OUR foreign visitor’s return journey began in Ledbury.

We needed a ticket to Great Malvern as she had a return ticket from London to Malvern.

The machine says "insert correct fare”. Not knowing the fare we found another machine which tells passengers to ring a gentleman situated somewhere on the planet for this information.

Back to machine No. 1 (the one that keeps our change for a tip) to find that it only takes coins – no notes, no cards.

So back to the car for coins for our beleaguered and baffled Australian.

Every one of our five pound coins was rejected!

What to do now? The sign threatened fines for getting on without a ticket.

Maybe find a member of staff on the train?

Off to town for lunch. We return to find train cancelled. Back to the car and drive to Great Malvern station for the later (slower) train. Just missed that train!

Another would turn up in an hour and a half if she didn’t mind changing in Worcester and Birmingham and ending up at Euston rather than Paddington!

Another cup of tea. Plan journey by car to Heathrow just in case of mishap.

Vincent Conway

Leigh Sinton