Neglect

The 16.46 to Newcastle this afternoon. A meeting there at 10am tomorrow.

The newspaper. A book. Some music. A half pint of wine.

The 2.5 hours passed fairly painlessly, but not entirely so.

The trains Virgin East Coast inherited when it took over the franchise include 30 year old rustbucket diesels which have to operate anything north of Edinburgh (as the line isn't electrified).

My carriage was very cold. A defective automatic door. Hypothermia was closing in by the time I got to Newcastle.

But of course the country is so flush with cash it can throw away £billions on HS2 (which will never come within 200 miles of Scotland, whatever lies the politicians spew out to make us "buy into" the white elephant).