Trains

Our grandson loves his Brio train set. It was actually Son's Brio train set, but it's been added to over the past few years and even more so over the last couple of weeks, when I found some second-hand for sale in Edinburgh on Gumtree and couldn't resist buying it. He was extremely pleased. We may now have rather too much of it for the size of our sitting room. Biggest Granddaughter was also quite interested for a while after the extra stuff arrived, especially in the trees and the people that came with it, but after a while she decided to decorate one of the boxes that it came in. They're definitely a girl and a boy.

Presently the Brio started escaping from the room and invaded the hall. Grandson had an ambition to make it go up the stairs, but he didn't have enough boosting bits. This may be just as well.

Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter were supposed to arrive for a long weekend on Friday evening, but, alas, there was a fatality on the line somewhere between York and Newcastle and the trains were very disrupted. Daughter and Littlest ended up staying Friday night in a hotel in York, the alternative being to transfer on to a replacement bus to Newcastle and then get another train, which would have meant a very late arrival indeed. Of course it's absolutely awful that anyone should want to end his/her life this way, but it must be almost equally awful for the train driver and those who have to deal with the aftermath. And it causes huge disruption for thousands of people. It's hard to imagine being quite so blind to all the consequences for others as to commit suicide under a train; unless maybe the person actually wants to make an impact on as many people as possible? I suppose they're in such a state that they're incapable of thinking straight. How very terrible.

Anyway, Daughter 2 and Littlest arrived on Saturday and it was lovely to see them, though not so lovely to say goodbye again on Monday.

Yesterday we went up to see Son and Medium Granddaughter, the Unbloggable Small Person. She's such a sweetie and very chatty and interesting, and she knows us and seems to be happy to see us. But we only see her for a few hours every few weeks so it's pleasure mixed with sadness. (Yes, I do know that we're lucky to have these lovely grandchildren and I shouldn't complain. But still.)