Travelling Light

This was a busy weekend for me. I spent 4 days without my children – they were happily ensconced in their grandparents’ house having fun with their cousin while I trekked down to London for some grown-up time.

It’s not something that happens very often. I don’t do lots of going out, or socialising these days. Budgets don’t allow it for one thing, but also I never seem to have the time, there’s always something else to be done – like work for example – that means I forgo that ‘me time’ that we all need.

So this weekend I was determined to make the most of it. I was attending Cybermummy, a huge conference for parent bloggers held in London. I decided to travel up the day before, catch up on a bit of work and stay over ready to be there bright and early for the start of the conference. I was lugging a rucksack around with me so when I got to the ticket office and discovered that for an extra £6 I could upgrade to first class I decided to take the plunge.

Now I’m not saying it was Orient-express-plush or anything but I had a seat and room to put my luggage and handbag without risking DVT, which is good enough for me. And then they brought around the tea trolley! Free tea and a packet of biscuits?! How could I not have known about this before? I could have bought a normal ticket and spent more than that buying a latte and a cookie in Starbucks (or any other high street coffee shop) and had to stand up for 40 minutes.

Arriving in London I contemplated my overspend (however justified) and decided to hit the tube for the 4 stops to my destination. I’d already made a stop at the ATM back at the station so I was soon furnished with a ticket and headed down (and down, and down) the escalators. After 2 stops I was ready to declare I would never again travel by tube – hot and hideous, cabs are deffo the way forward.

After a busy afternoon I grabbed some food and a drink and realised that London was gorging itself on my cash. Sometimes you just need to accept that fact and release the strings a little. Sometimes it’s ok to enjoy yourself without counting every penny. Only sometimes mind….

 

 

Tuesday, 28th June 2011

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