Tuesday 29 October 2013

If they keep training, they should be good by now.

Why do I hate train travel and public transport?

Simple, in the UK it never works. As I'm writing this, I'm sitting on a train that isn't moving, all because somewhere ahead 19th century technology has failed. If anyone can explain why in the north of the UK they choose to have overhead power lines, I would love to know. I don't like being someone who talks about how great the South is compared to the North, but if you continue to favour the past over the future, you will always have train delays.

So I'm sitting on a train for at least two and a half hours more than I need to, with the train bore. If you haven't travelled on a train for a while, you may have forgotten about this unusual part of travel, and I haven't seen one in such a long time, I thought they had died out. This is also the problem with reserving seats, when you spot them, you're playing the worst possible type of lottery.

My first clue was what he was reading, 'Train Modelling', and we had both booked a table seat. To be fair, I hadn't booked the seat, and would have chosen just any if I booked it myself (it's a work trip). I had no choice, I had no choice, I had to sit there.

I wanted to say, "I don't care about your hip. I don't care about railway travel around the world."  But I was polite, and talked back politely, and massively resented it. Always have an out option, and sadly for me, headphones weren't and option. He waited for me to visit the toilet, and pounced.

Now I'm writing this, he is breathing heavily, annoyed. But I don't think he's annoyed about the train delays, more about the fact I'm not interested in talking to him. It would have been nice if he could pick up on those social clues that the rest of world pick up on, like, not paying any attention to them.

Still, it makes a change to not be sitting in the office.

(He's just fallen asleep. Thank christ for that!)
11:50am

Update: After 2 and a half hours sitting still, we've just arrived at Peterborough but can't leave the train as we have no idea what's going on. Sadly, the train company are better at updating twitter than they are at updating their guards in the trains. I'm now facing a choice. Do I carry on with my journey, arriving late, annoyed and tired, to have a very long day tomorrow, or do I take the return option?

What's annoying is I have so many plans for things, work plans, but now it's all fucked up. I'm not pleased about this, especially as it will set back so many other plans as well. I will definitely Make sure I hire a car next time, I'd rather drive, and be tired, than sit on a train.
14:17pm

I finally arrived four hours late and not really in the best of moods. At least the next day was not a good one, but a great one.
22:15


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