Mike Jennings.co.uk

'There is flooding between Cardiff and Swindon', said the anonymous announcer as crowds of people tumbled through Paddington Station, gawping aghast at banks of train cancellations. I was on the phone at the time, but stopped to listen to the message over the tannoy.

I don't really understand why flooding quite a way West of Reading meant that services between London and the area around Reading, Maidenhead and Oxford were cancelled or disrupted so badly.

Then again, they are the worst performing train operator in the country, and I'm not surprised.

The Paddington situation resulted in three train's worth of people cramming onto a single service: the stopping one that halted at, I think, every station in Southern England. People were left on the platform at Paddington because no more passengers could cram onto the train - I was on it, and we couldn't move more than an inch. It can't have been safe or legal. This is the train that runs on the same line as the previously cancelled service, so I don't know why that happened.

It was especially annoying, because that night my family and all the grandparents were going out for a meal to celebrate my brother getting an offer from Oxford University to study Biology. Obviously, we're all hugely proud of him, and I was very angry about almost being late because of a train cancelled for, seemingly, no reason.

Then again, I've come to expect it: their pledge to have more fast services at peak times into and out of Paddington is something of a joke; there's been no more services added in the evenings, and the punctual 8:44 train in the morning - that often made the journey in less than 30 minutes - has been replaced by an early train, at 8:25, that takes about 40 minutes, and an 8:55 service that takes at least that long - and often makes me late for work. So I take the early one, which gets me to work early - which I hugely prefer to being late - when the 8:44 was perfect. Useless company.

The meal was great, when I got there. Breaded Camembert to start, followed by Steak in a Peppercorn sauce with home-made chips. Amazing meal, lots of fun, but I was too full for a pudding, unfortunately. It's making me hungry just writing about it.

Had two laptops home this weekend as I'm reviewing them for Computer Buyer magazine - another published by Dennis. I won't say anything about them other than this: don't buy an Evesham. Oh well.

Back to work tomorrow - I'm moving upstairs along with Dave and Sasha, as we've been stuck in the labs while some re-organisation has been going on. Looking forward to it hugely, as I'll get my own desk and, perhaps, a computer, but also have some nerves.

Hopefully it'll be fine, like many of the things I get nervous about turn out to be.