So the blissful holidays are over and term 3 has
begun. Now, you may be wondering why on earth that should concern me, as
I'm sure I might have mentioned that I have no intention of showing up
to revision classes. I do have to go to the exams, mind, but the first
isn't until the 08/05. No, the problem with all this holiday ending is
that it means the essay deadlines are upon me. I have, incredibly, done
all of my essays and, in fact, my last ever assignment has now been
finished. Sadly one of them had to be handed in on paper so I had to get me here, to university.
As well as that, mother enthroned has sent forth a royal decree that work shall be done on our family kitchen - a complete overhaul. This means noise, so I may well be forced out of the house more often than I would like over the coming days.
So anyway, the workers showed up and started making merry hell at around 10:30 while I stayed ensconced in my bed, eventually rising therefrom at about 13:15. Now, I really don't do workmen. I have nothing against the people who do this for a living, of course, and these two lads seemed perfectly nice. I, though, am not really all that brilliant in certain social situations and, well, having to navigate two complete strangers who're trying to get some work done in your kitchen ain't an ideal start to the day to my mind.
Anyway, it took me two attempts to get to ROV this afternoon. It was a rather nice afternoon actually, the sky was bright blue and only a little cloudy behind me, but in front of me there were ominous rain clouds which were, nevertheless, beautiful, all dark grey streaked with bright yellow from the sun. As I walked along, admiring the sky, it struck me that I had completely neglected to take my essay with me. Full marks there, TUT. So back I went, navigated the workers with a bit of self-deprecation (ain't I a pro? :P) collected my essay and had another go at walking to the station. Fortunately, I don't think I missed any trains and I turned up at a delightful ROV with about 10 mins to wait for the WOO. The trees which grow by the station are looking really nice and the view from the bridge over the tracks was spectacular. Even better that ominous rain cloud only began raining as the WOO train was pulling in, although it did start to rain in earnest.
So I hopped aboard the train and we had a slight dwell, waiting for our correct departure time. The T/Op made the assumption that we were being held for a train from BUH, but nothing went through ahead of us and we got on our way shortly after he made the announcement. And then, when car three was still crossing WOO junction we came to a sharp stop. All very unusual. To my knowledge (and, I must stress, I just sit in he carriages, I can't see out of the front) the block marker board we were presumably stopped at was some way up the road from us. My suspicion is auto fluffed up in the rain, but whatever the cause of our harder-than-normal stop, we got into WOO without further incident.
At WOO I bought myself a drink and had a six minute wait for a WER. The WER duly pulled in, I hopped aboard, and all was normal until we were held outside LES westbound. Now, being held outside LES westbound isn't too surprising, as it's where the two branches converge and it's a busy station, but at that time of day I was a little surprised. Before long we pulled away and headed, unusually, into platform 1. There was a train already in 2 which was presumably the reason for our short wait. Whether or not it was reversing there I couldn't tell you, but it could easily just have been that things were a little out of sequence. In fact, for all I know, my particular train always gets routed into platform 1, but I'd be quite surprised if that turned out to be the case :P
So anyway, we headed out of platform 1 at LES (makes a nice change like I say) and on to LIS. It was good to be back. I decided to have a little look around platform 2, for old time's sake, y'know. Then a Hammersmith train (H&C I think) arrived while I was still down at the "wrong" end of the platform (by which I mean the opposite end of the platform to where the exit is at Euston Square - obviously if I'd stayed down that end of the train I'd've had to hike up the platform at Euston Square - hardly the end of the world, but inefficient). So for the whole trip to Moorgate I was walking up the train to the front - it really is good fun and quite a challenge as the ground is moving under your feet as you walk along. Obviously, as someone who spends a good deal of time giving out about irresponsible commuting, I should probably just point out that you could probably hurt yourself and/or others doing this and should be careful or refrain from copying my rather shoddy example. Good fun though :P
It was back on the H&C for the journey home. Little slow, particularly east of Barbican as usual, but no problems reaching LIS. At LIS the indicator boards were showing:
As well as that, mother enthroned has sent forth a royal decree that work shall be done on our family kitchen - a complete overhaul. This means noise, so I may well be forced out of the house more often than I would like over the coming days.
So anyway, the workers showed up and started making merry hell at around 10:30 while I stayed ensconced in my bed, eventually rising therefrom at about 13:15. Now, I really don't do workmen. I have nothing against the people who do this for a living, of course, and these two lads seemed perfectly nice. I, though, am not really all that brilliant in certain social situations and, well, having to navigate two complete strangers who're trying to get some work done in your kitchen ain't an ideal start to the day to my mind.
Anyway, it took me two attempts to get to ROV this afternoon. It was a rather nice afternoon actually, the sky was bright blue and only a little cloudy behind me, but in front of me there were ominous rain clouds which were, nevertheless, beautiful, all dark grey streaked with bright yellow from the sun. As I walked along, admiring the sky, it struck me that I had completely neglected to take my essay with me. Full marks there, TUT. So back I went, navigated the workers with a bit of self-deprecation (ain't I a pro? :P) collected my essay and had another go at walking to the station. Fortunately, I don't think I missed any trains and I turned up at a delightful ROV with about 10 mins to wait for the WOO. The trees which grow by the station are looking really nice and the view from the bridge over the tracks was spectacular. Even better that ominous rain cloud only began raining as the WOO train was pulling in, although it did start to rain in earnest.
So I hopped aboard the train and we had a slight dwell, waiting for our correct departure time. The T/Op made the assumption that we were being held for a train from BUH, but nothing went through ahead of us and we got on our way shortly after he made the announcement. And then, when car three was still crossing WOO junction we came to a sharp stop. All very unusual. To my knowledge (and, I must stress, I just sit in he carriages, I can't see out of the front) the block marker board we were presumably stopped at was some way up the road from us. My suspicion is auto fluffed up in the rain, but whatever the cause of our harder-than-normal stop, we got into WOO without further incident.
At WOO I bought myself a drink and had a six minute wait for a WER. The WER duly pulled in, I hopped aboard, and all was normal until we were held outside LES westbound. Now, being held outside LES westbound isn't too surprising, as it's where the two branches converge and it's a busy station, but at that time of day I was a little surprised. Before long we pulled away and headed, unusually, into platform 1. There was a train already in 2 which was presumably the reason for our short wait. Whether or not it was reversing there I couldn't tell you, but it could easily just have been that things were a little out of sequence. In fact, for all I know, my particular train always gets routed into platform 1, but I'd be quite surprised if that turned out to be the case :P
So anyway, we headed out of platform 1 at LES (makes a nice change like I say) and on to LIS. It was good to be back. I decided to have a little look around platform 2, for old time's sake, y'know. Then a Hammersmith train (H&C I think) arrived while I was still down at the "wrong" end of the platform (by which I mean the opposite end of the platform to where the exit is at Euston Square - obviously if I'd stayed down that end of the train I'd've had to hike up the platform at Euston Square - hardly the end of the world, but inefficient). So for the whole trip to Moorgate I was walking up the train to the front - it really is good fun and quite a challenge as the ground is moving under your feet as you walk along. Obviously, as someone who spends a good deal of time giving out about irresponsible commuting, I should probably just point out that you could probably hurt yourself and/or others doing this and should be careful or refrain from copying my rather shoddy example. Good fun though :P
It was back on the H&C for the journey home. Little slow, particularly east of Barbican as usual, but no problems reaching LIS. At LIS the indicator boards were showing:
- HAI via NEP
- NEP
- EPP
At LES the SATS held up his baton and the train seemed all ready to go, but go it did not. After a while I went and had a look and the stick was indeed off (signal was not red) and the route was set for HAI as was appropriate. We soon found out that the delay was for a driver change, I guess he got a little held up, but he soon arrived and we were on our way without further ado.
My gosh was it beautiful when we left the tunnel just outside NEP. It really was a lovely evening. I think we might've been in coded as well. In sharp contrast to the shenanigans at WOO junction the stop for the signal controlling the approach into HAI was phenomenally smooth. There was no jolt at all. I was surprised to then find that we were routed into platform 2 and with the long wait at LES, the WOO had caught us up. A lightning fast turn around was required and the T/Op had only just got into the cab when the starter went white and he was off. The WOO then arrived and - for a very nice change - left almost immediately. No dwell at GRH either and I made ROV no problem, after a lovely little trip.
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