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2006 - September 16th - Saturday

JH phoned Skinners at Croyde Bay apartment to make arrangements for JH’s day trip; JH tried apartment twice early evening as Kathy said that they usually arrived about 5pm.  JH finally spoke to Kathy, on her mobile, just as she and Ralph arrived at the Apartment at 8.00pm.  We agreed that JH would visit North Devon the following day.


 

2006 - September 17th - Sunday

JH caught the 1025 train from Plymouth and the 1150 train from Exeter St David’s to Barnstaple.  (On the latter train there was a man expounding about the Barnstaple Line to some foreign tourists; JH asked if said gentleman was a member of the North Devon Rail Users Group1 - which question unleashed a torrent of conversation from a somewhat mixed-up personality!)  Ralph arrived promptly at 1300 to pick JH up and we arrived at the apartment about 1400 - after Ralph had called into the supermarket to get some low-salt gravy for Kathy.  Lunch was at 1430 hours: Kathy had fixed JH a bit of chicken because JH had told Kathy she could not eat red meat for 5 days because of producing a specimen for Jinny Jeffery, the Biochemist who is doing research into Crohn’s disease, etc; the Skinners had lamb.  

JH learned a lot about the Skinners previous relationships which all ‘came out’!  Kathy had been married once but the marriage had failed due to her husband’s disloyalty; she had a relationship with another partner, for +/-10 years but he refused to marry her, and when one of her daughters rang up to ask for a lift home Kathy – who was in the middle of cooking a meal – was told to collect her own daughter herself: that riposte signalled the end of the second relationship.  
 
Ralph had been married: his wife already had one child by a previous partner, and subsequently the couple had three children.  Ralph’s wife was apparently influenced a great deal by other members of her side of the family which led to dissention in the home, and so the marriage eventually foundered.  Ralph has +/- 9 grandchildren!  He did have another long-term relationship with another partner but she was not committed to marriage.  So Ralph took himself along to a Singles Club where he met Kathy, who had also taken herself along to the same Singles Club: they have been married for 23 years. [JH realises that Ralph is a very private person and JH felt privileged to be told about very personal distresses which have estranged him from his extended family of children and grandchildren.]

Kathy started ‘fading’ at about 16.00 and went to bed.  Ralph and JH set out for Barnstaple Station in plenty of time to catch the 17.08 train.  As Ralph was driving into the Station car park, a woman drove out from the curb – JH saw the offside front wing of her vehicle a very brief moment before the impact – and struck Ralph’s car, breaking the hub cap, scraping all along the wing, and ripping off the trim round the edge of the wing; the lady’s car had a broken front offside light and seemed, at a glance, to be less damaged than Ralph’s.  She immediately stated that she was waving goodbye to someone and said that the accident was entirely her fault – which statement JH heard and commented upon.  JH said her goodbyes to Ralph, leaving him and the lady to exchange details.  JH went to the toilet, and did think of popping out of the train to see if Ralph was still in the car park, but the doors of the train were obstructed by folks saying goodbye.  JH asked one of the young men in a group if they thought JH still had time to pop out to see Ralph, who had been involved in an accident outside the station, upon which one young man stated that they had all seen the accident.  JH expressed her concerns about it happening, and the YM said the car was not a right-off [as JH realised] and added that ‘we men can cope with this sort of thing’ in rather a patronising fashion.  In any event, JH asked them to just say ‘goodbye’, or some such, to Ralph should he still be in the car park when they left.

JH got to Exeter St David’s Station at about 1812.  However . . . all the trains to the West Country were commuting between Reading and Cornwall because there had been a big line-side fire around about Langley which had necessitated the closure of the line between Reading and Paddington.  JH rang Ralph from the Station and explained that she would not be at home as early as expected; Ralph said he had got back to the apartment in about 20 minutes - when Kathy was still asleep; Kathy knew about the accident but had not been out to inspect the damage; Ralph really was quite stunned by receiving the prang to his car as he was just so astonished that it happened; he did not think that JH – who chatted on a bit to the lady – had ‘made matters worse’; as he had gone home after exchanging details, he had not received any messages from JH via the patronising young man.  

A train arrived at about 1840 with 4 carriages but JH decided to wait for the next train as she did not want to stand all the way to Plymouth squashed like a sardine!  The next train arrived in about 25mins and only had 2 carriages, so JH finally caught a train back to Plymouth which left Exeter St David’s at a few minutes to 2000.  JH got home at about 2145.  On the walk from the bus stop, two barefooted lads rushed past chasing a flash of black-and-white which JH noted running away; the escaped puppy was duly caught  {JH subsequently realised that the puppy was one of the local Jack Russell Barkers!}; then a lady came down the pavement asking JH for the location of Bedford Street, which JH could not recollect as being in St Budeaux.  {Later on - on studying a street plan - Bedford Street was found in Keyham by JH.}

1JH is a member of the North Devon Rail Users Group (NDRUG): due to the slight connotation in the acronym, that the Group was something to do with drug-taking, the Group changed its name in 2010 to the Tarka Rail Association -
www.tarkarail.org



 
 
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