Malden Manor, early morning

Here's a tip for those of you who travel on the West Coast and are understandably fed up with train prices: Avanti Superfare.

You book in the window that is between 56 days and 7 days before you want to travel, and your ticket costs twenty quid. 

You can specify whether you wish to travel in the morning, afternoon, or evening, and the one downside is that you only find out the day before what time your train is leaving. (You do get a seat reservation, though.)

Given that a lot of people will travel out of London on a Friday afternoon and evening, I shouldn't have been surprised to find that only morning seats were left when I booked my ticket, so I'd be leaving Euston sometime between seven o'clock and midday, today.

Yesterday, I was told I was on the 07:53, which could have been worse, but that did mean catching the 06:41 from Malden Manor. 

Still, the weather was pleasant and I arrived at Euston in good time, so I was able to grab a coffee before taking my seat. 

And the upside was that I was home before eleven o'clock!