It's very quiet here

It's very, very quiet in our house today.

Guy is at a festival in Needham Market all weekend.

This morning a rather harassed-looking post lady arrived with a package from Amazon... and Ben has disappeared into the world of Hogwarts and Voldemort until further notice.

Sam and I had a rather complicated afternoon. He's flying out to Palma, Mallorca, this evening and thought it would be good to try the route we have recommended for Guy - train from Diss to Colchester and bus from Colchester station to Stansted. Arrived at Diss station to find loads of people milling around, no trains visible and the train due at 1317 running "27 minutes late". There are no trains at all from Diss to Norwich because of engineering works.

Never mind, I said brightly. I'll drive you to Colchester. What time is your bus? 1420, he says. I am equipped for a 10 minute drive to the station, i.e. gardening clothes, glasses not contact lenses, no cash, no charge in phone.

We drove very slowly to Colchester in holiday traffic, and as we turned off the A12, there was a vast traffic jam both on the A12 and into Colchester. Crawled incredibly slowly to the station. Got there about 1427. People at bus stop said Stansted bus had not arrived yet. Walked up and down nervously.

At around 1445 Sam admitted that actually he had misread the timetable and the bus should leave the train station at 1445. At 1455 it turned up, hooray!

I drove back home and headed into Diss to go to the charity shop in town with the best book selection, to stock up for our trip. As I got there they were locking up - half an hour early because the manager is away. I got a pitiful few books elsewhere and as I walked back to the car the heavens opened and I got soaked.

When I got home I checked the timetables. The train was due to leave Diss at 1327, not 27 minutes late as Sam thought. It should have reached Colchester at 1411, absolutely masses of time to catch the bus. Memo to self: next time, check timetable first & do not rely on husband. Also checked details which he has typed out for Guy. Train and bus times are all absolutely correct. Memo to self: do not rely on husband's memory when he is stressed...

Ben and I fly out on Thursday. We will drive to my parents' house in Essex, leave the car there and get a lift to Stansted. I have now worked out a detailed timetable for the whole thing.