Adventures of a Summer day (or silly things you do when you've just woken up)

Tuesday got me thinking about the beach. So when Lily woke me up very early yesterday proclaiming it was morning already, I thought we might as well do it. After hanging my washing outside, I sat on the computer and booked tickets to Bournemouth. I thought it was weird the website was telling me that the tickets would be ready for pickup in 3 hours, the train time being in 45 minutes, but I just thought it was a standard message.

Mike gave us a lift to the station and we jumped on the train to Reading, and from there to Bournemouth. I thought it was funny that they actually ask to see your tickets inside the train - FGW has never once looked at mine -, the thing is I had given mine to Lily (she's obsessed with having her own ticket!) so I had to wrestle her for it and show to the man. He stamped and gave it back to her, rather amused by her love of tickets. When we got there, the barrier wouldn't open, but it's happened before, right? A perfectly good ticket that won't open the barrier. The person working there took my ticket and opened the barrier with his.

Now I had been to Bournemouth before, but we drove there last time. I found it incredibly easy getting around, even with a pushchairless toddler. There is an Asda opposite the station (where we bought our beach picnic) and a small bus/coach station, where you can get a bus to the pier. I thought the bus was quite cheap (not complaining!) compared to my local ones, £2 for a return.

Lily was the happiest child in the world. She built sand castles (as well as a nearly 3-year-old can), tried going in the water, played with other children. We also went to the Oceanarium (£9.90 adults, under 3s free, not sure about children - 6-something) and she was fascinated by the gigantic turtles and the sharks. We had ice-cream - as one should if they are on the seaside. We played some more. We came home.

And that's when the silly things bit started. We got to the station and the barriers were open so we just went in. We bought some magazines to read on the way back - not sure why I bought myself one, all I read was Octonauts stories. The train was slightly late because of signal failure in Reading. We got in the train. The man came around asking to see our tickets. He looked at me and then at the ticket and looked puzzled.

- You know, 24th May is tomorrow.

I looked at the ticket and burst out laughing.

Me: Is it?

Him: Yes.

Me: OMG, how did that happen? I bought the ticket this morning, to return on the same day, 2 people saw the other one and no one noticed... *still laughing*

Him, feeling sorry for me and not really knowing what to do: You know I will have to charge you for the tickets, right?

Me: Oh. Ok.

He asked to see the morning ticket (the barrier bloke kept it) and then asked how much I paid for it - if it was the same I paid for the afternoon one. I said how much I paid in total. He fiddled with his charging machine and let me off by paying the 5 quid difference between what I paid and a return journey.

- The right thing would've charged you the full £37 pounds...

I said yes and then thank you 500 times. I am not sure if he felt sorry because I had a child with me or if it was because he could see how baffled I was at my own stupidity. The rest of the journey was as uneventful as it should've been - apart from me missing the connecting train because of said signal failure and us waiting 15 minutes for husband to pick us up from the station only to take a taxi and find him home watching The Apprentice.

So, lesson learnt. I just hope I haven't made a similar mistake booking my flights to Brazil. I will go and check now! Anyone else out there did something silly stupid because they were too sleepy?