The Pendolino

The Pendolino

So hail this down,
To Euston station

I bid farewell,
To pastures green,

This big red ensign,
She is my carriage,

I'm northern bound,
Await my hugs,

These fields of yellow,
All shapes and sizes,

Cut their way,
Through this green land,

Send out a signal,
To silver chariots,

Soon I'll be,
Right back with them.
Explanation

I was listening to Fare Thee Well Northumberland by my favourite ever musician, Mark Knopfler. It got me thinking about a train ride back home to my parents that I did in the spring of 2011.

The scenery was so beautiful.

In fact, I recorded about a minute of the journey on my phone (it's not too shaky either).



Since then, the experience of that has just been in the junkyard of my brain waiting for some lines to come into my head. Now, after listening to that song a number of times, they have.

So hail this down,
To Euston station,

This refers to hailing a taxi to get up to Euston Station.

I bid farewell,
To pastures green,

Where I live in London, is near several lovely squares (in fact, London is very lucky to have such a large number of green spaces considering it's a big city). So until returning, I bid these scenes farewell.

This big red ensign,
She is my carriage,

To get back to my parents up in the north, I'd use Virgin Trains. The big red ensign is their logo and of course, the train is my carriage.

I'm northern bound,
Await my hugs,

I think this is probably self-explanatory, but if not it's basically saying that I'm off up north to see my lovely family and give them a hug.

These fields of yellow,
All shapes and sizes,

As you can see from the video, the countryside can look beautiful when the fields are glazed in the colours rapeseed. Different trees of all shapes and sizes line the route too. It's really a great way to see the English countryside.

Cut their way,
Through this green land,

This refers to the canals and rivers that can be seen along the way.

Send out a signal,
To silver chariots,

Once I'm on my way, I would always text my Dad to let him know so he can be at the station to meet me and take me the rest of the way to home. At the time he had a silver (or it might've been grey, but silver sounds better!) car.

Soon I'll be,
Right back with them.

Not long now until I'm back home (and can eat proper food!)