when we set off for the pool this morning) but the roads were clear, so there was no problem using the car to take our giant suitcase to the station. And that's the bit of the journey I was dreading. Now the main risk is that the trains will get through but the planes won't, and we'll reach our destination before our host.

But that's next week. London first, for the Bears' Carol Evening tonight, and a weekend of other sociable and cultural events. Starting with sitting back and enjoying the snowy scenery...