We hadn't long eaten meat…

…when the dessert arrived.

Hahahahahaha, see what I did there?

Anyway, it was the n^th SimonG meet on Saturday (there appears to be some confusion over how many there have been) and Jenny very kindly offered me a sofa (no, it wasn't from her Mum's flat) for the weekend, so I could attend the Eaton Farm pub in Long Eaton properly refreshed; leaving the pub properly refreshed was naturally down to me! As it happened, Gottle ended up on the sofa and at the constant mercy of nocturnal feline interference. Luckily, the bedroom I occupied had a door that fastened! Hurrah!

Several hours earlier, I had taken the Cross Country train from Bournemouth and, having booked the ticket online before Christmas, benefited from: (1) an amazingly reasonable price (£26 return) and (2) a reserved seat – I commend this system to you all. There was even an electric socket for PDAs and laptops – what more could you ask for? Not a signal failure between Birmingham International and Birmingham New Street, that's for sure.

Being one of the most considerate people of our generation, I relinquished my seat 10 minutes before the scheduled arrival at New Street (14.43) with the intention of enabling someone who had hitherto been standing to sit, and waiting in the passage until we arrived. Within 3 minutes of arriving in the stifingly hot passage with a mass of humanity exuding body odours of varying richness, the announcement of the signal failure up ahead was, er, announced, which meant that we were being diverted and it would take at least another 25 minutes, advancing the arrival time to 15.12; my connection departed at 15.13.

When we arrived at New Street, it would be disingenuous of me to report that I ran to the main concourse; a person in my advanced degenerative condition could at best be described as hurrying (and that would be kind). As I limped towards approached the information board, the announcer told me that there had been a platform change and the 15.13 to Nottingham was now leaving from Platform 11a. I raced (oh, come on!) down the stairs and caught it with a minute to spare. In fact, had it left on time and not 3 minutes late, I would have missed it.

It was great to see members of the fabulous blogring again and to actually meet someone I hadn't met, i.e. Me (I've done all the jokes before so I'll leave it at that), who lives in Welshland and who had arrived at the pub an hour before Paul, Jenny and me!

Many thanks again to Jenny for organising the event, lifts to and from the station, and putting me and Gottle up for two nights at an extraordinarily competitive B&B rate. The mess Mediterranean (or Italian) Beef Casserole on Friday night was superb!

Ooh! I've just done a blog!