Christmas lights

This morning we were meant to be travelling to Southampton by train to spend Christmas with Mr hazelh's family in Chichester. Our one worry on setting off from Edinburgh Waverley was the chance of missing our Cross Country connection at Newcastle if the East Coast train ran late.

From our train seats somewhere north of Berwick we checked the live departures at Newcastle to identify the platform for our next train. Panic set in when we couldn't find our next train listed! A quick word with the guard brought the bad news that the train to Southampton had been cancelled!!!

Then the guard made the suggestion that we stay on the East Coast train all the way to Kings Cross, cross to Victoria by tube, then catch the Southern Rail service to Chichester. This is the route that we would have selected when we initially bought our tickets a couple of months ago had the cost not been prohibitive. When I enquired as to whether or not our tickets would be valid for these changes, the guard assured me that all would be fine.

The end result of all this meant that we enjoyed East Coast service - including free wifi - for longer, avoided the Cross Country service (which is usually not as good as East Coast), reached Mr hazelh's family an hour and a half earlier than anticipated, and saved Mr hazelh's mother the trauma of driving to Southampton to pick us up.

On our way from the station to Mr hazelh's parents' house our hosts gave us a guided tour of the local Christmas lights. This was the best display of all.

Exercise today: only a little walking (6933 steps).