Spent the day in London yesterday, great to see the city again, and to enjoy two famous station landmarks: Platform 9 3/4 in King’s Cross and the Paddington statue on Platform 1. It all quickly became exhausting for our younger daughter. I eventually headed back early with her, and it was great to savour the quiet in contrast to the heaving masses of tourists to which we contributed!

I drove to work at my new job for the first time on Monday and it was indeed around 15 minutes quicker than my usual bike-train-bike commute - but it was miserable. Stop-start, drivers with different priorities and etiquettes, the concentration required, the noise. And then, the classic traffic jam on the way back which negated the time advantage, whilst maintaining all the downsides of the morning’s commute in.

Nope, I genuinely prefer the train, and the little bike sections make all the difference to how I start the working day.