I told you I was off to Plymouth. I had originally had in my mind Portsmouth (about an hour away). When I looked at travel for Plymouth I realised the journey would be at least 5 hours. So a bit of research was done and I decided the train was the best option. This is what happened:

6.45 am Up, shower, dress, cup of tea and turn on local news on TV. News item – problem with trains due to fire.

7.30 am Manic research on internet to discover train really has been cancelled. Alternatives routes looked at and it’s possible to get there via London if I leave a bit earlier. Then realise another problem – pre-paid tickets only valid for route and journey on the ticket.

8.00 am Kind husband says he’ll take me to the next train station where I had to change. It’s a place called Fratton, well past where the fire is, but and hour and 15 minutes drive away. We rush to get into car, fill up with petrol (why does the car always need petrol when I’m in a hurry?) and drive for about half a mile and hit a huge traffic jam. Of course, there are no trains so masses of extra people are in their cars making what is usually a horribly busy road into a car park. Husband suggests going to Brighton as we’ll never get to Fratton in time to catch the train there. So we turn around and I resign myself to probably having to buy another ticket. But the traffic is awful and looks unlikely we’ll get into Brighton in time to catch that train. Another suggestion – Gatwick. So off we drive.

9.30 am I’m at Gatwick station and I make my way to the ticket office. I explain to the ticket man I need a ticket to Plymouth if there are trains that will get me there on time. He looks at my original tickets and sucks his teeth. £84 for a single ticket to Plymouth! But then the nice man says he could print me out the details of the train being cancelled due to the fire and write a note on it to ask the guards on the 2 trains I’ll have to catch to accept it. He couldn’t promise they would, but it was worth a try.

9.35 am The train was due to leave at 10.03 am so I had time to go to the loo.

9.40 am I got back to the station and looked on the departure board. The 10.03 am train was cancelled! The next one was at 11.03 am. I phoned Stephen as I was now getting a bit worried about whether I would make it. I then had a calming cup of coffee and waited ….

11.03 The train arrived. No problem with the ticket because there wasn’t a guard in sight.

12.30 The next train to Plymouth was due on time. I asked the guard on the platform if he had any idea which part of the train the ticket guard might be. He asked me why, I showed him the print out with the hand written note (I felt a bit like a school child with a note from the teacher giving me permission to miss games or something) and he said not to worry, of course they would honour the ticket. The guard on the train was equally pleasant. I was surprised.

15.10 pm The train drew up to Plymouth station and Stephen was there to collect me just in time for us to get to the venue for the event on time. But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to hear about that. I’m exhausted just reliving that journey.

Louise Matthew is holding a Tuttiflutey event on Sunday 6 December 2009 at Cavendish School, 31 Inverness Street, Camden, London NW1 7EY. It is from 2 – 5 pm with concert for family and friends from 5 – 6 pm.  It will be good! Ican email you a booking form if you want to go or you could contact Louise via her website www.tuttiflutey.co.uk

Stephen at Abbotsholme

I’m back from yet another Flutewise event. This happened yestearday at Abbotsholme and was a workshop on the Magic Flute with Stephen. It was really lovely to be at Abbotsholme, but a bit starnge as we weren’t ‘living’ there, just visiting. It was also lovely to see some regular Flutewise members – Lucy and Helen – and also lots of new faces.

We are using three pieces for these workshops, Magic Bells, Papageno’s Song and Queen of the Night. Each arrangement seems to get an extra part added to the score for each event – I’m up to Queen of the Night in 8 parts now! It was an exciting workshop, but a bit tiring. Maybe it was the time of day. We had quite a number of beginners and they all did extremely well. Stephen was his usual, wonderfully energetic self.

As we left, we both agreed we were starving. Would you believe the nearest place to eat was a curry house?! I was very happy as I hardly ever get curry at home and now I’ve had one once a week with Stephen for the last 3 weeks. It will have to be Italian next time I think – or maybe curry.

Right, what’s next ….

Update – I had a lovely email from the excellent head of music at Abbotsholme, Tim Moon. I’m pleased he enjoyed the event:

Many thanks for running the workshop at Abbotsholme yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and it was good to see you again.

The pupils I have spoken to today have given very positive feedback.