Hello, I'm back in Sheffield. The journey up was an exciting adventure because of snow! It went something like this:

1. Telephoned the train people. They say the trains are running.
2. Got a lift to Folkestone Central Station. No trains are running due to piles of snow.
3. Got a lift onwards to Dover Priory Station, because it is on both both the South Kent and North Kent lines into London (where as Folkestone only on the South Kent).
4. No trains here either, but there is a:
5. Rail replacement bus following the old south Kent line. Felt silly, because it stops at Folkestone next.
6. Thanks to snow, the motorway was down to a single lane. The slight incline out of Dover combined with the ice had the bus's rear wheels slipping and sliding all over the place. Speeds not exceeding 5-10 mph.
7. Bus reaches Folkestone. I no longer feel silly for getting on at Dover, because there wasn't room for the Folkestone people.
8. Bus attempts to reach Sandling station, but fails.
9. Bus chuggs on to Ashford following the vague wheel tracks that mark the A-road underneath. Amusingly at one point this leads us straight over a large planted roundabout. Progress slowed by roadside trees, normally kept trimmed to be out of the way of buses. This no longer applies when branches are heavily laden with snow. Bus top deck windscreen keeps smacking into low snow-laden branches.
10. Bus eventually gets into Ashford. It can't go any further.
11. At Ashford international station, I join a very large mass of people being shuffled from one train to another as the station staff try and find one that (a) will actually move, and (b) is sitting on a line that either doesn't have its points frozen up, or at least has them pointing to Charring Cross. Eventually a train is found, and off we go!
12. Arrive at London Bridge, to change onto a Thames link to Harpenden. Train is not running (due to more snow).
13. Argued with the Tube staff to get onto the tube with my current ticket so I could find another Harpenden train at Kings Cross. Eventually won argument.
14. Took tube to Kings Cross (hampered by line works).
15. Walked to Kings Cross Thameslink (turns out to be a separate station), and caught the Harpenden train.
16. Arrived at Harpenden (no snow to speak of there). Inspected Ashley's new Lego, then drove to Reading. Progress impared by a jam on the M25.
17. Got to Reading. Loaded up my old Moped (Yamaha Townmate) into Ashley's car.
18. Drove to Oxford. Picked up Saf.
19. Drove to Sheffield. Arrived 12 to 13 hours after setting off.

But! It's good to be back.



Also! I've built a fort. Pictures of snow and fort tomorrow when I get my camera out of The Tuckmobile.