So many Sleeps
1. and 2. At a Railway Station after my cousin's wedding. Yes, this has happened twice - two cousins, two weddings (both brothers, both now married). First was M. - I caught the train to Ingatestone whch was a short walk from the wedding venue. Cutting a long story short, after too much free beer I walked to the station far too slowly and missed the last train. I walked along the handy trackside path about halfway to Chelmsford, where I found a main road and hitched a lift into town, and sneaked my way into the now closed station. It was freezing cold being the weeke before Christmas so I looked around and managed to find a disused relay room to sleep in. I finally got home about 10am Sunday morning after catching 2 trains to Norwich (including 5 mins kip while changing trains at Colchester).

G. brother of M. got married down in Kent. I took my bike on the train and cycled from the station to the wedding. Going back I had a broken pedal so (guess what...) I missed the last train. Luckily there was a disused goods shed in the station yard and some tramps had kindly left a hole in one wall and some old blankets. Another long wait for the first train in the morning which didn't come until about 9am.

3. Not me but a mate... He being 6 foot tall and all that. In town, missus kicked him out. Nowhere to sleep so he curls up inside one of those Grit-Salt bins. You know, the plastic ones full of Grit-Salt and only about 4 foot long and 3 foot high. He said it was much warmer than outside, and because it was winter some had been used up giving him extra room.

4. Me and the mate (him from No. 3.) were looking after a steam engine for its owner, "The Mad Doctor" as he is known. After some repairs, we had to warm it up slowly over a nummber of days, so this meant keeping the fire in at night. So what did we do? Slept on the floor in the cab of course. Every time one of us woke up for a piss or whatever we would put some more coal on.

5. The usual trains, cars, buses (moving and/ or staying put) and a boat. me and Grit-Salt man took a boat up the Grand Union Canal and stayed overnight before coming back. Not a narrow boat mind, but a 65foot inflatible rubber dinghy just big enough for two. No pillows and just our coats and one towel for a blanket. Got some funny looks off the fishermen and dog walkers the next morning as we snored away in the boat on the towpath.
( Amos E Wolfe makes vinyl signs and things like that, Wed 3 Jan 2007, 13:43, Reply)