The Future

Parisian traffic notwithstanding, I should live long enough to show the boy the correct way to watch the six Star Wars films.

I've been merely struck down by a virus, the doctor told me this morning after my latest trip to her surgery.

Though I will live for at least another few years, I am weakened and I've been told to avoid work for a few weeks.

This recuperation, of course, coincides with the huge changes that are happening with Eurostar.

Sunday would have been my last journey into Waterloo from Paris and the return on Tuesday morning, one of the last out of the terminus before it closes to Eurostar services on November 14.

But thanks to sickness I can forget about the swan songs and nostalgia. The next time I go to London for work it will be on the new super fast line into St Pancras International. Twenty minutes will be hacked from the journey time, I'll descend at a "destination station" and more importantly Britain will be part of a vibrant high speed European network.

Blighty's only been a decade in the catching up but it has at least arrived.

I'm just curious to see when Eurostar will increase the prices as their way of helping the travellers lap up the splendours of this brave new world.