So, I was going to tell you about my latest train adventure…
Sarah and I were at the PPA Scotland Awards in Edinburgh last Thursday evening, which were super. It was fun to have an event to get super-spiffed up for.
We stayed overnight, along with lots of DC Thomson colleagues, and Friday morning it was time to head back to Dundee. We were all doing our own thing travelwise depending on the lateness of our respective nights. Sarah was staying in Edinburgh for the weekend.
I breakfasted and aimed for a train just after 10.
On the platform, I ran into Dotty, Design Editor of “My Weekly”. We barely have time to say “hello” at work, let alone “how are you” and then to actually listen to the answer. So we had a lot of catching up to do.
Chatting, chatting, and the train comes in. We board, find seats, and settle in.
As we drew into the first stop, the couple by the door exclaimed that they were on the wrong train. This stop was in the opposite direction from their intended journey. They bundled off, and I laughed with Dotty about it. Numpties.
So we moved along….and I realised that the next station wasn’t on the usual route back to Dundee. The penny dropped. We were on the wrong train, too, heading for Dunblane, not Dundee. Numpties!
So we got our phones out, weighed up our options and the routes, and settled in till we got to Stirling and could change for Dundee.
And at this point the couple across the aisle, American tourists trying to get to St Andrews, confided that they were on the wrong train, too.
We couldn’t figure it out. The train had come in to our platform when due. Why wasn’t it our train? How had we all got it wrong? Must have been something to do with the signs, we decided.
So we got back to work. John from the Beano had been on the platform at the same time as us. When I saw him, I asked, “How did your train journey go?” “Fine,” he said. “No detour through the Central Belt?” “No.” “Didn’t you get on the same train as us?” “Well, no, because it said Dunblane on the sign….”
Numpties!
Shirley Blair Fiction Ed Shirley’s been with the “Friend” since 2007 and calls it her dream job because she gets to read fiction all day every day. Hobbies? Well, that would be reading! She also enjoys writing fiction when she has time, long walks, travel, and watching Scandi thrillers on TV.
