Tuesday 2 January 2007

Happy New Year.....back to it

Back to work again.

Back on the trains.

It’s even colder than before Christmas.

There is engineering works going on which means disruption and more standing around in the cold.

Everyone on the trains seems to be coughing their guts up and sniffing noisily. In my direction.

Did I point out it’s cold?

However, there was a bit of exhilaration at the station today. We got to stand on a different platform to the normal one. This disrupted the unwritten rules about who stands where. Nobody had a regular spot.

Not only that, South West Trains were providing free tea and coffee on said platform. One announcement over the tannoy that the man standing at a trestle table with polystyrene cups was actually giving something for nothing, and there was a mad rush towards the exquisite swirls of hot steam coming off those kettles.

I’m very content to see that they are spending my money from my annual gold card wisely. In fact, I wouldn’t mind if they provided free tea and coffee everyday. Or perhaps if their budget couldn’t stretch that far, every Monday at least. That would help a little bit with the mammoth struggle of getting out of bed on a Monday (and a Tuesday, Wednesday etc.)

They could trim down costs even further by just making a huge kettle of tea with a few teabags and then pouring that out for each customer. Today, we were all treated to a teabag each which was quite a luxury. However, in the interest of making this free tea and coffee a habitual occurrence, I am willing to accept some sort of compromise to the quality of the tea. Ah, dreams.

Or, were South West Trains simply feeling guilty about something today and buttering us with free tea/coffee up to halt the hands grabbing for the complaint forms?

Happy New Year all!

Today, no sleep for me on the train. Awake and alert. Must be the start of a New Year.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Free tea? Your reaping the gold card benefits already! Roll on 2007

Anonymous said...

Or... they could scrap the free tea and bring the prices back down after the latest hike?

Girl on A Train said...

Yes I feel very special now I am in the Gold Elite Club.


I came to the conclusion this morning I would quite happily pay an extra £20 a year for some 'free' tea in the morning.

Now, for the remaining money from the 4.6% rise....

Had a chuckle reading this over my elevenses...

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=5104&&&edition=1&ttl=20070102133348