Categories: uncategorized
Date: 04 December 2007 20:21:20
So here's the basics: When I leave work it's about a five minute walk to the station, a ten minute train journey, and then about 15 minutes' walk at the other end; the trains are every ten minutes. Tonight I had to call in somewhere on the way home, about ten minutes' walk from where I get off the train, and the place I had to call at closes at 5.30. Got all that? Good; here's where it all goes horribly wrong...
Left work at 4.40 thinking "I should be at the place I need to call at by about 5.15, even if I've missed the next train."
Arrived at the station to find I had indeed missed that train, but the next one was just pulling up.
Get on train.
Sit there a while.
Sit there a while longer.
Read all the semi-interesting articles in the Metro that I hadn't had time to read this morning.
Woman announces we are "waiting for platform clearance".
Sit there a bit more.
Woman announces that, due to the delay, this train will now only call at its final destination station, and that everyone going to other stations should go and catch the train at another platform.
I and about 250 other people get off the train and try to jostle our way up the stairs and escalator to the other platform.
Arrive just in time to see the train doors close and train head off out of the station.
Say some naughty words under my breath.
Return to the platform I'd started off at, where another train is now arriving.
Get on train.
Sit there a while.
Realise there is nothing unread in the Metro that interests me.
Sit there a bit longer.
Start to wonder if we're ever leaving.
Man announces we are suffering from some technical problems and we should all go and get on the train that's pulling in at the platform next to us.
Get off train.
See what must now be getting on for 500 people swarming onto the new train.
Think, "b******s to that."
Go to the shop to buy something so I have the right change for the bus.
Go to the bus stop.
Get on the bus.
Sit in horrendous amounts of traffic.
Arrive home shortly before 6.30, well after the place I needed to pop into had closed.
Unburden my pent-up frustration in gibbering blog post.
And all this on the day after a rather disappointing pub quiz experience (blagged our way into the final, then crashed and burned spectacularly). And on top of that, I planned to buy something rather amusing that I'd seen in a shop window, only to discover it was for display only and not for sale.
All in all, a bit of a rubbish day.