The conductor was a friendly bloke, I asked him where I could get a map the same as his with all the train routes on it.  He didn't hold much hope of me acquiring one as his was one of the last ones they were to be issued with due to cost cutting.  He did think it might be possible to get last year's map if I'm lucky.  The sun had made an appearance not long after leaving Leeds, but it was only to be seen in a blue sky on the west side of the train,    too bad about the east side.  After some time travelling, a large expanse of water became visible in the east, not the ocean, although Hull is a coastal area this definitely wasn't it, unless those houses and factories in the distance are on an island   We are passing the River Humber and the Humber Bridge will soon be visible so get the camera ready.  It always amazes me how they get these long bridges built across water.

I arrive in Hull about 10 minutes later than scheduled, which I guess wasn't bad really.  I am here to visit with another Carol, a friend I met on ICQ.  Carol met me at the station and after catching a bus to her place and dumping my luggage (only a small traveller bag this time) we set off for an afternoon walk up the High St and because I've got no idea of direction I'll say we headed north.  We checked out some of the local shops looking for me a pair of black corduroy pants and Carol some boots.  Carol was the only successful one on this shopping expedition, she not only found boots but sneakers for her son Nathan and a scarf and gloves set for her daughter Tiffany.   There was one shop though that I could have had a field day in, but I restrained  myself, the Christmas Shop was just awesome,  even though it appeared they were down to the last of their stock it was still a fun place to be.  Unfortunately the decoration Carol wanted for the outside of her house had sold out.  Maybe we'll find it in town tomorrow.  Tiffany met us at the bus stop when we returned home at about 4.30 and it was pitch black.  The poor kid was so excited she wanted to give me a present right there and then.  We made a deal that we'd do presents on Tuesday night, right after dinner, and she held me to it.

Tuesday morning, kids off to school and Carol and I are ready for another shopping spree.  This time a bus ride to town to Princes Quay shopping centre.  After we found the Disney shop I'm sure Carol wondered what the hell had come over me, I was like a kid in a lolly shop, or maybe even Disneyland.  The credit card got a good work out here I can assure you, thank you so much Carol for pointing me in this direction, and I do not hold you at all responsible for me not being able to control myself, you did your best to remind me that I had to get it not only home to Warrington but also to Perth.  The girl that served me said I could leave my bags with them for a couple of hours  while we continued our trek around Hull town.  All we needed was some snow to add to the Christmas atmosphere that was all around.  We did hear some beautiful, haunting but interesting music being played somewhere around so we looked for where a crowd may be gathered.  It didn't take us too long to find the source of the music, 3 native Americans in traditional dress playing pipes. They had CDs for sale so of course I had to buy some.  When I get chance I'll put some of the music up somewhere for you to hear too.  Back to the Disney shop to pick up the bags and back on the bus home for dinner.  Presents are exchanged, much to Tiffany's delight.  On the way home I tried to get a photo of some wonderful window displays but the bus was going to fast and all I got  was a blurry mess.  Carol kindly offered to go back and get some shots at night for me.     Thanks Carol for these shots.

Wednesday morning and Nigel, another ICQ friend, has come up to visit with us.  He gave me some useful tips for travelling through Canada in the winter.  At lunch time Nigel dropped us off at the Admiral Hawke pub (south down the road from Carol's house) where we had a really nice Christmas dinner, complete with Yorkshire Pudding.  The strange thing though was that all condiments were in a bowl on the table for free, sauce, vinegar, mayo, mustard etc, in those little foil packs, but if you wanted cranberry sauce on your turkey it cost an extra 50p.  The decorations in the pub were really nice too, pity we can't find the same ones in the shops we've been to.  Time to go home, collect my luggage and head off to the station for the trip home.

Thank you Carol for a great time and it was good to finally meet you and Nigel, thank you for coming up to visit too.  Thank you both for your lovely gifts.

The train home was a 2 carriage job with no first class,  but I can deal with that. There is a change at Sheffield and still only 2 carriages with no first class, this time I feel like a sardine though, it seems a lot  of people have finished  work and are heading back to Manchester or Liverpool.  The fun really started though at Manchester Piccadily Station, so many people got on that by the time we reached Oxford Rd no one else could fit in the train.  Makes you wonder if this is the norm and if so, why haven't they figured out they need more carriages at this time of day and cut the number of carriages during the day which is relatively quiet.

I am met at Warrington central by Eddie, who asked if I had my camera handy as he was taking me to see something he'd found last night.  Of course my camera is always handy, I'm a tourist and we always have the camera ready for interesting shots, don't we?  The pic's are rather blurry but it was blowing a gale.