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Despite going to bed early and not getting up until nine, I slept badly. Strange, given that I've slept well and been comfortable on that bed on every other occasion I slept in it before. When I tried to buy a coach ticket on-line, I couldn't get the website to give coach times for the rest of the day. I installed the National Express booking app and had more problems, as it refused to validate my discount coach card number. I couldn't figure out what the problem was, or what the actual status of the coach service to Cardiff was, so I left early and took the train to Victoria and went straight to the booking hall. 

This is not well signed until you get close to the area where it's located. I'm sure the booking desks used to be in the main entrance lobby, but the (empty) desks you see there now are just for enquiries. There seemed to be crowds of people milling around near the booking hall area, but it turned out they were parties of people awaiting directions to their coach. There was no queue and I was seen immediately by one of the duty ticket clerks. I explained the problem I had with my coach card, and he looked up its serial number on his database. It turned out that the expiry date on the card had been hand written incorrectly, when I bought it at the time I booked to travel to Bristol for my flight to Spain. He corrected the card for me as part of buying my ticket, and booked me on the next departing coach at twelve thirty. I only had twenty minutes to wait, and bought an americano and a pain au raisin for the journey.

The coach was about half full. It took more than an hour to reach the Heathrow turning, there was so much traffic leaving London as well as entering. Apparently there's a Taylor Swift concert at Wembley Stadium, which would doubtless add to the volume of traffic. Sections of the M4 are subject to slow downs and queues due to roadworks, but despite this, we arrived at Sophia Gardens at twenty past four, on time. For about half the journey I read more chapters of 'Marina', as I did on the outward journey. Time seems to fly by when you have to stop and look up occasional words in order to make sense of a passage. I do enjoy it anyhow. As we were coming into Cardiff, Clare rang me as she was out walking, and came to meet me in Pontcanna Fields on the way from the bus station.

I was grateful for a late cooked lunch at nearly tea time, and to catch up with Clare and others by phone. The sun was starting to set by the time I went out for some exercise to compensate for four hours sitting in a coach. The sky above the western horizon was tinted pale orange due to haze rather than cloud. A lovely sight with which to end the day.