One thing after another
This week has been rather eventful. On Monday night I was woken by an explosion and spent two hours stood in the street watching a fire, apparently started deliberately, almost destroy my home. Following a night of no sleep, I still had to help out at guides where they cooked small pancakes over candle flames. Later in the week I had a row with a colleague at work and just had to leave the building. Then, last night I was on a train on my way to meet up with some friends in Abergavenny when someone jumped in front of the train, the third suicide on the line in 24 hours. As I was sat at the front of the train I heard the impact and felt the wheels as they ran over the body. After an hour and a half sat on the track, the train was moved to the nearest station where I decided to abandon the weekend and head back home. Eventually got back six hours after setting out, partly due to problems northbound due to a large crach of a pendolino in Cumbria.
As you might imagine, after all that I'm rather tired and not a little bit shaken. But what struck me was the kindness of random strangers. The neighbours, some of whom I'd never met before Monday night, were great supplying a garden hose (before the fire brigade arrived), blankets, and very welcome cups of tea. Last night, the staff on both trains were very good and coped very well with the situation and never lost their tempers even when some of the passengers got angry, and two different people lent me mobile phones in order to let my friends know I wasn't going to make it. Another person helped to cheer me up when I was sat at a station waiting for a taxi to get me back home. It's good to know there are people like that still out there.