I knew it would happen. After all we had snow over the weekend and, as I travel on a railway line which panics at the 'wrong kind of sun' (I kid you not) and the 'wrong kind of leaves', I had a sneaky feeling that Tuesday travel might be problematical and I was right.
No surprise to arrive at station to be met with a seething mass of discontented travellers. Over running engineering works (shades of 2 January 2008 when no trains ran at all) and no trains to Liverpool Street. When asking for information I was told that the engineers had promised that they would be finished by 8 am but as they had said they would be finished at midnight last night, not much weight was attached to this promise. Wondered if it was worth waiting for a train and the man I was chatting to fixed me with a look and asked 'Is your Journey Really Necessary?'. Shades of World War II, almost expected him to tell me to go home and Dig for Victory....
I decided to go home and headed for the car park. Forty five minutes later as I sat in a total gridlock of cars and traffic and unable to move I pondered on the advisability of just having a cup of coffee on the station and waiting and began to feel I had made the wrong decision. Then I heard an announcement wafting over the air from the station on the PA system that there were trains now going to London. What to do and how to get out of the jam I was sitting in? Next to where I was waiting was the space given over to cycles and motorbikes and in between the railings to which they were all chained, there was a narrow way through. I looked at it, pondered, bit my lip and then thinking O what the hell embarked on what turned out to be a 20 point turn, thanking heavens all the time that I drive a nippy Nissan Micra, and managed to get through the gap out of the jam and parked my car once more and legged it to the station. I should tell you now that this entire maneouvre was watched with total horror by the drivers around me, several of whom called out very mocking and totally unnecessary comments about women drivers which, of course, spurred me on to even greater endeavour. I gave them a smirk when I had parked safely.
Arrived breathless on the platform once more just as a train arrived which was immediately packed out with waiting commuters, I decided to let it go and await the next one. Five minutes later a train silently slunk into the platform where I was waiting and an announcement was made that this was an 'extra unit' slotted into the schedule and was only making one stop before London. I therefore found myself sailing into work in a train that was practically empty, so shoes off, feet up, read paper and sip cappo which I had had the foresight to grab before starting the journey. What with that, my banana, two books and an iPod, I felt fortified and ready for any travails that might come my way.
So though I arrived at my office an hour late, I arrived feeling fairly fresh. Good thing about this particular train was that they had switched off the dreadful announcements tape that is played between each station telling us what train we were travelling on, where it was going, we should not smoke, we should not drink, we should be careful getting off the train, we shouldn't chuck our newspapers on the floor, we shouldn't breathe....
I made the entire journey in blissful silence and my iPod was not needed.
I wonder what the journey home tonight will be like...
