Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Charge of the light brigade

Plotting a route into Manchester from Marple sometimes feels a bit like organising the charge of the light brigade. You have to weigh up the path of least resistance, taking into account all likely obstacles. This is made all the more harder depending on which children need to be dropped off at which nursery, school, carer etc. It also depends hugely on which day it is and whether either of us needs to be in Manchester city centre, on a train, at Manchester Airport, at Rachel's place of work, in Cardiff, London, Birmingham or Dublin.

We were warned that Marple has one road in and one road out. Which is factually untrue. There are two and they're both horrific from 7.45 onwards. Tuesday is the busiest day of the week by far, then it gets gradually easier.

I'm about to make this even harder for myself and give my car back to the leasing company in two weeks time, without another car arranged. I'm going to see how long I last before sorting out a short term hire until my new one is delivered sometime in the summer. Which means relying on the train to get to work. I don't reckon I can do it, but I'm going to try.

I have been getting the train this week and it's been a mixed bag. Trains from Marple are reliable but crowded. Trains from Rose Hill are empty but slow and unpredictable. You can hedge both these options and park at Romiley, but the station car park is now being used by contractors, reducing the free places to about ten. It then costs £1.50.

No comments: