Wednesday 2nd November

No sim today which was a great shame as the morning I really fancied going; but was heading to Sheffield for a meeting and my train was leaving Brighton at 5.45am!

Coming back on late train I was sitting in first class (every now and then you have to treat yourself) and I witnessed another one of those lack of common sense moments. Two ladies,probably mid 50s, sat in the chairs next to me and were laughing about the crazy train journey so far; they had missed 3 trains, got on 2 wrong ones and had missed 4 meetings. They were now heading to Brighton for a conference that finishes at 5pm (it was already 6.30pm at this point). They were laughing so much it made me laugh with them. They decided to go Brighton anyway and have a drink and felt they deserved to go first class to end the journey on a high (not that first class on trains is much of a treat in all honesty). So when the inspector turned up they asked to upgrade to first class and asked the cost. He advised (or should I say spoke down to them) that you can not upgrade on the train. Laughing with disappointment they got up to move. He stopped them and told them he had to fine them £60 each for sitting in first class with standard tickets! They explained they thought they could upgrade otherwise would not have sat there , they also (between bouts of laughter) told him about their mad journey so far. He didn't crack a smile and stood by the rules and insisted they pay. It was clear that they were not trying it on and had planned to upgrade; but he would not listen. They ended up having to pay £120 fine between them and were also made to move. Absolute nuts!! What is wrong with the world!!  Good for them though, not only did they not give him the satisfaction of getting upset but they paid up laughing even more and to his horror they both gave him a kiss; he looked mortified. Good on you ladies.