As always it was a lovely relaxing time bookended by the awfulness of the train journeys.
The outward journey due to the snow of the previous week, and I feel bad complaining as in the end I was only an hour late in the end, although it meant that by the time I got to Carmarthen I really wanted to be home quickly.
The return journey was First Great Western at it's finest, I mean worst. First I had to be up at 7.30 to be sure of getting to the station by 9.30. Thankfully the car journey was smoother, on the way back the Top road from New Castle Emlyn to Cynwyl Elfed being clear, on the way up it had been impassable, although the main road was remarkably clear and well gritted which says a lot for the effectiveness of Carmarthenshire Council. The 9.30 start was my decision , as it was a cheaper train, and it was a direct one from Carmarthen no changing at Swansea, and I avoid the shittyness of Arriva Trains Wales, on the downside it was a longer journey, for some reason avoiding Reading and Swindon, instead going via Oxford, but armed with my ham sandwiches I would cope. But it turned out my hopes of a nice journey were marred by the fact that they were unable to provide a trolley service in First Class, they were one carriage short in First due, which made anyone who had a booked ticket for carriage G was out of luck, and the first working toilet I could find was two carriages down in Standard. Things got worse, sometime before the Severn Tunnel we were told that they did not have enough water on board to ensure that all the toilets on board worked, then at Oxford they ran out of hot water in the buffet car, so no more free coffee.
By the time I got into Paddington I was almost on the verge of turning to religion so desperate was I to get off.
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