[Sundae]

Trying to get the train tickets for Christmas sorted out.
Grrrrrr.

Mum booked them without referring to me, was tired and a bit irritable herself at the time and ended up paying £85 more than she needed to, and also without reserving me a seat (quite important on Christmas Eve).
So I talked her through cancelling and rebooking. Which was slightly laborious, given she doesn't understand the difference between a website address and putting something into Google search. But tbh that was only the beginning.
Note - I am not irritated WITH Mum, who is doing me a massive favour. I'm just irritable, and having to work the process from a couple of hundred miles away carries its own frustration.

Well, we got all the way through, with the original tickets cancelled, the new, cheaper tickets booked WITH reservations, and then her card was rejected. It's a new card, which may have something to do with it. But it left both of us speechless with the whole pain of it all.

She's going to get my brother to book it instead, then she'll pay him.
He knows she's good for the money. She knows he'll have the funds available.
And now she knows which tickets to book, which helps.

Really, I should have just said I'll leave it another few weeks and book coach tickets from my own pocket (the train being so much more expensive, that it has to be booked asap, and I can't afford it immediately).
But we're both wary of me travelling by coach, especially over Christmas, given the problems last year.

So, yes I am very irritable, frustrated and grumpy about the whole thing.
As well as feeling awful about putting Mum through extra stress when she has more than enough already.

Sick of living so far from home.