A few days ago I started writing a post in which I was going to mention the pleasures of being sobre (as I have been for many weeks now). It was prompted by a blog post written by my friend Shari, an excellent little piece on ‘alcoholism’ (nani sore?!) in Japan.

But then I forgot to finish the post, so I’ll leave it at that.

Today I wish to talk about trains.

I love trains. They have wheels, and go fast (and slow if in Mongolia, or the North of England), and look really sexy when covered in paint.

The only problem is, here in the UK they are now prohibitively expensive! Apparently, the way they have chosen to tackle overcrowding is by raising fares.

Right, so let’s see how much a return ticket from Sheffield to Hereford is…

Ok, now multiply that by two, add a return trip to Heathrow and another to Devon (for Christmas day), and that comes to several hundred pounds.

OK then, what about buses?

They must be a lot cheaper!

Crikey O’reily! Clearly, these companies clearly don’t like the idea of people leaving their hometowns. Perhaps the UK government is using some old Chinese Transport Policy document as a guideline.

So what options are left? Hitch-hiking… but that’s pretty difficult these days. Cycling? Sure, if I was by myself (and fit). But with two of us, there seems to be only 1 option left: Hire car.

£15 a day.

It seems there is some seriously wonky thinking going on here. If the government is as concerned about climate change as it makes out, why is driving people onto the roads, people who would normally flinch at the idea of using a car?

I hope *Twinkle’s* driving is OK. She’s not sat behind the wheel since she passed her test three years back…