Oakham; Thursday, 01 July, 2021

The advantage of home working is that home can become quite a relaxed definition. To do my job I need my laptop and an internet connection, and power after a couple of hours to keep the laptop charged. Something that comes as standard both in Hotels and on an increasing number of trains.

This all means that with a carefully planned overnight stop, it’s possible to get to places for a weekend that would normally mean arriving very late on the Friday night, just after lunch.

And that’s why I found myself on a sunny July afternoon walking the short distance between Peterborough station and a hotel. Getting to Oakham, my final destination in one go would have meant taking at least a half days leave, this way I’ve been able to use my lunch break to get up into London and then worked on the train the whole way up. A quick 5 minutes to move between station and hotel and then back to work for the rest of the day.

My working day finished I powered down the laptop and went in hunt of dinner, and what turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant walk around the centre of Peterborough.

I was quite surprised at how pleasant the city centre was, particularly around the expansive cathedral grounds, and it was clear that I needed to add Peterborough to the ever expanding list of places to have a weekend away in.

I eventually found a nice chain restaurant near the cathedral and had dinner there, before a slow wander back to the hotel and an early night.