Choo choo Party

Aside

Saturday - the day of the party - was bitterly cold and as we lined up on Minehead station lots of people were wearing anoraks, except yours truly. The one concession I made for the weather was smart black boots – comfortable – fortunately, as we stood quite a while waiting for our steam train. I should have got a superb photo as it chugged slowly towards us on the very long, flat approach, billowing clouds of steam, but the result is disappointing and my camera case seems to have got in the way.

It was good to see the birthday boy determined to give everybody a good time and I’m sure his late mother was looking on approvingly. Drinks were served on the platform and we were told the name of our carriage and our table numbers. Oddly the people we were sharing a table with were the very same we had shared a table with five years ago – and we hadn’t seen or spoken to them since. There were lots of camera enthusiasts so there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and shooting out of windows.

The train was warm and it was pleasant watching the changing scenery – at a sedate rate - whilst we were served a four course meal. Extraordinary to realise that our smartly dressed waiters were all volunteers as were all the staff except the catering manager. Our host has been a volunteer for over twenty years. It reminded me of when I was an occasional bar maid at our old Oast Theatre, where the odd person would treat you like the hired hand, so I remembered to be especially appreciative.

We reached our destination – Bishop’s Lydiard ( we long for the day when BL is linked up with Taunton) before dessert was served and were able to stretch our legs in the wintry sunshine. The train had travelled backwards, I was told, as the latest acquisition – a train turn-table - isn’t yet commissioned. MTL and I particularly enjoyed the trip as it brought back memories of taking all our ten grand-children on the train, when they came to stay, and the boys were smitten with Thomas the Tank engine.

On the way back everyone was in good spirits and it was fun to drift round and chat to people. Someone said the food was better than the Orient Express. The party was to continue the next day in a marquee in the garden opposite us and from the sound of it, went with a swing. We chickened out but as there were 64 guests, approx, we wouldn’t be missed.