miles away

I hope you find these stories from my time in work amusing.

If not then I'm sorry, but you've a couple more to get through.

This one involves my role as a presenting officer in a benefit tribunal case.  As I've already posted, I took this role extremely seriously and always prided myself on my preparation for each case.  I would familiarise myself with the facts surrounding the case and make sure my knowledge of the law surrounding it was up to scratch.

The venue for our tribunals was in a large tower block of offices next to Swansea's railway station.  On this particular occasion in mid summer the weather was very hot so the tribunal venue's windows were wide open.  This meant that the announcements from the train station were clearly audible.  They were usually quite boring with trains calling at Neath, Port Talbot, Bridgend, etc. all the way to London.

But one train departing was travelling on the heart of Wales line, with the train stopping at lovely locations including Llandeilo, Llandovery and Llandrindod Wells before making its way to Shrewsbury on the Wales / England border.

As the station names were read out I found myself drifting away and imagining the beautiful countryside the train would be passing through.

I was woken from my day dream with a sudden jolt as the tribunal judge asked me to comment on a statement the appellant had made.

I "ummed" and 'ahhhd' before having to confess that I hadn't heard the appellant's no doubt compelling evidence due to the volume of the train announcements and the fact I was sat nearest the open window.

I think, no hope, I got away with it and luckily trains to Crewe soon resumed so there were no more romantic interludes that sunny afternoon.