I have two great fears when travelling. The first is that I will miss my train or plane. This is hereditary. My grandmother Lesbia Winnifrith never missed a train in her life apart from once when she arrived so early that she caught the previous one in error. I like to travel with plenty of room for error.
My second fear is of a terror attack. This has been a long running fear.But recent events have only made it worse. I try to offset this by spending as little time as possible in airports. Today it is scylla or chayibdis.
I left it late booking a bus to Gatwick and so found that the late evening coaches were fully booked. Thus the only one avaialble was a 12.40 PM coach arriving at Gatwick at 4.05 AM. Last boarding for the Kalamata flight is 5.05 AM. What if the bus got held up? I tried to do the maths and started to panic.
So what about a train? The last train out of Bristol to get me to Gatwicjk was 9.50 PM Monday. I am writing this on the train bracing myself to arrive at Gatwick at 1 AM. there is no chance of missing the plane but I must somehow endure 4 hours at Gatwick. Right now I suspect the place is crawling with armed cops so I should be reassured.But I am not. And so I prepare for charybdis.
My third fear is of flying. I am a pretty nervous passenger. But, fingers crossed, I shall cross that bridge if and when I come to it.