Slow Train to Dreamland

Over Easter weekend we remained in Minehead itself.
On Sunday morning, we joined the ringers at Minehead Parish church and afterwards stayed for the service.
The priest had great fun shaking water over the congregation, and there was plenty of incense!

By mid-afternoon, my eyes were watering severly.
My right eye was particularly bad and felt as if someone was stabbing it with a knife.
"I think you are suffering from hayfever." pronounced my husband,
Why don't you have one of my tablets?" 
It seemed worth trying, as these tablets can be purchased from a supermarket or chemist and do not require a prescription.
The tablets did the trick and the pain subsided, to my immense relief!
I spent the rest of the evening resting my eyes, as I really wanted them to recover.

On Monday we planned to go by steam train from Minehead to Bishop's Lydeard.
It was a glorious morning as we walked along the seafront to the station.
My eyes were much better this morning, but a took another tablet,
just in case the smoke from the engine triggered the pain.
At the station, we had to wait while they found someone to open the Ticket Office.
The volunteer they were expecting was not there,
so they quickly had to train someone in ticket selling.
Having done my research online, I knew both the KHT and I could get a reduced fare.
However, the KHT takes exception to reductions on the grounds of disability,
as she wants to be normal, rather than receive a discount.
To avoid any upset, I suggested she went and looked in the shop and chose a postcard to send, whilst I did the boring part and got the tickets.
Tickets obtained we went and retrieved the KHT from the shop, where she had selected an unseasonably snowy scene to send ...

We boarded the train and were soon trundling through the glorious countryside.
Soon the ticket collector arrived to check our tickets.
He inspected the tickets solemnly.
"You've got a problem here, 
and I can't do anything about it. 
I can't change tickets once they are issued, 
but you can take it up at the Ticket Office at the other end."
"What is the problem with the tickets?" I enquired.
"Well, with a disabled ticket, the carer is also entitled to the discount"
The KHT watched on.
Meanwhile, I was silently fuming at the well-intentioned Ticket Collector for blowing my cover over the reduced-price tickets,
even though there is no way he could have known that the discount COULD be an issue!
"You should both have got the discount. You should have asked for the cheaper price."
"I did ask for a Disabled Ticket and a Carers Ticket. I think she has just given us the wrong coloured ticket. 
The lady in the ticket office was being trained on the job, 
as the person on the rota hadn't appeared."
The Ticket Inspector gave an official tut,
clearly not happy with the wrong coloured ticket being issued.
I had no idea where the receipt was,
and was really hoping that I didn't have to empty my bag out to find it,
just to prove that we had not broken into the Ticket Office and issued our own tickets...
The Ticket Inspector decided there was nothing he could do about our wrong-coloured tickets and departed to check if all the other passengers had tickets of the correct colour.
On we trundled, through the beautiful Somerset countryside.

Just one problem...
I (yawn)
couldn't (just resting my head)
stay (and my eyes)
awake.
ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

I lifted my head about every hundred yards or so to check the view.
Green field, yellow field, trees.
Zzzzzzzzz.

Cute bridge over small stream, trees, cute cottage.
ZZzzzzzzzz.

Green fields.
Zzzzzzzz.

Rusty delapidated train stock under taupalin.
ZZZzzzzzz.

More fields.
Zzzzzzz.

Village, nice gardens
Zzzzzzz

Station. People. Train sheds.
ZZzzzzzzzz.

Level crossing
ZZzzzzzz.

Big church tower
ZZzzzzzz.

Fields
Zzzzzz.

Fields
Zzzzzzz.

Station
ZZzzzzzz.

Fields
Zzzzzzzzz.

More fields
ZZZzzzz




By now, even my husband was noticing my battle to stay awake.

"Is something wrong?"
"I think that hayfever tablet has made me sleepy."
Fortunately, whatever problem had caused the pain and made my eyes water, had passed, so I decided to go cold turkey.

However, the sleepiness remained, so I crawled into bed at the unheard of hour of 9:45pm and slept until around 7am the next morning.

I wouldn't say I awoke bright-eyed and bushy-tailed - that would never be me.
However, I was awake enough to finish cleaning the flat
and, to my husband's surprise,
I stayed awake all the way back up the M5
and had a sausage roll from Tellytubby land (Gloucester Services)  to celebrate!