It's been a long time since I was in Doncaster and I never really thought I'd end up back here to be honest. I've got nothing against the place it's just that I no longer have the need to visit and it isn't exactly a holiday destination. Mandi lived here from the age of around fourteen and her memories are clouded by the difficult relationship she had with her family (her stepdad was a controlling and sometimes violent bully of a man and she hasn't spoken to them for a few years now) yet she does have good memories too. It was of course Doncaster where she was living when we started our online relationship and I travelled to visit her way back in 2008 and we've been together since, she moved in with me in summer 2009 so I no longer need to visit the place.
We are here for a wedding of two of her old friends that I have met on occasion, and as nice as these people are I am not really looking forward to it. Weddings are a funny sort of event and attending them is not that high a priority at the best of times, especially when I don't know anyone and will literally be the spare one at the wedding. Funerals aren't exactly a barrel of laughs either but at least nobody expects you to dance.
The journey was fairly uneventful, Mandi had booked the train tickets before I made my vow to never travel anywhere by train again so I prepared to dish out a barrage of 'I told you so' comments yet didn't get the opportunity. This is typical of my luck and the paranoid part of me believes that they did it on purpose just to prove me wrong and that next time I travel by train alone the system will revert back to its cavalcade of fuck ups. At Sheffield station there is a pub on the platform which is a brilliant idea that no longer seems as common as it once was, I do believe in renationalising the rail network because although British Rail had their problems it was a lot nicer to have one company that did the lot rather than different lines competing against each other. The other good point was that the stations used to have proper cafes and pubs on and a good newsagent (often a kiosk) rather than overpriced concessions.
Doncaster station is something that Nottingham could learn from as the whole thing is an interchange (again Sheffield has the same thing) where the bus and train station are together rather than a walk away. It felt weird being back at the scene of our first meeting to begin with, and I wasn't sure how Mandi was going to be with the whole thing. She has grown out of the small town attitude and adapted to city life although I rather enjoyed good manners and a slightly more relaxed pace. I would have turned straight round and got back on the next train to Nottingham though if the Frenchgate Cafe had closed down because I was looking forward to having a breakfast in a Yorkshire Pudding. I remember how bizarre I found this the first time I saw it yet for some reason it works. Honestly, it works.
The Sunday Alternative #56 is available from here.
===
September housekeeping
Please consider making a donation using the PayPal button to help finance ongoing projects such as podcasts, short films, documentaries, comedy sketches and other entertainment that I will make available online free of charge.
Any money made by the sale of products on my shop page also goes into the fund, ideal Christmas presents!
steveEoliver@gmail.com
