The wrong kind of weather

I have been to England a few times in the last few years, and I have learnt that its trains run within a narrow band of acceptable weather. In July they stopped because it was too hot. In January they stopped because it was too snowy. In between, now and then, they stopped because of leaves: not leaves in general, which are expected in autumn, but the wrong kind of leaves, on the wrong bit of line.

I am home in Cape Town, a hemisphere away from all of it, and the railway is still trying to ruin my day. This week an email arrived: “Dear Francois, we’re getting in touch to let you know that major engineering work is taking place in the Havant area from Saturday 24 to Friday 30 October.” Buses will replace trains between Havant and Southampton Central for the weekend, and then between Chichester, Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton Central for the week. I have no plans to be anywhere near Havant. I read it twice anyway, the way one reads a forecast for weather one is not standing in.

Still, the British have perfected one thing: when the line is down, somebody lays on a bus and gets you there. Late, and slower than promised, but there.