Linebashing, and its consequences

'Linebashing', for the uninitiated, is the practice of travelling on a railway line for no other reason than that you've never travelled on it before. And that's what I indulged in earlier today, travelling on a branch line at the very southern fringe of the Oystercard zone I'd never used before. There was a nice view back towards London as the train approached the terminus, the sun was shining, and all appeared to be set fair. But then it all rather fell to bits. My original plan was to walk to the station at the end of another branch, which I had visited before, albeit a very long time ago, but it soon became clear that it was further than I'd anticipated, and would involve walking uphill along a busy main road with no footpath, so the fact that a bus stop, with a bus ostensibly due, presented itself seemed like a much preferable 'Plan B'. Except that the bus didn't turn up. And it was only an hourly service. After standing in the cold for almost half an hour, I ended up catching the next bus in the other direction, discovering en route that the missing bus had broken down, finding myself in the local town centre, even further out. I did 'tick off' another Wetherspoons, but, even by the time I left there, I was starting to feel decidedly sniffly, and now, eight hours or so later, I've got a horrible feeling that another chesty thing might be on its way. I'll have to see how I feel in the morning, but it looks like I might end up paying a high price for traversing about four new miles of our rail network!

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B