the whooshing noise they make as they go past

18:00 yesterday was missed. Today's initial "about elevenish" passed without noticing. The re-forecast "about half twelve" departed without me on board. I eventually walked out of the office at a minute's worth of whisker before half past three without everything done but with everything I've done explained to other people.

Managed to get the camera rental shop in time and managed to pick up the camera despite the shop having some issues with its customer system. The original booking was for a D200 but when they rang to check I still wanted it this morning they mentioned that the D300 was now available for rental; I've heard good reports of its performance at high ISO so thought it would be worth the extra few quid for a little less grain in the night-time pictures. I shall have to take extreme care not to start coveting it when processing the results.

I did originally intend to head straight for the train after passing the camera over to its operator but had to pop back home to check that everything was turned off one last time despite it taking me well over twenty minutes to check doors and lights and gas and doors and locks and so on this morning. I'm bad enough for obsessive lock-function-checking when I leave the flat to pop to the shop two minutes away so when I'm the last person to leave when the leaving will last three weeks I was understandably anxious. Still, no wedding-related nerves yet, mostly because after finishing up at work the smell of relief was overwhelming.

I was even happy when I got on the mankiest old train I've yet travelled on from Glasgow to Ayr.