A Typical Tale Of London Travel

I was really looking forward to visiting my cousin Perce and his wife Val for Sunday lunch, with his sister Barbara and her husband Frank. I wanted to share the family reunion pictures with them. Perce and Val live near St Albans, a small town to the north-west of London. The plan was, I would take the Docklands Light Railway to Bank Station, where I would pick up the Northern Line of the tube to Colindale, and Perce would pick me up there.

First problem came when no trains for the correct branch in the line were on the board. Then an announcement specially designed to coincide with the arrival of a train so that it was inaudible said there were engineering works, and a replacement bus service would take me to my destination - once I got on the correct branch. I took the next train and changed to the right branch further on. We were suddenly told to leave the train a stop early to catch the bus. It arrived at 11am, and the doors remained closed while an employee had us observe 2 minutes' silence for Remembrance Day.

As we approached the stop I needed, we seemed to veer the wrong way at a junction. The driver told us this was as close as he could get us because the road was closed, and he put us off the bus with no idea how to get to where we needed to be, just that it was one-and-a-half miles away.

The road was cordoned off and police were on duty, but they were not able to direct us, as they were not local. All they had to do was keep everyone out, as there had been a murder. Eventually I got quite close to the station, but two people said I had to turn in two different directions. I phoned Perce, and quoted some unfamiliar street names to him, but when I mentioned the pub opposite, he knew where I was and joined the queue of cars to reach me and whisk me to his lovely home. I was only an hour late on an hour's journey!

We had a lovely day after all that trauma.

This is a picture of Perce and Val's son Russell's wedding, with Val in pink and Perce, of course, on the right.