What a well organised trip. HA HA ......Good job Caroline was with us otherwise we would have all ended up in A & E!!!
Eight of us meet at Paddock wood station and because the ticket office was closed Christine tries to buy tickets out of the machine. Hopeless, so we give up .Then Sarah realises the ticket office was open again. Perhaps he was hiding from us! So we purchase our tickets then climb up the stairs and over the bridge to wait for the train.
With minutes to go Christine gets an anonymous text that requests her to get a ticket as this person was on her way. We are all puzzled as to who this is and try to work out who is missing from our group. Christine texts back and ask who it is? Sarah W is the reply. Tension is running high now as the train is fast approaching the station and Sarah is nowhere in sight. Then suddenly she appears and we shriek RUN! Well never has a midwife run so fast in all her life. Up the stairs, over the bridge, down the stairs knocking commuters flying. We meanwhile are blocking doors so the train can’t move. Sarah makes it on to the train and we congratulate her on her athletic prowess.
Julia then realises that the train doesn’t stop at Marden which was a stop offered to some our group. OOPS !!!
Cynthia suggests someone leans out the window and hooks them in like a mailbag. Luckily for the Organiser no one was waiting at Marden!
Caroline then reads that we are in the wrong carriage for Pluckley as the platform is too short for this long train .Needless to say we had all been so busy chatting we had not spotted this vital piece of information. As we move down the carriage we hoot with laughter at the possibility of us all falling out at Pluckley station like Lemmings going over the cliff.
We walk up from the station with Julia wearing a head torch like a Minion and arrive safely at The Dering Arms to meet the 4 sensible ladies who had come by car.
The staff of the Dering Arms were very attentive to us and all our food was really well presented and tasty. After much talk and laughter it was sadly time to go.
So at half past 9 we walk back to the station and calmly caught the train back to Paddock Wood. What a great evening we all declare!
Mind you ....just who was that extra passenger in our carriage dressed in Victorian clothes sitting quietly in a corner of the train watching us ????
Eight of us meet at Paddock wood station and because the ticket office was closed Christine tries to buy tickets out of the machine. Hopeless, so we give up .Then Sarah realises the ticket office was open again. Perhaps he was hiding from us! So we purchase our tickets then climb up the stairs and over the bridge to wait for the train.
With minutes to go Christine gets an anonymous text that requests her to get a ticket as this person was on her way. We are all puzzled as to who this is and try to work out who is missing from our group. Christine texts back and ask who it is? Sarah W is the reply. Tension is running high now as the train is fast approaching the station and Sarah is nowhere in sight. Then suddenly she appears and we shriek RUN! Well never has a midwife run so fast in all her life. Up the stairs, over the bridge, down the stairs knocking commuters flying. We meanwhile are blocking doors so the train can’t move. Sarah makes it on to the train and we congratulate her on her athletic prowess.
Julia then realises that the train doesn’t stop at Marden which was a stop offered to some our group. OOPS !!!
Cynthia suggests someone leans out the window and hooks them in like a mailbag. Luckily for the Organiser no one was waiting at Marden!
Caroline then reads that we are in the wrong carriage for Pluckley as the platform is too short for this long train .Needless to say we had all been so busy chatting we had not spotted this vital piece of information. As we move down the carriage we hoot with laughter at the possibility of us all falling out at Pluckley station like Lemmings going over the cliff.
We walk up from the station with Julia wearing a head torch like a Minion and arrive safely at The Dering Arms to meet the 4 sensible ladies who had come by car.
The staff of the Dering Arms were very attentive to us and all our food was really well presented and tasty. After much talk and laughter it was sadly time to go.
So at half past 9 we walk back to the station and calmly caught the train back to Paddock Wood. What a great evening we all declare!
Mind you ....just who was that extra passenger in our carriage dressed in Victorian clothes sitting quietly in a corner of the train watching us ????