Giving us "--not so-- oldies " a bad name

This trip to York is 4 hours! I couldn't do it in a standard seat. I have reserved one that is close to the WC as with my balance, walking on a moving train is not easyjet!

I typed easy? Where did the easyjet come from? Ipad! I'm the one travelling, not you!

On some journeys it's cheaper to travel First class. Our station master always works out the best option, which is great. I travelled First by default last year on a journey from Edinburgh to Cheltenham. I was in a carriage full of happy, singing, dancing teenagers on a school trip, so asked if there was a seat in the 'quiet' carriage. There wasn't one on that service, but the Train Manager took pity on me, picked up my luggage and trotted me down to First for free! It was bliss - free wifi and cups of tea and biccies.
I object to sitting opposite, usually a man, who has his legs stretched out under the table and under my seat. I take great delight in accidentally kicking their ankles.....

I don't allow it, the taking up of two seats, I just move their bags onto their laps and sit down.

Re the first class, I do know that sometimes people will buy up a whole compartment and have 'reserved' stickers on the windows, so that they can travel in peace.

I too hate the legs invading my space, but I do sympathise with them. Wouldn't we all like to be able to spread ourselves out - but we can't. However, the seats are at the right height for my legs, not for those men with much longer legs. It's like me sitting on a child's tricycle.

The worst example of manspreading was when we booked a whole table for us so that we could travel back from Newcastle to London with a 5 year old and an eight year old at 6pm. Two businessmen were on our table, clearly marked with our names and they were removing them! They refused to give us our table and seats. As we had just passed the guard as we moved down the train in search of our carriage, I stood there with the children, glaring at them and repeatedly asking them to give us back our seats while DBH went to fetch the guard, who took one look at the tired children and forced the men to go elsewhere. It made me wonder how many other people suffer from such rudeness. Why on earth hadn't they booked?

If people don't move bags from seats when the train is busy, I just sit on the bags.