Winterreise

I think there is a moment when it is important to realise that winter brings circumstances that are seasonal. It is cold. It is snowy and it is often quite horrible. But it's neat to celebrate that.

But if you have to travel ... it's right to prepare for a nightmare. 2013, the train should have left Paris. 213, it should have been in London.

But time becomes fluid in winter and so we left at nearly 9pm and arrived in London and 1130pm local time. So that was half past midnight European time - because of course Britain doesn't hang with Europe on this temporal thang.

Shame that.

I am wondering whether Eurostar will be dishing out any refunds or any sweeteners. I will ask. Maybe they will say you are lucky it only took four and a bit hours.

And you know what they're probably right. It is winter time.

The Cancellations

It's only the beginning of December and Eurostar is having trouble with the weather. I thought I was really smart on Saturday because I phoned up to see if the 0913 was running. Yes, the Frequent Traveller woman told me. You can check it on the website, she added. And I was guided to a page where everything was shown.

When I got to the Gare Du Nord I realise my mistake was not to check on Sunday morning because the train had been cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. Just before I had boiled into indignation, a couple entered the lounge complaining that they had been told just an hour before that the train was running.

So off we went at 1013, quite how the weather had improved between 0913 and 1013 was not obvious as I looked out of the window. Perhaps earlier there had been a deluge to go with the snowy blasts.

Well at least we were only seven minutes late into St Pancras which is good - if you were scheduled on the 1013. One hour seven minutes if like me one had been due to travel at 0913.

At least the staff in the lounge were pleasant. Coming round asking me if I needed any more chocolates. Shame it wasn't a lunch time train as I might have gone to town on the white wine.

World Cup Joys

I am not upset that England lost the world cup charge. Russia and Qatar have never hosted the extravaganza.

Jolly good luck to them. They have deep pockets and that is necessary to lay on a lavish show.

Russia doesn't have a brilliant record on race relations and will need to redouble their efforts to make the country alluring.

Qatar isn't exactly a haven for workers' rights and so that might change.

Sepp Blatter, the president of world football's governing body, has been a recalcitrant bureaucrat on a plethora of issues but sending the tournament into new territories has been his grand flourish.

Earlier this year it was South Africa. In 2018 Russia will have the fun and in 2022 everyone will roast in the Middle East.

A new meaning to the phrase hot tickets.

Gut Feeling

There I was feeling like it was sour grapes. I had been saying in a few blogs that the Eurostar trips were not as punctual as usual. Only once in five trips had the train been on time. Well on Thursday I received an email telling me that Eurostar was tackling this by cutting the service to 50 per cent.

However everything they say will be back to normal on Sunday. This is good as I am supposed to be travelling to London to do some work.

The Eurostar bosses have asked for all non essential travel to be delayed. This always strikes me as bizarre. How many people travel between the cities for non-essential purposes? That would be a fascinating survey.

Obviously somewhere there are lots of non-essential voyages taking place. I would love to get to that position in my life where I could take a non-essential trip.

It is not here yet.

Saturday morning's football match has been deemed non-essential. The opponents phoned our captain this afternoon to tell him that only five of them would be available. Since they are a good team they still might have won.

Since the pitch is booked for 11-1pm we could have a kick around. But the captain has suggested that exertion is a non-essential and has urged his troops to gird their loins for further exploits next week.

As the match was called off at the last minute, we will probably be given a 3-0 forfeit win.

It is quite a handy outcome. I have been invited out to a party tonight and I was going to leave early so that I could get enough sleep to run around in the morning.

I still might leave early to get some sleep.

At my stage of life it is essential.

Monday Feeling

The world's most important match is underway between Barcelona and Real Madrid. I would say that is tripe because the world's most important match takes place when I play on a Saturday.

Obvious really. It is all relative. Do I care more that Barca or Real win more than my own team? Certainly not.

It's wonderful being parochial.

Or at least travelling from Paris to London to see it all on satellite TV.

Suffering For Art II

There is no football on Saturday. But honestly the way the team plays sometimes it is difficult to say there is football when we are actually playing.

To misappropriate Mr Spock: It's not football as we know or understand it.

To that end Saturday will see a training session. A kickabout in which we maintain the rhythm of running around and overrunning the ball.

It has snowed today so it might be a bit chilly. Should be an ideal opportunity to stay tucked up in bed or cosy up on the sofa with my breakfast and Star Trek DVDs.

But if people are prepared to stand and wait to look at a load of pictures, it seems more logical to get up and run around in the cold.

Suffering For Art

A long time ago I went to Giverney with a then girlfriend and toured the house of Claude Monet.

I bought some postcards of plants and bits of water and went completely mad.

"Because of my paparazzi status, I got into the museum with my camera without having to pay.

So you could say I got my Monet for nothing and my clicks for free. Yes Paul is in dire straits .....

That made the trip for me. It was probably the kiss of death for the relationship.

Ho hum. I went to the Monet exhibition at the Grand Palais and felt duty bound to remember the lines. Still remember the girlfriend. Difficult to forget really since we had once bought a house together.

But looking back on it I don't think she ever swore to love me till the end of eternity.

Probably didn't have a chance to vow allegiance because I was too busy seeking corny lines for postcards.

I did not get any postcards from the exhibition today as there were queues.

There was a queue to get in and there were hoards of people looking at the pictures.

It was a sumptuous display.

Almost as good as a certain post card caption.