A fit of 'peak' on the 05.58 from Paddington

I am on a deserted train to Oxford.

Departing Paddington at 05.58, not a soul stirs all the way to Oxford – only the conductor, sorry the customer service manager.

As usual the bike racks are half a mile from your seat. But that’s not my gripe. This train, deserted as it is, is classified a “peak hour service”.

(Good old First Great Western, I wonder if I could get them under the trade descriptions act?)

I reach Oxford at 07.00 – sorry, the “peak” hour of 07.00 – and have 30 minutes to get to a breakfast fund raiser for the Bishop Simeon Trust.

The trust looks after aids orphans in South Africa and is located on the Oxford Science Park, although people seem very unsure how to get there.

I seem to recall there was a mental hospital on the site in the days I went to school here.

I begin to think of life in a psychiatric hospital or, more to the point, an orphan….

It certainly puts my fit of “peak” into perspective.