I Missed My Train Today

It was the last day of my boyfriend's 21st birthday.  A very warm day indeed with highs of 28 degrees Celsius.  It was a wondrous day full of family and friends and lots of cake.

Those are not ice creams but cupcakes inside ice cream cones topped with dairy free butter cream and an assortment of toppings.

We came across a traffic jam on the M25 on the way to the train station after having to cut my evening short due to my impending train journey.  The look of dread was a common look among my mum, sister and myself as we knew, at that moment, I would not make my train and we may be travelling to Loughborough by car.  My mum suggested I rang the train station to see if I could catch the later train, but seeing as though the station is on the way to Loughborough, we would just slip in and see there and then.

20 minutes passed and we were only moving at a snail's pace.  Then 2 unmarked police cars came hurtling past on the hard-shoulder, followed by a Highways Agency 4x4 and 2 incident support trucks (or tow trucks really but that's what they had on the side).  Another 10 minutes passed and we could hear a siren, possibly an ambulance we thought.  It was behind us, and not getting any closer and we couldn't figure out why.  A quick look to the hard-shoulder told us that the road works currently occurring on that stretch of M25 (like the rest of it) had closed the hard-shoulder.  My mum, along with the other drivers stuck on the road, tried to move as best they could with the limited amount of room and 2 fire trucks drove past.  Then another 2 came along.  As we slowly reached the tunnel before the A10 turning, we could see that 3 of the 4 lanes had been closed off and cars we slowly being allowed through the single lane of the tunnel, and the accident.  Another 2 fire trucks slowly edged their way through the small gap between cars and the cones the Highways Agency had used to close the lanes.  As we passed the accident it looked like a mini-van had gone into the back of a 4x4, and someone was on a stretcher (I know, we're nosey).

After that it was smooth sailing to the train station.  I was 15 minutes late to my train, so if the mini-van hadn't gone into the back of the 4x4, we would have made it with 15 minutes to spare.  Luckily, I had the right type of ticket so I could just jump onto the next train.

After we passed the accident, the clockwise lanes were shut due to the road being uneven after an accident (I assume the accident part).  This was the couple-mile long queue.  I'm glad we weren't in that.

 Here's me thinking my life is so uneventful.

Time To Go Home

Happy Easter everyone, or as I prefer it, Happy Zombie Jesus day.

What I woke up to on Easter Sunday :)

So I've spent the past weeks and a bit at home in Essex, and I'm currently on the train back to Loughborough.

My time clock has been completely messed up this week.  My friends are mostly nocturnal, so going round theirs in the evening usually means not getting home til 2am, sometimes later (my latest was 4:30am).  Midnight McDonald's are a usual occurrence with them too.  The McDonald's Monopoly started again last Friday, and we have most of the stickers already - I know, we're sad, but it's the only time it seems we get to really socialise with each other.  Our local McD's is open 24/7, so we sit in the restaurant too. So, sitting on the train back to my cold flat (we all know it is going to be cold because I turned off the heating and it's been below freezing most days even though it is now spring), I'm thinking about all the things I've done since I've been home.

1. Family Reunion

What my family's get-togethers are like

Okay so it wasn't really a family reunion but actually my second cousin once removed's wedding reception, but it's the only time the Irish side of my family seem to ever get together.  And you can see by the mouthful of explaining which family member's wedding it was that it's easier to just say family reunion. I still don't know and remember everyone that I was introduced to, but I have some idea.

2. Cinema

We actually went to the cinema twice, my friends and I, and we saw Trance and G.I. Joe 2.  Having a friend who works at a cinema is really handy sometimes (free tickets, woo).  Trance was a bit like Inception, but I actually understood what was happening in Trance.  G.I. Joe 2, I'm glad I didn't pay to see it.  It wasn't as good as G.I. Joe, but still a good shoot-em up.

3. 50 Lollipop Challenge

This nearly caused several diabetic comas

I do not recommend this one to anyone who gets brain freezes easily, or who doesn't want to get diabetes.  We did this the first Sunday I was home (not Easter Sunday thank goodness).  I could only eat the Helter Skelters, and one of my friends ate about 20 of the lollies (there were 6 of us sharing this challenge).  It was a ridiculous night that ended with McDonald's.

4. Doctor Who

Doctor Who started again on Saturday.  It has gotten over it's Stargate syndrome (the need for each episode to be bigger and better than the last) and has gone back to old Who, nearly.  The opening sequence is very old style Doctor Who.  [spoiler]The bells of Saint John were the telephone ringing in the tardis, and it got it's name from the Saint John's ambulance sticker on the door.  My friend, who is a Saint John's volunteer, had a fanboy moment[/spoiler]

Chocolate

I am a huge chocoholic, but when I found out that dairy is one of my trigger foods for my Crohn's I was very upset.  I tried life without chocolate, but I just couldn't live without it.
One weekend, when my boyfriend visited me, we went to Nottingham and enjoyed an afternoon there. We had lunch in a nice little tea house tucked away in the city centre, and on the way back to the car we nipped in to Hotel Chocolat. They were having a 3 for 2 on their Selections, so we bought some dark chocolate ones for me, and he had a white chocolate one.  I have to say, they are the best dark chocolate I have ever had (70%). I have never been a fan of dark chocolate, but Hotel Chocolat has changed my views on it. I particularly like the chocolate covered hazelnuts.
I would definitely recommend their chocolate to anyone who loves milk chocolate, but has found that they can't have it anymore.  Try a bit of everything, you'd be surprised at what you like and don't like.