girlofprey

Things that happened to me this week:

I want to talk about the Stafford trip, I really do. But so many things happened on it it's hard to know where to start. The first thing was that we had to get up quite early last Friday and get a bunch of trains to try to get to Stafford for lunchtime, so that we'd have time to stash our bags at the hotel and go to the show for half a day and try to get lunch there. But on the second train we took, between Leeds and Huddersfield, which was supposed to take 17 minutes, my mum and I were literally in the middle of buying our tickets when we heard a loud noise and something like rocks falling on the train for what seemed like a long time. The ticket conductor said he had to go check what that was, and then the train stopped, and then a bit later the conductor came back and said unfortunately it was 'the worst case scenario' and we would be stuck there for a while, and that the driver was in no fit state to continue. Mum and I were confused about what that meant, but other passengers said they were pretty sure it meant someone had jumped in front of the train and killed themselves. So we had to sit on the train for two hours, thinking at least sometimes about that, before another driver could come in a taxi from Manchester.

There was some talk of us having to go back to the previous station and get taxis onwards, but in the end we could go forward to Huddersfield. Luckily for me and mum, it was around the right 'time' in the hour for us to catch the connections we would previously have got, just two hours onward. Unluckily, the trains seemed to be all messed up because of the delays our previous train's situation had caused, so we nearly missed our connecting train anyway, and then it was packed because of all the other people who'd missed their trains. Then in Manchester we had no idea where our connection was going from, because I hadn't made of note of our connections before we set off, so we had to go out onto the concourse, then they wouldn't let me back on without a ticket, because I had to buy a special one that included money off for my work train pass, and the conductor had been in the middle of selling me it when the incident happened and he never came back. I managed to get a ticket, using the information he'd given me prior to selling me a ticket, and we managed to catch our train. But we ended up in Stafford 2 hours later than we'd intended to, and that was just the train journey there.

We then had to hop straight in a taxi, case and all, and go straight to the show. We'd had to have lunch on the train, which ended up being a ham and cheese sandwich with barely any ham or cheese in it for me, and a dairy-free cheese sandwich for mum, because those were our only options (and there was only one ham and cheese sandwich), and by the time we were sort of hungry again all the food stands at the show had closed. Then when we left, we thought about trying to get a bus back to town to save a bit of money, only to be told by the security people that they'd never seen a bus pass the front of the showground at all that day. So we ended up trying to walk back. The man did Google Maps for us, and said it was 1.5 miles to the nearest bus stop, and then at least we'd be able to say where we were if we did call for a taxi, and we walk a mile into our local town centre pretty regularly, so we thought why not. We set off, and immediately realised there was no pavement. Just a grass verge on both sides of the pavement. After about five minutes, one of the grass verges became impassable and we had to cross to the other side. Still no pavement, which made pulling the wheely case a lot harder. We passed a dead pheasant. Mum screamed. Eventually we reached the place the security man had been talking about, but it was just a business park, not really in town at all, and we couldn't see a bus stop anywhere. So we kept walking, following the sight of houses and motorway signs and our vague memory of the taxi journey there to guide us. We saw a baby rabbit. That was nice. We passed Stafford hospital. We saw two shuttles to the hospital, and no other buses at all during our walk. It took about an hour. Finally we got to somewhere that had pubs, and a Co-op, and looked a bit like the outskirts of a town. But we were knackered and I was starving, and we were planning to get a taxi to our hotel from town anyway, so I said we should just get a taxi from the Co-op, right away. The taxi came, and then took us back most of the way we'd walked, because if we'd turned right at a particular roundabout instead of going straight on, and just walked for about half an hour through other wilderness, past an MOD base, we would have reached our hotel. But you live and learn.

So we made it to the hotel. Discovered our room was indeed real, because when we booked it the Premier Inn site said they were fully booked, but some other site mum found said there was a room still left, so we weren't sure. But it was real. And we got back up to our room okay. I wanted to go straight for dinner, but mum insisted we make a cup of tea in the hotel room first, to take advantage of the facilities we'd paid for, because she is mad. Finally we could go for dinner. The hotel website had talked about a Shire Horse pub right next to the hotel, which I wanted to go to for dinner, and was excited to go to for dinner. What I didn't realise was that our hotel was literally in the middle of nowhere, again just kind of a retail/leisure park in amongst some fields, and that it was the restaurant for the hotel, like, the place you went to for your hotel breakfast. It briefly occured to me that the restaurant was fully booked - and sure enough, when we got in, we were told to speak to 'Mark' at the computer, and he said there was nothing available for an hour. And that the other restaurants nearby had an hour and a quarter or an hour and a half wait, from what he'd been told. I figured I could do okay if there was bar food and I could have some chips while we waited, but Mark said no, as they were so busy in the restaurant they weren't doing any bar food. So I had a packet of crisps. And finally we were allowed food. Mum wanted to cod and chips, because she believes you should have fish on a Friday, because she is mad. But there was an offer on cod and chips on a Friday there, and as it was so busy, it had all been eaten up, and there was no cod left. Which mum didn't believe, she told me later. But we had other food. And that was good. And then we went to bed. And slept pretty well, the Premier Inn rooms and their Hypnos beds are everything they say there are. Or maybe the hour long walk just wore us both out.

The second day was a lot easier, but we still had some issues with taxis. The last of which was coming out of the show when it ended at 6 o'clock, knowing we needed to try to get our train in Stafford at half past seven, and being told by multiple taxi companies that they couldn't get a taxi 'all the way out there' for at least an hour. Or an hour and a half. Or about 8 o'clock. Finally I tried a taxi company I'd had some trouble with that morning, and got told they could do it in half an hour, which was a relief. Then they called us back, and said they could be there in ten minutes actually. Which was even better. And then on the journey back into town, we got talking to the taxi driver, and he explained to us that there just are no buses in Stafford, because it's really more of a village than a town, and no-one really travels to the other local towns, so the bus companies won't subsidise services because no-one uses them. So more or less the only way to get around in Stafford is by taxis. And if you're somewhere out of the way, like the County Showground, they probably won't come for a while if they come at all, because it's outside of all the usual routes they're generally called to. So there was that. I'm going to suggest the Shire Horse Show offer carriage rides back to town next year, because oh my God. But we made it anyway. And then there was just three train rides back to my home town, which involved another dash out to the concourse at Manchester to get a Burger King tea (which also involved my mother spilling a coke she didn't even want down herself), a ride back from Manchester to Leeds where the lad in the booth behind us was trying to explain to his friends that there's just a difference of personality between the sexes, and equality of opportunity is something we already have, but you can't demand equality of outcome, while I tried to do some sudoku - and a final train ride back from Leeds to my home town with a section of the seats cordoned off for vomit, and the rest of the seats full of drunks, who of course lived in our home town.

But you know what, the show was lovely. It was lovely seeing the horses, it was lovely seeing the passion and interest of the people there, the venue was really nice if a bit cold sometimes, it was neither too pack nor too empty, the people were nice, the trade stalls were interesting, I got a fluffy shire horse and a small tweed bag, you could sit in the stands to sit down or stand by the fences to be right by the horses as they went by. And the highlight without a doubt was the stables. It said on the website that the show ran stable tours, but you couldn't book beforehand, you had to book at the show and they were very popular. I didn't hold out much hope of getting one, and they weren't booking them on Friday when I went, and by the time we got there and I asked on Saturday, the ones for that day were all booked up. But then they said you could just go round the stables freely, you just wouldn't get a tour if you hadn't booked for a tour. So we just got to wander around a pretty large amount of stables, meeting a bunch of beautiful, chill horses. Not all the horses were super-chill, and some of them obviously didn't want to be touched, but no-one ever warned us off touching any of the horses, although I'm sure we were a constant nuisance to the riders and owners. So we just got to go round talking to and stroking horses, some of which were super-friendly. I think they could either smell some chocolate I had in my bag, or thought it was a feedbag, because I got a lot of nuzzling. And frankkly it was just a wonderful experience. I really enjoyed the show, and was very happy it was my birthday gift, and would like to go again next year if I can.

Well that was a lot of stuff, can I remember anything else that happened to me this week?

My parents are away for the weekend and I have the house to myself. This means I'm looking after the dog and am on 'picking up poo' duty, but besides that I'm really enjoying it. And the dog is pretty okay really.

My sister has another dog. My ON told us that last week, as soon as we got back from Stafford. It's a female dog they're looking after for someone who's been sent to prison, as a 'favour', and she's not fixed, and the other dog they have is a boy who isn't fixed, and our dog is also a boy who isn't fixed, and who we expect my sister to look after sometimes when my parents are on holiday and I have to work, so presumably she will have lots and lots more dogs very soon.

I can't remember if I said this, but the other week I was talking to my boss about car parking among other things, and I brought up the concept of penalising people who openly broke the car park rules, again. And my boss told me that we could do that, but it would be 'just as bad' as giving people car park spaces just because we like them. Which I don't agree with. But I guess that's his take on it, and on me really, so I've stopped caring about trying to make the car park any better.

The cleaner who fancies me also told me the other day that even though he loved superhero films and was excited for Avengers: Endgame, he hadn't gone to see Captain Marvel recently because "it's a she". And he only likes men with superpowers, because he's afraid of women with superpowers, because they might beat him up. He then doubled down on that opinion, because "with great power comes great responsibility". And he didn't say anything else, so I guess that means women just can't handle responsibility. But it's okay, because he told me that I can handle responsibility. We (I) then tried to decide if he'd be okay with a female Batman-like character, who didn't have any superpowers, just was super-smart and super-rich. And he said it'd be okay if a woman was super-rich. I might have missed the part where he said whether it'd be okay for a woman to be super-smart. Then he ended up by saying he would take me to the movies, or I could take him to the movies, anytime. Which was great.

They're going to have to have another referendum where they just say "When You Said You Wanted To Leave The European Union, What Exactly Did You Mean?".

I'm still just thinking about all Far Cry 5, all the time. I'm sorry. I'm trying to spare you that. It's been a year since the game was released. It's been literally a year, because it was released on my birthday, which meant there was suddenly new fic on AO3 for the Far Cry 5 Birthday Bash on my birthday, which was lovely. I don't know if I'll ever get over Far Cry 5. I can't think of a way for my favourite characters/pairing to happily be together, so I probably won't.