Adapted by Mauricio Sepulveda G.

USACH 2014

TEXT 4
(taken from Lecumberri, Maria Garcia; English Transcription Course )

It was Saturday morning when I woke up to the sound of the alarm ringing in my ears. I quickly
jumped out of bed, remembering that we were going off to Wales in less than an hour's time. I
ran upstairs to the spare bedroom to wake my sister up. I shook her vigorously and shouted,
'Come on, Madeleine! Get up or we'll miss the train.' As I rushed into the bathroom, I heard her
mumbling... 'What train..?' She had obviously forgotten what we'd planned the night before. I
shouted at the top of my voice,..'The train to Wales..! We're supposed to be catching the train
at eight thirty to go home to see Mum. Remember?'. It all went quite for a while, until she
realised she wasn't dreaming. She almost flew out of the bedroom and started to panic as
usual. 'What time is it NOW? WHY DIDN'T you wake me Earlier? I must have a cup of coffee
first; otherwise, I'll never make it through the day..', she said desperately.
This was a typical reaction from my sister, who doesn't have a care in the world.
'Never mind the coffee!', I screamed. 'Phone for a taxi'. I left her to it and went down stairs to
put the kettle on. By this time I was also feeling anxious and wished we hadn't decided to go
on this trip at all. 'The taxi will be here in five minutes. Forget about the coffee. Where's my
handbag?' She yelled. The doorbell rang. 'Oh no, it must be the taxi driver'. Even I wasn't
ready just yet. I rushed to answer the door to discover it was the postman asking me to accept
a delivery on behalf of my neighbour as she wasn't it. I took the parcel and signed for it. The
doorbell rang again, This time it WAS the taxi driver. 'Are you ready?' I asked my sister. 'The
taxi is here'. She was running around like a headless chicken, but she grabbed her coat as I
clutched my handbag and we both hurried out to the car. At last we were on our way, or so I
thought then. We had only got to the bottom of the street when I had a sinking feeling. 'Turn
back. I haven't locked the door'. The driver quickly made a diversion and headed back to our
house. Time was ticking away and we were both wondering if it was a sensible idea to
continue with our plan or not. However, I held the keys in my hand as we approached to the
house. I was out of the car even before it came to a total stop. Within seconds we were back
on our journey to the station, but this time the taxi driver picked up his speed. There were only
a few minutes left before the train was due to leave the platform. I realised we must be getting
very near the station, as I could hear the station master mumbling something over the tannoy
system. We finally arrived, paid the driver, collect it the tickets from the office and dashed to
the platform to find that there wasn't a train there. We had missed it despite doing what felt like
a marathon. Suddenly a voice repeated the earlier message; 'The eight thirty Swansea train,
departing from platform two, has been delayed until eight fifty seven. We apologise for the
inconvenience.' 'What a relief !' we both sighed. We could now enjoy some coffee at last and
something much more substantial too, after all the energy we spent to get there.

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