Well, today has been fun. Right up until the evening, anyway. Here goes the list of what’s happened:

7.30pm - I leave Eric’s, borrowing an umbrella that I think I’m not likely to need.

7.35pm - The rain is falling like a vertical river, and the several-a-minute lightning strikes are making me nervous of the metal umbrella.

7.50pm - I finally make it to the station, and grab my ticket out of my wallet… my wallet that I don’t have.

8.10pm - Back at Eric’s house and now very wet indeed, I retreive my wallet.

8.35pm - And back at the station again, thoroughly fed up.

8.50pm - I get to Woking, and run to the train across the platform that’s going my way and already late.

9.00pm - The guard, who doesn’t speak English all that well, informs us that due to flooding, our train will be diverted via Portsmouth.

9.10pm - The train passes Guildford station again, going back the other way.

11.40pm - After many stops and unintelligible tannoy announcements, we finally make it to Bournemouth.

11.45pm - I discover that, as expected, there are no more buses. Having spent a ridiculous amount during the weekend, I decide not to take a rip-off taxi.

12.35am - And, at last, I am home. Ready to fall asleep - and be up for work in just over five hours.

During this time, I had nothing to drink, no chance to go to the toilet, no music to listen to, and only a book and a pack of Filipinos to keep me entertained. And to top it all, I even managed to lose the neklace that Eric gave me.

It has not been a good evening.