The joy of trains

My life is stupidly busy. I’m a mum, wife, PhD student, company director, Crossfitter, community activist, active Christian, friend, thinker, NCIS-lover, cook, schmoozer.

If I have down time at home, I’m asleep (or watching NCIS).

If I’m in a fixed place – like the office or home – or simply out and about, I almost always have a fixed purpose. Even relaxation is timetabled and I have the pressure to ‘achieve’ relaxation.

And that’s why I like trains. It’s almost like stolen time. You budget the time for travelling. But unlike driving, you then have glorious me-time where you are shut away from the outside world – or at least you are when you travel North South in Wales with no wifi and only intermittent 3G or mobile signal.

One day I may use the journey for that mythical beast – relaxing over a good book. But until then, I enjoy the freedom to download my brain onto the computer. 

No, I’m not a cyborg, at least I don’t think I am! But I do have so much floating in my head that blogging, or diarising, or mind-mapping are essential tools for staying sane. And that isn’t something I can timetable into my daily life.

Somehow, being on a train is like a cocoon of other worldliness. I’m nowhere – not here, and not there. I have hours of time which I don’t need to account for to anyone because on the timesheet they are ‘travelling’. Being me, I can’t just switch off and ‘not exist’, so I turn my hand to whatever I fancy. Bits of jobs and paperwork get conquered. Today, my laptop’s desktop was finally cleaned up and my expenses claims got ready for posting.

So now, it’s blog time. Some I drafted on the last train journey have been refined. Some have been drafted. And, thanks to the wonders of Indycubing, I will be able to roll off the train, into a luxurious coffee-drenched, wifi rich haven and get these blogs scheduled. Bliss!