Buffet, or no buffet? That is the question

Did everyone catch Dom Joly's Complainers tonight? I'm quite glad I wasn't in it to be honest, as he did rather take the mickey out of everyone, to say the least, but well done everyone who took part, it's always nice to see FGW getting a bit of a roasting. It was particularly good in the way it highlighted the ridiculous situation where FGW doesn't have enough carriages, as it is still one of those issues I simply can't get my head round.

In other news, I hear on the grapevine of something really scandalous. An e-mail arrived in my inbox, bearing the following message:

"Did you know that FGW are experimenting with doing away with the buffet car on at least 6 sets running between Cardiff and London? It's being done completely on the quiet and they're waiting to see how many complaints they get, which I reckon is going to be an awful lot. In fact, we need to encourage everyone to write in or that's going to be it - no buffets."

Now this really is serious. We finally get our much-deserved First Class Off-Peak Upgrade and then they threaten to take away our flapjacks?

Please, someone say it's not so!

Seduced by a flapjack

Oooh, first class is nice!

I took advantage of my upgrade this morning, as mentioned in yesterday's post. The empty carriage was a haven of calm in which I was able to concentrate on reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (children's version, I'm not one of those who needs to pretend to be reading a grown-up book) without having to listen to the usual babble of people on their mobile phones and children on their summer holidays.

Then, even better, a man appeared, offering tea and cake! Flustered at such generosity, I took the nearest, a date and honey flapjack, and extremely nice it was too.

I can see why the First Class ticket holders wouldn't want to give up this kind of treatment. There was even a copy of the Times newspaper tucked unobtrusively into the pocket of the seat back. I had no need of this, being fully armed with a large hardbacked book, as previously mentioned, but put it into my bag anyway. It's not often you get anything free from First Great Western, and I wanted to make the most of it.

Well, I'm sold. Delays feel much better when there's a man poised by your elbow offering a selection of hot drinks and cake. If FGW realised this, they'd give out a few biscuits to customers in cattle class. I tell you what, I bet the number of complaints would fall rapidly.

Five food facts

Hello all. A slight diversion from the subject of trains today. This is because this morning's train was delightfully on time, so I have no complaint to make, and because a fellow blogger has 'tagged' me. Charlotte from the GreatBigVegChallenge has asked me to reveal five food facts, and as food is one of my favourite subjects, I thought why not? So here goes:

1 - I am a vegetarian, and have been for 20 years. And no, I don't miss bacon, though I do miss ham and pork crackling. My favourite vegetarian food is probably falafel in a salad wrap with garlic mayonnaise. It's better than a kebab after a big night out.

2 - I'm not much of a cook, but I like making sushi. Not the raw fish kind, obviously, but there are lots of vegetarian things you can use, and it's much cheaper to buy the seaweed sheets and wrap them yourself, with a bit of wasabi strong enough to make your whole head feel like it's going to sneeze.

3 - When times are hard, and there's nothing in the fridge, I have been known to eat pasta with tomato ketchup. This is a habit from university, and it's much nicer than it sounds, especially if you add peas and sweetcorn. My favourite pasta shape is conchiglie (shells).

4 - I once worked at a sandwich and ice-cream bar in New Zealand. This was not a good time for my waistline, as New Zealand has some wonderful full-fat ice cream with flavours like Hokey Pokey, Pinky Winky and Boysenberry Swirl, which were all perks of the job.

5 - Another dirty food secret: when the diet gets boring, or the hangover demands it, there's nothing like a cheese and chip sandwich on white bread with salad cream. Carbohydrates ahoy!

I suppose if we are trying to link all this back to First Great Western, we should talk about railway food. Famously awful in the British Rail days, it's now infamously expensive. I never eat on the trains, as I don't have that kind of money, but I'd like to know what you think. There, it wasn't a completely irrelevent post after all. Smashing.