Commute
Commuting is more difficult than I thought it was going to be.
First, there is the whole ‘getting on the train’ thing, which involves getting up at 7am, and not – for example – then falling asleep and dreaming about matches for three quarters of an hour.
Second, there is the trip from Reading to Paddington. The trip from my home to Reading station is reasonably simple, and nobody has managed to muck that up for me yet, but the train from Reading to Paddington has a number of interesting qualities, and some of which are these:
First, it either comes from Swansea or Swindon, depending on which train I take. Reading is the last stop before Paddington, which is quite lucky because by the time it gets to Reading every seat is filled, not a person more, not a person less, meaning that anyone who gets onto the train at Reading will have to stand until Paddington. This has failed to be true twice, the first was when I caught the early train from Swansea which gets into Reading at 7:15. I caught this train at 8:20, when it was rolled into the station empty. I’ve caught trains at about 8:20 every day this week save one, and every day I’ve caught a train that was supposed to be there at least ten minutes previously. The only time I’ve managed to catch the 8:20 from Reading was when I arrived at the station at 8:45.
Also, I’m not sure why commuter trains require a travelling chef on each, but I digress.
Second. I have a week season ticket (1 day Reading -> London at peak: 25. one week Reading -> London 77), and I’m really glad I didn’t go for the month one. In the past week a grand total of three ticket machines have choked on my ticket, meaning I have to seek out a London Underground Bod to get through gates until I can leave it (the ticket) between two heavy books.
So, basically, Grumble Grumble British Rail Grumble Grumble Too Hot Grumble Grumble British Weather Grumble Grumble Grumble.
OTOH, the job itself is fun :-)
09:33 on July 25th, 2003
Just be glad you don’t need to go to Bracknell or Waterloo. Oh, you always got a seat (but that was probably because it was quicker to walk to Bracknell than wait for the train). Thank God I no longer have to do it. By comparison, the Paddington trains feel like they are run by the Japanese (whose trains you can set your watch to).
btw, I hope your journey this morning wasn’t held up by the “incident” in Swindon, as was announced this morning.
13:16 on July 25th, 2003
This is why I have never bothered looking for London jobs. The commute from Kettering to St Pancras can be a pig … but the Friday evening trip home is stupid … everything from 4.30 to 7 is packed and standing room only unless you reserver seats … and even then you have to fight with people that think it’s ok to “rest” in the seat because they didn’t think anyone was going to use it.
Still … a job’s a job.
13:16 on July 26th, 2003
Monthly season tickets are reinforced with plastic and are pretty durable.
23:24 on July 26th, 2003
The not falling asleep again thing can be a bit of a problem. An alarm clock with a snooze function can help, but it is by no means a guaranteed solution; it’s entirely possible to not only press “Alarm” instead of “Snooze”, thus making the alarm sound no more until next morning, but to actually flick the little switch on the side of the clock and deactivate the alarm completely, so that it [em]never[/em] sounds again — in one’s sleep.
Or so my friend has told me.
09:52 on July 27th, 2003
Ah, good. That’ll be better then.
11:34 on July 27th, 2003
I commuted a similar distance (lonecat knows the trip ;-) ) for umpteen years. I was fortunate thart 80% of the time I did get a seat.
I actually read my way a couple of times through the early Pratchett canon ;-) If you can read , all well and good.
When things went wrong they went spectacularly wrong. Remind me to tell you about the snow drift and smashing my way out of a dead EMU.
Sone people can and do cope. Afer many years on a cold March night I was delayed over 2 hours. With other more major factors , this was the last straw and I resigned the next day.