I didn’t get to this afternoon’s meeting, and Brian was also missing, so no epic video this time.  But Paul gave his usual summary on Facebook…..

Back from an enjoyable afternoon playing trains with the East Surrey N Gauge Group. All went well until an American troop train clashed with a French TGV on a rather tight bend causing a serious derailment. The Japanese and British trains also running at the time were unaffected. I had a mixture of stock running including a Nankai Rapi’t set, 2 x DF200 on the inspection special, Thomas The Tank Japanese style the JR West 285 sleeper set and the production version of the JR Central N700S.

Why was I missing?  We had a delightful surprise visit from from Berlin by our eldest daughter.  Maxine knew nothing about it, and was totally shocked having been lured out to breakfast to celebrate Michael’s birthday of a couple of weeks ago……

I’d received a one-time guess pass from the National Trust, so in the afternoon we drove over to Sir Winston Churchill’s house, Chartwell.  Ruth, the artistic one, appreciated his studio, and then did a little scrumping of Sir Winston’s apples.

More eating in the evening.  Only The Ruth Bartlett can blag a plate off her favourite Indian restaurant!

More fun and games today. We passed on another breakfast after overeating yesterday. We collected Ruth after church and met up with Chelle for dim sum in Croydon. Ruth attacked this with some enthusiasm – you can’t get dim sum this good (or cheap) in Germany.

I have a picture of Maxine and Chelle, but it’s not a good one (Maxine is eating her birthday treat chicken’s feet) and I shall be in big trouble if I post it……  After lunch Chelle put Ruth on a train at East Croydon to go and surprise a few more friends in Hackney. 

All in all, a delightful weekend.