Off down to Brighton for the weekend to see our friend Stav marry his Russian sweetheart, Anna.
Perhaps foolishly, I have agreed to travel by train. Now, I'm not much of a one for train travel normally, preferring to contribute generously to the destruction of the planet from the comfort of my tiny blue car rather than to suffer the mobile phone conversations and tinny drumbeats of other rail passengers. However, thanks to the ever-generous Richard Branson and his cheap ticket scheme, we had a First-Class journey to Brighton at Christmas which I found to be very acceptable. And so I've agreed to give it another try, though this time we'll be travelling with the plebs (cheap first-class tickets are not as readily available for weekend travel as they are for the dead days between Christmas and New Year, it seems) so the journey may not be the unalloyed joy it was in December.
In solidarity with the lovely Anna, I have packed for my on-train entertainment The Night Watch, described on its cover as 'Russia's answer to J K Rowling', which is absolutely nothing to recommend it in my opinion (but we won't go into my utter loathing of the Rowling Phenomenon here, lest we slip into a darkness from which we may never return). Fortunately I already knew a bit about the book and Xherri Potterski it most assuredly ain't, which is otlichno as far as I'm concerned.
Perhaps foolishly, I have agreed to travel by train. Now, I'm not much of a one for train travel normally, preferring to contribute generously to the destruction of the planet from the comfort of my tiny blue car rather than to suffer the mobile phone conversations and tinny drumbeats of other rail passengers. However, thanks to the ever-generous Richard Branson and his cheap ticket scheme, we had a First-Class journey to Brighton at Christmas which I found to be very acceptable. And so I've agreed to give it another try, though this time we'll be travelling with the plebs (cheap first-class tickets are not as readily available for weekend travel as they are for the dead days between Christmas and New Year, it seems) so the journey may not be the unalloyed joy it was in December.
In solidarity with the lovely Anna, I have packed for my on-train entertainment The Night Watch, described on its cover as 'Russia's answer to J K Rowling', which is absolutely nothing to recommend it in my opinion (but we won't go into my utter loathing of the Rowling Phenomenon here, lest we slip into a darkness from which we may never return). Fortunately I already knew a bit about the book and Xherri Potterski it most assuredly ain't, which is otlichno as far as I'm concerned.
No comments:
Post a Comment