The Search For Enlightenment

Early Sunday morning, bright sunshine and train ticket in hand, I set off for Bristol Parkway station to catch the train down to Cornwall to retrieve Bumble. The walk to the station was nice. The early morning air had a nice cool stillness to it, and I covered the two and a half miles in good time.

The station was very quiet, hardly another passenger in sight as I sat waiting for the 10:32 train to Penzance. Having booked the ticket online, I was allocated a seat, 50A in coach D, and on alighting, I found that the carriage was almost empty too. Strangely, my seat was next to a lady going to Newton Abbot, but after a short discussion, it was agreed that, given the free space, I would not be hung, drawn or quartered if I moved to another seat.

The plan, fundamentally flawed as it turned out, was to use the Wi-Fi application on my mobile to connect my iPad to the internet, so I could write my submission to Homophilosophicus for June. As it turned out, the data connectivity on the Three network is more than a bit flaky between Bristol and Penzance, so that idea was quickly abandoned.

I did manage to pen a short submission for the blog, though that had to reside in my iPad until I got back to ‘civilisation’. But I resigned myself to passing the time by reading The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. Rather aptly, it relates the story of the end of an affair between two people, set against the backdrop of World War II. Not exactly the funniest book I’ve ever read, but it did give me a few things to think about.

Actually, by the time we reached Plymouth, I had read enough for one sitting, but as we left the station, passing close by the Naval dockyard, full of destroyers and other military craft, the scenery suddenly took on a most picturesque character. We crossed Brunel’s Tamar bridge, a most impressive construction, even by modern day standards and then began to weave our way along the shoreline, a mere stone throw from the sea.

The weather was closing in, and as we approached Redruth, where I was to meet Bumble, it was clear that the temperature had dropped significantly. Not that, in the event, it mattered one jot, because although I had no jacket, or even a sweater with me, my mobile rang and it was B, telling me that she was already at the station.

It was lovely to see her after all being apart for nearly a whole week, but upon inspection of her ankle, it was clear that it was still very bruised and swollen. I assumed my role as chauffeur and we headed off towards Bodmin and on to Bristol. The journey was rather uneventful, but it gave us lots of time to catch up on the week’s events and she had lots of stories about the islands and the people she had met on her travels.

By the time we got to the cottage, we were both pretty pooped. I don’t think Bumble had slept too well with the pain from her ankle, and Cornwall and back in a day is a pretty tiring round trip. So after a quick meal and a shower it was time for bed. It was nice to finally be able to do my rescue bit, and B was grateful for being spared the drive home.

So what did I learn from the episode? Well patience, something I clearly lack at times, is indeed a virtue, and that worrying about imagined issues is not only a huge waste of time and energy, but can be very counterproductive too, so don’t do it. I’ll try very hard not to in future.