There is usually no joy in travel except the anticipation of the arrival at the destination and as I was sadly not going on holiday but rather to a meeting in the North Midlands it was particularly lovely to be greeted on the return from my travels (4 trains, 2 buses and 2 taxi rides) by the sound of live music. I followed my ears and found a small stand in the middle of St Pancras station dedicated to the discovery of new music. The idea is called "The station sessions" - then site describes it as "an international platform for music discovery, a unique series of events featuring the most talented, emerging artists from across the globe, hosted by the UK’s most innovative railway station, St. Pancras International" and the idea, whilst not new, is exactly what stations need to wile away the time, delay your rush home and, in short, relax. The band were great and in the transformed opulence of the new station with the fantastic acoustics I found it uplifting and above all it put a smile on my face !

It made me think that other souless environments need a similar treatment - maybe stand up comedy in dentists' waiting rooms or Karaoke on tube trains or opera at airports - I know this kind of thing always gets scrutinised when budgets and ROI gets involved but I can't think of much more that the station can do to make me enjoy the experience, tell others about it and maybe next time get there a little earlier before my train departs to take in the ambience and enjoy the moment.