Girl on a Train

Rail Regulators reap benefit of our misery?!

2007-06-08T15:15:00.000Z

OK it's been a while since I posted here admittedly - but I've just read something that makes me just a little bit cross so I thought I would share it here.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/portsmouth-and-southsea?articleid=2930549

Read this article about how Network rail might get fined by the rail regulator for the months of delays in the South Hampshire region.

Hang on a minute ?

The train service is disrupted and causes hassle to thousands of passengers for months and months, and then the city bods sitting in their plush London offices reap the rewards by sticking a fine in their inbox?

Now this is not what I call a fair fine.

Rail regulator should enforce the rail providers to pay compensation to the people who have actually suffered from all the engineering works early 2007 - for the people who spent their hard earned pennies paying for a service to get to work which didn't always run efficiency?

What will the rail regulator do with this hefty fine? ! I'm sure they won't be paying any of it back to the passengers... I have no idea..

So that makes me cross!!!

No Trouble on the Tracks

2007-04-26T15:10:00.001Z

Once again the benefits of train travelling presented themselves to me this morning. As normal, this morning I arrived at work fresh-faced and ready to go. However, half of the office weren’t in.

A pedestrian got knocked down on the M3 this morning at 5.30am approximately. Three hours later and the motorway was still completely closed between two junctions, causing a bottleneck effect as everyone tried the country lanes around the motorway instead. Huge queues were the result of this, and everyone was very late to work. But not me! Trains don’t get effected by the knock on effects of one road closing. They just glide past the traffic jams on their own, specially constructed track, all for them. Sweet.

Much Ado About Nothing

2007-04-24T12:40:00.000Z

Sometimes I moan too much about my travelling to work woes. I admit that. That is indeed the point of this whole blog.

But last week, something made me smile. I actually took the time to listen to the conversation had by the group of early teens sitting around me. They were discussing their homework. Really! They were! They were talking about the character development in Much Ado About Nothing, and what the different characters represent. It was amazing! Now, I am not that old, and it’s only really been 8 years since I left 6th Form. But I have already fallen into the terrible, clichéd view that teenagers are good-for-nothing wasters. But, it would seem, they are not. They actually talk about Shakespeare through choice and appeared to enjoy it, too.

Now, here the moment where I should point out that I work in a particularly well-to-do part of the country, with one of the best public schools in the country, and a handful of other very decent schools too. So perhaps this explains these kids’ general attitude towards learning? Well, it must do. If I was travelling on a train with school kids from somewhere less illustrious (for example, Brixton, where I used to live) I doubt very much the kids would be having these types of conversations.

And I hate this observation. I hate it because I know it is true, even though I realise it sounds inherently snobby to think that kids from rough areas don’t talk about Shakespeare.
Anyway, I should be grateful that I have decent kids on my train. Although they still make far too much noise for my liking.

(And I haven’t read Much Ado About Nothing..)

Deep Sleep

2007-04-18T11:40:00.001Z

Hehehe, I felt smug yesterday on the way home.

The ticket manager/guard made his way down the train as per normal. ‘Tickets Please!” he called. He reached one girl in her twenties who was having a snooze and listening to her I-Pod (this was not me, I hasten to add, it was another Girl On A Train, and no it wasn’t a Quiet Carriage)

He said to her, ‘tickets please’.

No response. She continued to snooze happily, eyes closed, head up, jaw threatening to drop.

He said again, this time louder, ‘can I see your ticket please, Madam’

Again, no response. By this time everyone was watching – including me.

Train managers have obviously been taught to not touch passengers (and rightly so) for he then proceeded to lean over and knock on the glass by her head. Very loudly.

‘Can I see your ticket please, madam!’

still no answer! I couldn’t believe she hadn’t woken up after all the commotion. She must have been in a very deep sleep.

So the train manager then went around to behind her seat (fortunately nobody was seated behind her) and shook the headrest that her sleep head was resting against backwards and forwards quite frenetically.

Ha, that woke her up! She opened her eyes, registered what was happening and turned around to glare at however was banging her seat.

Then she realised it was the Train Manager and quickly understood the situation. Then she noticed everyone was smirking at her.

Blush.

For once, it wasn’t me!

Please Be Quiet - We're in a Quiet Carriage Don't You Know?

2007-04-17T15:25:00.000Z

To what extent do South West Trains enforce the ‘Quiet Carriage’ policy?

Not a lot, I think.

It’s not a difficult thing to implement, really. The ticket manager just has to tap someone on the shoulder with a noisy I-Pod or interrupt a mobile phone conversation to tell the offender to shift it.

However, for passengers, the ‘Quiet Carriage’ can be slightly inconvenient. Often, it is only once you have taken a phone call on your mobile before you notice the signs saying ‘quiet carriage’. By then, it’s too late. There are no signs by the door of the train to say ‘you are entering a quiet carriage, sssh.’ It is only once you are sat down comfortably in your seat, reading your book, before you notice the signs. In a busy train, you are unlikely to move carriages just in case you need to take a phone call.

I know all this.

However, when the lad opposite me sat with his Ipod on ridiculously loudly so that all I could hear was the beat of his crap music, I started to feel irritation. Then I noticed we were in a ‘quiet carriage’ and felt justly irritated. I thought to myself, ‘I could just tell him to turn if off and point at the sign.’

I didn’t of course.

But I expected the Train Manager to do so as she came through the carriage checking tickets. She reached the noise Ipod boy and called for tickets. He ignored her because he couldn’t hear her. She had to wave a hand in front of his face to attract his attention. ‘yes! I though, ‘she’s going to tell him to turn it off as we are in a quiet carriage.’

Sadly not, she asked for his ticket, he pointed it at her, and she continued on her merry way. He continued to have poor taste in music.

So, I ask, what is the point of these quiet carriages?

The Quiet Easter Break

2007-04-16T11:56:00.000Z

Due to the slightly restrictive nature of my blog, I haven’t been able to find anything of interest to write about concerning the trains in the last couple of weeks. Life generally has been busy and full, with many things to look forward to over the summer. Stepping off the train at 6.15pm now fills me with joy and expectation as the summer nights get longer and the promise of a whole evening lies ahead.

The trains have been running to schedule over the past couple of weeks, despite some engineering works in a major area which, despite not affecting my section of line, I feared may have some knock-on effects. These engineering works meant that a lot of people probably took another mode of transport to work, while others took annual leave for the week of disruption. This combined with the Easter holidays meant that my train was blissfully peaceful last week. A double seat all to myself, no screaming teenagers, no businessmen barking down mobiles. Lovely. All in all, last week was top-notch service!

I have now used ONE of my free golden tickets to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Oh, I mean my free train journey of course.

The book I was reading last week kept me well engrossed during this peaceful journey, so I was able to get through in record speeds. And a mighty good read it was too - although the writing technique of using a letter to reveal the rest of the story at the end seemed to be a bit of a cop-out. Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

It's Too Hot and It's Too Cold

2007-04-05T12:23:00.000Z

Well, there has not been much going on in TrainLand this week. I have been sleeping particularly deeply, and now only need to wait for two to three stops before I put my book down to engage in a snooze.

I have noticed a wide degree of variability of temperature in the trains recently though. Sometimes, it is unbearably warm and stuffy, others it is too chilly. I think I prefer the former temperate climate as it effortlessly allows me to fall into slumber when it is hot inside the carriage. When it is cold, however, I find myself shivering and trying to get myself warm enough to fall asleep.

You see, everything revolves around whether I can get a decent bit of kip or not.

On another note, I am reading John Banville’s The Sea. An interesting read with elegant language and prose. Although, in all honesty, not much has actually happened yet in the plot, which may be why I am sleeping a bit more this week!

Endless Endless Engineering Works

2007-03-30T08:51:00.000Z

Moving on from the poster competition, it's back to business as normal at the Girl on a Train blog. Thankyou for your contributions, I suppose as Blue is disqualified and I am the host, that makes Daniel the winner. Congratulations, you have won this prestigious competition, your poster shall form the epitome of the South West Trains campaign against Bag Morons, perhaps.

So, back to business.

The trains are making front-page news in the local papers relentlessly at the moment. I would never have thought it would be such a gigantic storyline – trains are something that we all know are there but don’t really talk much about in person (in blogs, well that’s another matter!)

Some people’s lives appear to be being devastated by engineering works happening around our area. It’s a typical engineering works saga actually. They say to the customer from the start, ‘oh don’t worry, it won’t take long and will not cause any disruption, or at least, if it does, the disruption will be minimal.’

5 weeks later and they admit that they aren’t to schedule at all.

Another month later and they confess that, actually, they have no idea when the engineering works will finish.

So it has turned from 5 weeks of minimal work to a mammoth job of god-knows how long.

Well, personally, it doesn’t really bother me much. I can still take my train to work and (normally) get there in reasonable time.

However, some poor sods who live near the train tracks are finding their lives ruined by this mess. A lot of engineering works goes on during the nighttime, when there are no trains running. But this keeps people awake all night long with the sounds of heavy machinery and shouting from the site staff. Poor them. I feel for them, actually.

I just hope they get some sort of fair compensation for the hassle.

Seats are For Bags - Entry Two

2007-03-27T11:39:00.000Z

An accomplished entry from Bluesoup here. Her Photoshop skills look rather special in this fine poster entry. And again, very convincing - it's as if South West Trains did it themselves. (Even the moron bit.)

Seats Are For Bums - Entry One

2007-03-27T08:11:00.000Z

Our first entry - a rather official looking number from Daniel. Thanks for sending this to me. Well, it certainly looks very convincing!

"Seats Are For Bums, Not Bags" - Poster Competition

2007-03-22T13:34:00.000Z

In response to YorksDevil's comment, I have spent hours and hours designing an elaborate poster for Train Companies to use up and down the country. I really do think this will get the message across. This poster shows enormous originality and will make people understand the issue like never before witnessed in this public-transport travelling era.

If you have a better idea, please e-mail your poster to me at ... and I shall post them up here. Truly inspirational.

Seats Are For Bums, Not Bags

2007-03-22T08:54:00.000Z

Isn’t it exasperating how people put their bags on the seat next to them, and then look at you in annoyance when you ask if you can sit there?

I’m sorry, but resting my weary body after a long day at work takes precedence over allowing your treasured bag to have pride of position on the seat right next to you.

I never have any qualms about walking along the aisle and asking people to remove their bag. Perhaps that is because I have a relatively long journey and cannot bear the thought of standing up for part of it.

Other people, I notice, are less inclined to ask people to remove their bag, and stand in the doorway area instead. I understand their reticence to an extent. It is a little bit of a pain to request a seat. Some people go to great pains to let you know what an inconvenience it is to have to displace their belongings. But so what?

“Seats are for bums, not bags.”

Perhaps South West Trains should have a quirky little poster up in trains to highlight this point. Heck, I’d even design it for them.

On another note, today this is my 50th Post, so 'Happy Fiftieth Post' to me !

South Western Trains - who are they?

2007-03-21T09:12:00.000Z

The other day on the train, we got to a stop early.

This often happens and we just have to sit and wait until the timetable allows us to continue on our merry way. This is the buffer zone. The extra time added to the timetable to allow for any minor mishaps.

It is all part of managing the expectations of the passenger. Set yourself a generous timetable so that any minor incidents will be covered day-in-day-out. And it works. If you expect the train to arrive at 7.43 and it does (or it even arrives early) then you are happy. It doesn’t really matter that they have added a good 4 minutes or so to the timetable, it is all about expectations. I have noticed that my evening train consistently arrives 5 minutes earlier than the publicised train. Great! I can get on the train and wait in the warmth of the train rather than waiting in the chilly winter air on the platform.

Furthermore, they like to tell you that you have arrived early so that you don’t think we are getting delayed while the train sits there idle. This is all sensible stuff and makes sense. Instead of getting irate and stressed out by the feeling that we might be late, we know that it’s ok because we are even ahead of schedule and that NEVER happens on public transport, right?

Anyway, the point of this entry is a small matter of something on of the announcers said. The tannoy came on, and the man spoke out to the captive audience,

‘I would like to inform you on behalf of South Western Trains, that we are currently ahead of schedule and are not due to depart from C…… until 07.43.’

Hang on a minute, South Western Trains? Am I on a different train? I thought it was called South West Trains, has it been taken over? Is it experiencing a brand overhaul directed by the Marketing and Branding team over at Head Office? Or did it used to be known as South Western Trains back in the day, and this chap has never gotten over the change?

Well, it had me intrigued for a minute of two. And then I returned to my book, ‘Winter in Madrid’ by C.J Sansom. It’s really very good.

Life Without Oyster

2007-03-20T09:16:00.000Z

I used to reside in London. Since moving out of London, I no longer have my Oyster Card. I left my old job with 2 months of zones 1-2 already paid for, and therefore gave my Oyster Card to a friend to use. She promptly lost it. So I no longer have the blue ticket to freedom and, considering I don’t live in London, I haven’t got around to applying for a new one and stumping up three whole pounds for it.

And then I went to London and saw the non-Oyster-card price for a single in Zone 1. £4! I thought it was a mistake. An error on the machine. It can’t be £4 just for one journey surely! I remember when you could get a Zones 1-6 for £4.50!

Well, I paid up, with a grimace. And then headed straight for the Oyster application form…

The Bus Replacement Service and other gripes

2007-03-19T14:11:00.000Z

I had a nightmare journey back from Hull yesterday. Firstly, it was a Sunday which always seems to signify cr@p rail service for some reason. South West Trains expanded the network of buses to cover a much wider region than normal. So this meant that on the way home from London, we had to get a bus for the last leg of the journey. And that bus took ages. And we couldn’t even get a bus to our required station – the station printed on our ticket. Well, that’s not technically true. We could have got there if we were prepared to wait a further 45 minutes once we’d got off the bus. But at the end of a long journey back from Hull, the last thing we wanted to do was to wait for 45 minutes in the freezing cold at 9.45pm just to get a bus 2 miles up the road. Ridiculous.

So that was terrible.

And this morning, the BF took the train one stop to get to work (where he’d left the car on Friday night, but we couldn’t go and get it last night). His train just sat on the platform. Nobody told him what was going on. Nobody mentioned that his train wasn’t likely to move. He waited 40 minutes at this station in order to go one stop while other trains came and went. Why were there no announcements?! He paid £1.90 to sit at the station for 40 minutes to take a 4 minute journey. He was very late for work.

He hates the trains with a passion. I am starting to see why.

1,000 New Carriages

2007-03-15T09:53:00.000Z

The night before last, as I relaxed on the sofa watching BBC 10 ‘o clock news, stretched out enjoying the evening and thinking about going to bed soon, I watched a news article about those 1,000 extra carriages to be added on to a number of routes.

Pictures of sorry commuters squeezing themselves into carriages that are already too packed. One poor chap holding a bunch of flowers returning home after work getting his black rucksack caught in the door as he desperately tried to wedge himself onto the train. People wearily standing in the aisles as their train took them to their place of work.

I sat on the comfy sofa watching these images.

I thought to myself, ‘thank god I don’t work in London anymore.’

Trains in the ‘country’ are less crowded, less stressful and generally a more pleasant place to be. The quality of those trains in the news article were old and shabby. My trains are new and shiny. I always get a seat so that I can fall asleep. I never get crushed (except between those internal doors) trying to get on the train.

Get those trains more carriages! Ah yes, 1,000 more carriages from the government you say? And then, at the end of the section, the news reporter finished off with, ‘the new carriages are expected to be ready by 2014.’ Hmmm, that’s 7 years away! Not soon enough to quell the immediate problems on the trains in some parts of the country then!

Turn that Racket Off!

2007-03-14T09:01:00.000Z

Trains. A place where people of all shapes and sizes are flung together in a carriage. They travel together day in and day out. Nobody speaks to anyone they don’t know. Everyone (well, most people) is the model of decorum and politeness.

One day, on the journey home, two teenage girls got on the train. The train pulled off and chugged along merrily for a while. We then got near to a station and stopped and everything went quiet. You know how it is when the engines stop all their whirring and crunching. You just get silence, aside from quiet ticks and squeaks from the train as it waits patiently on the track. All is quiet in carriage number 3.

And then the teenage girls turn on some music on their mobile phone. On loudspeaker. The entire carriage is subjected to a tinny version of P.Diddy blaring out into the quiet carriage. People start getting a bit fidgety about this. Yet, nobody says anything. The woman next to me is clearly very irritated by this noise and starts turning around to give the girls ‘commuter evils’ (*this is when you dislike what someone else is doing, yet do not want to break the Commuter Code by actually talking to them. Neither do you want to glare at them so much as to encourage a response from them.)

She then starts muttering under her breath, ‘good god’, ‘for god’s sake’ and the like. As I am sitting next to her, I feel like I need to acknowledge her mutterings. Yet the carriage is so deathly quiet that I don’t want to. I smile bleakly at her. She carries on her mutterings to me. But there is nothing I can do! I am starting to feel uncomfortable now.

And then the train comes back to life with a whir and a groan, and the P.Diddy is partially blocked from our eardrums.

Thank goodness.

The Train: My Second Home

2007-03-13T08:42:00.000Z

Sometimes I sleep very deeply on the train.

I get involved in dreams that seem to last for eternity, only to wake up with a jolt and realise I am on the train and it is daytime. Sometimes, I twitch and drop my book that I have been holding on the floor. I twitched a lot last night. Normally, I tend to twitch in my train-sleep when I have an aisle seat. My reasoning for this is because I have nothing to lean on, and am therefore engaging in a careful balancing act in my sleep. It’s a bit like sleeping while standing up I imagine (although I am not sure I could manage that), where you have to balance your body. Sometimes, I fall asleep with the seat free next to me. When I wake up I find that there is someone sitting next to me, and I hope to God that I have not been talking in my sleep again or pulling silly faces.

Yesterday, I was so deeply asleep that when my train reached its terminus (fortunately, this is my stop), a lady had to gently, but firmly poke me on the arm to awake me.

Poke poke. ‘urgh?’ said I. ‘Sorry, I thought I ought to wake you there,’ said she.

I don’t think I fancy a night on the train, or a return trip to London, so I am thankful she did wake me.

I also think I need to pay attention to the way I am sleeping. Neck bent to the side, head lolling about, slumped down in my seat. I do notice that I frequently have a sore neck. Is this doing long-term damage I wonder? Will I one day be visiting the chiropractor and blaming my bad back on ‘those commuting days on the trains’?

To all those anonymous commenters

2007-03-12T09:15:00.000Z

Last week, my blogging experimentation took on a new significance. I realised that some people were in fact reading my musings and taking some points rather earnestly! See some of the comments (some of them a little bit nasty, I do think. By all means comment if you do not agree with me, but try to avoid resorting to nasty insults!) left on this post to see what I mean.

Internal doors. I never knew what trouble they would get me in. Yes, they are there for fire safety reasons and I am sure they will do a stirling job in the (fortunately) unlikely event of a fire. However, day-to-day, they are irritating when they close just as you are walking through them.

Anyway, that is another issue that has already been given quite enough time here.

Something I have learnt is that there are some people who take their job very seriously. This is actually rather cheering. I am not a train person. Well, I take them everyday, but I give no thought to the complexities of running a large train network. However, there are some people who think about it a lot, and indeed, it appears to be quite a passion for them. I am pleased about this and I can understand how people feel. When people have a misconception about my line of work, I will strive to change their attitude, and sometimes I will take it quite personally. I think, ‘hey this person is insulting my industry, they must be insulting me too.’

So. My presumption from all of this is that South West Trains must be a pretty good employer for all of these people to defend them so energetically. This is in itself a success. I suppose happy employees build successful companies.

Now then, those internal doors…..

The Mystery of the Cheap Ticket

2007-03-12T09:00:00.000Z

Why are singles cheaper than a return?

I have just booked a train to Hull for a meeting. When initially searching for a Return Ticket the price was about £130. I thought this was pretty expensive to be honest, even though Hull is absolutely miles away. Then I noticed a little link saying ‘singles might be cheaper’, click on this, filled in my details and have managed to get a return journey (using singles) for less than half the price. Very strange! Long distance journeys often seem to have the situation where 2 singles is cheaper than one return, yet local services charge almost the same price for a single as for a return!

Well, it confuses me. I am just pleased that I had the sense to trail through all the forms to find the cheapest combination of tickets. Although, saying that, work were paying for the ticket, so it doesn’t really matter to me personally. But still, I like to feel like I have nabbed a bargain!

The South West Trains Key to the Door

2007-03-09T10:04:00.000Z

I experienced another predicament with the internal beeping doors this morning. These doors are giving me hassle this week! (see post) Those little green buttons are completely ineffective. The door slid shut as I approached it. Sensibly, I pressed the green button for it to open. It rudely ignored me. I pushed the button again, except this time a little harder. Still no response from the elusive door. I pressed it a couple more times with my thumb. No reply.

With a bemused expression on my face (at least, I hope it was bemusement rather than irritation) I looked around at my fellow passengers who were standing behind me, patiently waiting while I battled to get the door open. One man stepped forward to help. I am sure I saw a little ‘roll-of-the-eyes’ as I was clearly very incompetent, couldn’t open a blimming train door and here he was to step in. He pressed the button. I was quite relieved to see that the door did not open for him either (Hurrah, it’s not all about the strength of the button pushing, man!)

I was about to turn around and go into the carriage on the other side, when along came a South West Trains employee. One push of the button from her blessed finger and the door slid open obediently, straightaway. So, are they putting internal door codes into the fingertips of South West Trains workers in order to outfox the common, paying, passenger?

I think this is the case.

Spring in my Step

2007-03-08T11:10:00.000Z

The days are getting longer. The mornings are brighter and lighter. The birds are singing. The flowers are blooming. Etc. etc. before I launch into a badly worded, clichéd poem, you get the message. I am feeling the Spring effect. We all know it, ‘The Spring Effect’, where you feel inexplicably happy, relieved and jubilant at the prospect that those long winter nights are almost over.

It has been a particularly long winter for me. My first winter of commuting (not in London) and rarely seeing daylight. Now at least there is hope of going for a nice summer evening-pint outside when I get back from work. Or enjoying a cool jog by the sea and watching the sunset. Or going for an evening game of tennis. Or a BBQ on the beach before sunset.

Ah, all those romantic notions of summertime. They are nearly upon us.

Isn’t it amazing how great it makes you feel? I sat on my train this morning watching the countryside speed by, marvelling at the crisp blue sky, the green-ness of the trees, the sparkling of the water.

Lovely.

Talking of the crisp blue sky, I got very close to booking a sky-dive today. A bit of a ‘tick the box to say I’ve done this’ life-time ambition. I was going to press the submit button, and then read the ‘Terms and Conditions’ and got rather freaked out by how many times the word ‘death’ was included in the clauses.

I know it’s pretty safe (especially if doing a tandem), but my sensibility got the better of me, and I will wait for another day when I am feeling a bit braver.

Stop the train, I want to get off!!

2007-03-07T09:23:00.000Z

South West Trains take sticking to the timetable a little too earnestly. It’s as if station staff have been told, ‘at all costs you must stick to the timetable, do not send your train chugging off into the distance a minute late, it MUST leave the station at the designated time.’

This is assuming the train gets to the station on time in the first place, but that is another, well documented, story.

The other day, the train I was on pulled into my station on time. This isn’t news in itself, to be honest, this happens quite frequently really, so I shouldn’t grumble about that too much.

Does anyone else get rather irritated by those silly internal doors that can’t recognise when there is a person passing through, and attempt to close with a sly little beep-beep-beep, thereby trapping the person in-between them? That has happened to me quite a lot. I dislike that little lit-up green button that you have to press as the doors are closing in order to get it to stay open. Someone with less manual dexterity than myself may struggle with pushing a moving button. Sometimes I struggle when I am half asleep in the morning.

However, when my train pulled into my station, I waited until everyone had queued up in the aisle and traipsed off the train as normal before leaping up and following them, bringing up the rear, as they say.

I got to these pesky internal doors and they began to close as I approached them. I dived forward to press the green button to get them to open. They didn’t. They paused for a second while my finger was on the button, so I tried again. They didn’t open. So I got a little bit frantic and pressed the button rapidly. Eventually, after about 5 pushes, they opened again. In the meantime however, passengers getting ON to the train had almost finished embarking. I realised that the outside doors were beeping and about to close (despite there being about three people outside still queuing to get on). I dashed to the door and squeezed through as it was closing, rudely (I’m sorry) pushing past the three people trying to get on. One of them shouted ‘hang on’ to the station whistle blower, who ignored him and blew the whistle and waved the round-headed stick thing. The waiting passengers did a frantic squeeze through the doors to get on to the train, and the last one got stuck. Fortunately it was a fairly big chap who just prised the doors open so that he could through. I am sure if I was in that situation I would just stutter meekly, ‘argh, what do I do?’ and get carried off with the train.

So, despite the train whistle blower being aware of three people waiting to get on the train (not to mention me trying to get off!) they signalled that the train was safe to close its doors and move on. I understand the need to keep to timetable targets, but at the detriment to paying passengers being able to GET ON (and off!) the train they have paid for?!

Books Books and Books

2007-03-06T12:25:00.000Z

I have read a few books in February on the trains – I thought I’d create a short post to remind myself of those that I have read. I find that once I have finished the book, it completely slips from my memory and it is very hard to get it back again.

I once started reading a book (Patrick Gale’s ‘Rough Music’) and only realised HALF WAY through that I had already read it just a year ago.

I have enjoyed, Ben Elton’s Gridlock ( a book about commuting!), Jeremy Paxman’s The English (very pompous but what do you expect from Paxman?), John Grisham’s ‘The Summons’ (why do I keep reading Grisham books, they are not good!), Dean Koontz’s ‘The Husband’ (a thriller and very entertaining!)

The Arrival of 6 Free Tickets

2007-03-05T16:47:00.000Z

Looking at my last few posts, anyone would think I was a bit of a grumbler when it comes to the trains. Please accept my apologies for this. Generally, I am fairly satisfied (please note, that is ‘fairly’, not ‘very’ satisfied, oops, there I go again!) and am normally able to get to work well before it is officially necessary to get to work.

I received my 6 free train tickets on Friday with a personalised letter from South West Trains. When I say ‘personalised’, I don’t mean it was handwritten or anything. Good heavens no. But it did appear that someone had taken the time to bash the letter off on a computer rather than resorting to the standard templates found in the ‘Response to Complaints from Those Pesky Customers’ folder in the South West Trains computer drive.

Put simply, the letter said, ‘here are your 6 free tickets. Thanks.’

Upon examination of the 6 free tickets, the deal is not as good as I originally had hoped. I had anticipated being the generous giver of train tickets, and being able to hand out free tickets to my friends and family for when they come to visit me in my new abode.

This is not so. Travellers have to be with the Gold Card Holder (so it has to be me, or someone with me, at least). I suppose this is fair enough and it prevents me selling them. However, I very rarely take the train at the weekend. Why would I? I have a car?! So how am I going to use them up?

Well, it’s a canny trick of South West Trains. Firstly, don’t give the tickets out in the first place until prompted. Secondly, make them sound blimmin’ amazing when really they are not.

However, fear not I shall stop moaning now. I am sure I will find some opportunity to use them at some point.

Took the late train home after work on Friday. It’s only the second time since I started this job in September that I have taken a late train home. I am always surprised by how deadly quiet it is on the train. Not a soul to be seen. It’s such a contrast to the morning and evening rush hour. It doesn’t seem real to be sitting on the familiar red seat all alone with no fellow passengers nearby. A bit creepy really.

6 Free Tickets

2007-03-02T09:52:00.001Z

I decided to write to South West Trains to ask them where my 6 free tickets have disappeared to. Seeing as this is one of the major perks to getting an annual gold card, I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to receive them, or if they had just conveniently forgotten about them.

So I e-mailed them about it. Surprisingly I got a response fairly rapidly. (well, within 2 days, which is pretty responsive for them). It was quite simple, the answer.

‘We will send them to you in the post today. Kind Regards, etc etc’

What?! So if it is that easy, why haven’t they sent them to me yet? Do they hope that people will forget their entitlement and not send them out unless prompted by their more scrupulous passengers (i.e. Me, I don’t like to miss out on a freebie)? If I had not written to them, would I never have received my 6 free tickets?

Good news about my Diploma in Commuting – I have now completed essay number 3 of 4, so I feel like I am on the homerun now!

Response to the second complaint

2007-02-23T16:56:00.000Z

Ah it’s been a little while (again!)
My response to my 2nd complaint about the response to my first complaint is as follows: (well, this came after they sent me a blank e-mail as a response. Very helpful. I then had to wait for a response to my response to the blank email!)

COPY- (We have been experiencing problems with sending of emails,so please see copy body text as follows) Our ref: February 2007

Dear .. Thank you for your further email.

Please accept my renewed apologies for the problems you experienced onyour journey from F to W.

As you mention, engineering work was taking place requiring customers totravel forward by a special bus service. I am sorry to note the delaythat occurred with the replacement bus service, and it is very muchregretted that this caused you so much inconvenience.

However; as muchas we would like to we are unable to guarantee that train and busjourneys will run as per the published timetable. I note that you refer to reimbursement of your consequential costs suchas petrol etc. I am afraid that we do not normally meet such costs andthis is explained in the National Rail Conditions of Carriage. TheConditions explain that when a train is late or cancelled, a connectionis missed or the railway is closed, the train company is not responsiblefor meeting additional expenses or resulting losses.

I am afraid that Iam unable to agree your request. If you would like a full copy of theConditions, they can be obtained from station ticket offices, or byvisiting www.nationalrail.co.uk.

I trust this clarifies our position and we do endeavour to satisfy ourcustomers; but if you remain unhappy with my response you may contactPassenger Focus. This is an independent body set up to protect railusers interests. Their address is as follows: PassengerfocusFreepost WA1521WarringtonWA4 6GP Telephone 08453 022 022Email: hello@passengerfocus.org.uk I assure you of our best intentions at all times

So that’s it!
I don’t know what I was expecting really. I think my expecations had been raised by Bluesoup and others when they told me stories of success when they complained. Somehow, I was expecting more. However, they did not provide. And I shall continue travelling with them forevermore like a mug!

Well, not forevermore, but you know what I mean. For a little while at least.

A good note though is that it is half term here. You know what that means don’t you. Yes, a nice quiet, peaceful journey with no terrible teenagers. Oh it’s great. I have even started listening to my Ipod again now that I can actually hear myself think. Take That’s new album is on the playlist this week. You’ve got to love those chaps. You just can’t help it.

Response to my complaint

2007-02-15T12:10:00.000Z

15 February 2007
Dear ……..
Thank you for your email of 1 February 2007.

Please accept my apologies for the problems you experienced on yourjourney from F… to W…. on 1 February 2007.

As you mention, engineering work was taking place requiring customers to travel forward by a special bus service. I am sorry to note the delay that occurred with the replacement bus service, and it is very muchregretted that this caused you so much inconvenience. However; we do need to point out that in our published engineering work timetable itdoes state that customers should allow extra time as many bus and trainjourneys will take longer than normal. Also as much as we would like towe are unable to guarantee that train and bus journeys will run as perthe published timetable.

Thank you for advising us about this delay you experienced and onceagain, please accept my sincere apologies for the unexpectedinconvenience you were caused.
Kind Regards
….
Customer Relations Officer

I'm not sure I feel all that happy about that response. So, I aimed for the 7.15am (15 minutes earlier than normal) thinking this would get me to work by 9am (when I normally get there for 8.30am) , but I still should have left more time?? In theory I had 45 minutes to spare, but I was still 45 minutes late! Do you think it is worth another response? I know they are probably inundated with complaints, but I feel this is response is silly. We do say that we might not necessarily be able to stick to the published timetable..what on earth is the point of it then!?!? Rah!

A bad week on the trains last week

2007-02-12T13:36:00.001Z

Hope everyone is well!!!

I’ve discovered the joys of FaceBook which is why I am blogging less! It’s one Internet fad after another for me!

However, the last couple of weeks on the trains have not been good. For the first time since I have started taking this route, last week I was in a situation where I really needed to be back home for a certain time. I was involved in a production for three nights which started at 7.00pm. This caused me a certain amount of stress as I am aware of how unreliable the trains are at the moment. I was worried that I would get stuck on a train and end up missing my commitment. Which would not look good, and would let people down. I ended up having to get BF to pick me up from the station and take me straight there. It was a tiring week. I was never at home!

There’s a lot in the local news about South West Trains at the moment. Articles about how the engineering works are going to continue for another 6 weeks because, surprise surprise, they have over-run. There are also articles about how South West Trains have changed from white trains with bigger seats and more leg room, to shorter blue trains with smaller seats and less leg room.

In fact, I completed a pen-and-paper survey about it last week while I was on the train. The questionnaire was horrendously worded and didn’t make sense at all (trust me, I know) . however, I felt it my duty to fill it in AND post it back like a good market research respondent. Naturally, my responses indicated a very disgruntled commuter because of course the white trains are better than the blue trains. More leg room is good!

Actually, that is one good thing that has come out of the engineering works. Since they began, my route has been white trains (with bigger seats) rather than the cramped blue trains. So that, I suppose, is a good thing!

I haven’t had a response to my letter of complaint yet. Although, I suppose that is optimistic as I only sent it last week.

I have also realised that I haven’t had any of my benefits from the Annual Gold Card yet. I assumed I would receive these through the post (such as the magazine, and 6 free weekend tickets, and all the other amazing things they promised me).

It’s now been over 6 weeks since I purchased the Gold Card. Can anybody enlighten me here about what I need to do? Do I have to go and ask for these things from the station? I thought they would post me them!! Ticket collector, do you know?

Apparently, yesterday was the start of a new era for South West Trains. A new franchise. Now, I don’t really understand what that means. I just hope it means they are better than they are at the moment.

Letter of Complaint to South West Trains

2007-02-01T11:11:00.000Z

It's not original, but my complaint to South West trains for this morning's appalling bus replacement service!!!

I would like to complain about today's replacement bus service from Fr... to F..... I arrived at Fr... today at 07.10am. The bus was late arriving. It then took 1 HOUR 20 MINUTES to get to F.... This is normally a 20 minute train journey. While I appreciate that buses take longer than trains, I did not expect it to take so long. The revised timetable says that the replacement bus service will arrive into F... at 8.09am. However, I arrived at F... at 8.55am making me very late for work (I still had to wait for the train to W...!)

Such gross estimation of the timetable is inacceptable in my book. I understand the works need to be done, but the replacement bus timetable is wildly inaccurate !! I am an annual gold card holder, and I feel this service that I have already paid for is not acceptable. Tomorrow I shall have to drive to work, as I assume the bus will take equally as long, and I cannot be late for work again. Therefore, I shall have to incurr petrol and parking costs.

Furthermore, my train yesterday (07.33 from Fr...n) was cancelled with no notice, and no replacement bus service was offered to take us to our destination. Again, yesterday, I was very late for work.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Girl on a Train

First Essay Complete

2007-01-29T16:44:00.000Z

It’s been a bit quiet on the blogging front recently. Work has got a bit busier and has occupied my working time (quite rightly!)

The good news is that one of my four essays for my Diploma in Commuting is now complete. One down and three to go. This first essay was actually the easiest. This is why I have completed it so quickly and with only a tiny bit of discomfort.

Congratulations to me!

Late getting home

2007-01-19T15:00:00.000Z

I finish work at 5.00pm. I didn’t get home until quarter to eight last night. As a result of the wind, the trains were well and truly buggered up. Last night at the train station was an example of how to operate crowd management. Trains kept terminating at the station that would otherwise carry on, and more and more people were being filtered onto the platform, all waiting for one train. Then we all got on that one train. Jammed in like beans and stuff.

I don’t know how, but I succeeded in getting a seat.

Then the train conductor announced that it wasn’t going where everyone thought it was going. So loads of people got off with a lot of huffing and puffing. I remained on the train as it was still going to where I needed.

Then the train conductor changed his mind, so everyone got on again. People who had lost seats by getting off were not pleased.

And then, the conductor changed his mind AGAIN and this time there was swearing from passengers.

The whole time, I just sat there with my head in my book trying to distance myself from the entire situation. For once, it is not South West trains’ fault for trees breaking all over the place. I’d rather get home late than be involved in a derailment. So I settled into Two Lives and that was that for the next 2.25 hours.

South West Trains Website buggered

2007-01-18T16:30:00.000Z

What an annoyance - how am I meant to tell what time I'm going to get home ?!

Grrrrrr

Blowin' in the Wind

2007-01-18T12:27:00.001Z

I think High Winds are exciting yet scary. There’s something quite humbling about being nearly blown off your feet by something so powerful. It makes you realise how small and little we are in comparison to Mother Nature. I quite enjoy listening to powerful winds from the safety and comfort of an indoor place.

On the other hand, high winds can be extremely frightening and dangerous. You only have to look at the headlines on the breakfast news to realise the tragedy that high winds can evoke.

On the train this morning, there was a tree that had fallen over the track. It hadn’t fallen in a way that meant we couldn’t pass, though. The train driver braked sharply (as sharp as you can brake with a train which doesn’t do anything quickly) but then made the decision to barge through the tree with his big train. It worked, but the tree knocked against the side of the entire train as the train passed. It was a bit like when you go past low-hanging trees when you are sitting on the top deck of a double-decker bus. Bang bang knock crack – right on the window by your face.

The sea goes mad when it is windy. It crashes right against the walls of the coast and sprays sea water all over the place. It’s very exciting, but today they have closed off the road that runs parallel to the sea for fear of flooding. Plus, I am told that salt water is no good for a car’s bodywork.

I hope everyone is coping well with the wind today!

A Diploma in Commuting

2007-01-17T09:50:00.000Z

I have a fresh train challenge. I am going to endeavour to write four essays in six months. Now, that might not sound like too bad a challenge. That’s what university students up and down the country are doing whilst also maintaining their daily lie-in. However, my challenge is to do these four essays on top of full-time work and 2 hours of commuting a day.

Why?

Like many industries, mine has a ‘Diploma’ qualification that takes three or so years to achieve. I have completed years one and two. I then moved jobs and moved down to the bottom of the country (only bottom in geography, not in quality of location!) and swiftly forgot all about the third year as I grappled with the new politics and procedures of my new work place.

New year resolution was to get back on track with this qualification. I then found out that the awarding body are now phasing out this qualification for a different one which is pretty much the same except for the title. This means that if I do not complete the final stage (4 assignments) before June 2007, I lose the work already started and have to re-qualify.

How ridiculous is this?!

However, I have always been someone who strives to work to deadlines. There is nothing like a speedily approaching closing date to get your butt into action.

And so, I have commenced what I call ‘Operation Commuter’. The essence of this plan is to complete as much work on my four essays as possible while travelling on the train. I have two hours a day where I sit there doing nothing much except read, sleep and think. Therefore, if I use this time productively, I could get myself a Diploma in no time at all.

So, I started this week. It’s hard. People keep on sitting next to me so I have to reshuffle my bags and extra papers and place them under my seat. I try to concentrate but I keep wanting to sleep (especially on the evening journey). I am most productive in the morning before hoards of people get on at a stop on my journey. I have written about 4 or so pages (handwritten of course) which seems a good start. However, it’s been years and years since I attempted to write an essay by good old fashioned pen and paper methods. At university I would do the whole thing on a computer – right from first thoughts all the way through to completed document. It makes editing much easier. Already my papers are full of scribbles and crossings out. It’s messy.

Once I’m happy with what I have written down on paper, I am going to attempt to put all of it into work on my little handheld thing. A slightly lengthy process as there is no keyboard as such, but at least it means I don’t have to do it at home.

Well, I’ll keep you posted as to when I give up with this process and just take it all home with me!

Football Fans

2007-01-16T10:04:00.001Z

Football fans. Why do they consistently match the formulaic representation of hooligan football fans when they get together? They are, in all probability, all regular, well-balanced individuals with a steady family life and a good job in the real world. Once they convene in a group though, they just turn into monsters. There seems to be something quite primeval about a troupe of men together in honour of eleven men kicking a ball around. I was blessed to encounter a pack of football fans on the train on the way home last night. When they stepped into the carriage they were swiftly followed by the stench of stale beer on their breath. There is nothing worse than smelling beer from another’s breath, especially in confined quarters.

They are even worse than the teenagers for yelling and bawling at each other. Yet another group who fail to understand that it is not necessary to shout at each other when just sitting opposite one another.

Can’t you tell I’m trying to sleep!?

Too many cooks spoil the broth

2007-01-15T11:57:00.000Z

Another week commences.
What is it about Mondays during the winter that is so substantially dismal?
This morning I was even more befuddled than normal when the alarm went off. I truly thought it was Sunday morning and I felt enormously bad-tempered that the radio had switched itself on at the weekend.
And then I remembered.

I have noticed that, since the return to work in January and the onset of various engineering works and problems with the trains, that there are colossal numbers of South West Trains staff patrolling the platform of the station where I board the train. There are literally swarms of them in coats and high-visibility jackets. They just stand around in groups of three or four, chatting amongst themselves and generally taking up a lot of space on the platform. I can’t quite grasp why there are so many. Are they members of staff who have been displaced from other stations where there is only a bus service? But what is their function? They don’t talk to customers. There are just a couple checking tickets, and sadly the free-tea man has disappeared. The rest seem to be wasting time for no apparent reason, having a laugh with their hands in their pockets. Perhaps it is for show – ‘look we know the service is rubbish for those of you who have the misfortune to step onto one our 1970s replacement bus services, but there are loads of staff about to help you get on the bus and to answer any questions.’ Yeah, loads of staff. Too many staff !!

Have you noticed how the replacement bus services now have South West Trains branding on them? They recognise that they need to use them so often that they have taken the decision to actually invest in some and paint them red and yellow and whatever other colours are in the branding. Good thinking there. But not very reassuring for lowly passengers like me.

On another point, I read an article today about how trains are the new work place. Apparently you can adjust the work/life balance by working on the train instead of/as well as in the office. This can save the amount of time you spend at work. Nevermind the issues of privacy and teenagers hurling abuse at each other, and people peering over your shoulder (I always do this when someone sits next to me with a laptop. I’m just nosy, but I might learn something interesting. Plus I like to see what people do for a living and stuff like that. I also like to see what books people are reading, and then I feel especially smug if I have already read that one.)

So, perhaps I should use the little handheld thing more often? Or I could just sleep.

There's a tree stuck under a train

2007-01-11T11:07:00.000Z

You’ve got to feel affection for high winds and slashing rain. Especially when you are leaving your house at the magnificent hour of 7.00am to be faced with hair-messing gales and rain beating on your face horizontally.

There is nothing better than lying in bed listening to the fine tones of the rain hitting your attic window, listening to the wind whistling around the house, and knowing full well that you have just 30 minutes to get your sorry self out into that weather.

As I opened the car door after BF gave me a lift to the station on the way to work, the malevolent wind nearly yanked the car door right out of my hand and blew it away. Nearly.

As I stood on the station platform waiting for my train, the impatient wind did a good job of finishing off the blow-dry that I didn’t have time to complete. And also giving me a ‘just-stood-on-a-station-platform-for-too-long’ kind of look.

However, I should count myself blessed.

I got on my train, into the relative warmth.

We were then told that there was a tree jammed under the next train at H…. so there was little chance of us moving in the near future. As I looked out of my train window, I could see the gloom on people’s faces as they shivered in the wind, trouser legs rippling like flags against people’s legs. I settled down smugly in my seat with my new book, Vikrem Seth’s ‘Two Lives’ , and promptly removed myself from the situation.

After just 25 minutes of waiting at the station ( I thought it was going to be longer actually) we finally moved off and began the journey.

I swiftly fell asleep.

A colleague was not so lucky. She had to spend those 25 extra minutes standing on a platform with NO shelter, quivering under a tiny compact umbrella that proved quite useless when faced with horizontal rain.

So, I am quite lucky really.

What's the Worst That Could Happen?

2007-01-10T11:37:00.000Z

Oh dear.
Superdrug are doing 2 for 1 on my favourite beverage.
This is the fizzy drink that will cure all hangovers (well, all of mine anyway), perk me up when I need it, cheer me up, give me energy, and quench my thirst. The taste is divine. A glimpse of the beautiful red and white logo makes me squirm with pleasure.
Quite sad but true.

Feeling a bit thirsty on the train home? Pulling this out of the handbag will always make the train journey better.

Yes, it’s Dr Pepper, the finest fizzy drink in this land, oceans better than its rival Coca Cola, and equally as bad for your teeth.

So now I come back from the shops at lunchtime with not one, but two, portions of bottled delight.

This is not good, I’m very sorry Mr Dentist.

The End of the Free Tea Week

2007-01-09T10:28:00.000Z

This morning I felt a twinge of withdrawal as the position where the jovial chappy usually stands with his trestle table and free tea was vacant this morning. Just the ghost of free beverages remains in our hearts and minds.

Have they decided that they have been nice enough already? Now they can continue to get away with crowded platforms and bus replacement services because they gave us one week of tea?

I, fortunately, am not affected by the bus replacement service. It begins at the stop I get off at. There must be nothing worse than finishing off an already over-long journey with a cold, damp trip in a 1970s double decker bus that only sees the light of day for ‘rail replacement services’ these days.

I have now had three scammers from Nigeria try to con me into sending my phones to them. Three! Each time I report the incident to Ebay. They respond with a polite message and sympathies. But they can’t do anything about it. It is a waste of time! Ok, I haven’t fallen for it, so at least I didn’t lose my item. But it completely undermines the very value that the success of ebay is based upon. Trust!

Rah.

I am reading ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ at the moment. It’s very light. The plot is not dissimilar to ‘Ugly Betty’ on C4. I shan’t remember a word of what I’ve read when its finished. But it keeps me entertained on the train at least!

A Rant About Ebay

2007-01-05T16:47:00.000Z

I thought I would take the opportunity with this blog to write about something non-train related and it could be valuable to readers if you ever sell anything on Ebay, or if you know someone who does. Perhaps you have come across this scam before, perhaps not. However, read ahead if you have ever/intend to sell something on Ebay.

(Plus I do enjoy a good rant and am feeling slightly smug for spotting the scam immediately and not falling for it, thank god)

Being as money conscious as I (and indeed many people are after Christmas) am at the moment, I decided to sell my free upgrade from my mobile phone contract rather than actually use it. If I used it, I would only lose it, scratch it, and subsequently get upset. It’s a very swanky phone actually. My upgrade was a Nokia N73, about 20 models above the model I currently have. However, I am happy with my phone and simply don’t see the need to have yet another piece of expensive technology in my handbag. (Hey, I already have an I-POD Nano and a Personal Handheld Computer thing. Now this too?? I think not) So I decided to sell it. I listed it on Ebay with a starting price £150.00 and a BUY IT NOW price of £220. (from looking at Ebay, some people actually are mad enough to pay these prices!)

Within hours someone had done ‘Buy it Now’. I was pleased that the phone had sold so quickly. I was doubly please that someone was prepared to buy it for £220 straightaway.

BUT. It was a con. A scam. A cheat. Fraud. B@stard.

The ‘buyer’ emailed me requesting I send the phone to Nigeria. He sent me a fake email from Paypal saying the funds had been transferred into my account.

What a scam. Apparently, what happens is this:

They send you a ridiculous story about how they are based in USA/UK but they really need you to send the phone to Nigeria to their daughter/boss/uncle/vicar etc.
They send you a fake e-mail claiming to have paid the money into your PayPal account
You think the money is in your account.
You dispatch the phone all the way to Nigeria.
You never get any money.
You can’t trace where the phone has gone.
Item gone.
Money nowhere.

Incidentally, I tried selling another phone on Ebay on the same day. A Motorola L6. I bought it and decided I didn’t like it, so I am now selling it.

Exactly the same thing happened. A scammer asking me to send it to Nigeria and ensuring they would THEN pay the money into PayPal. How stupid do you think I am?!

But apparently people have fallen for it. You can read their sorry stories on this website..

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=400134549&tstart=0&mod=1167122809873

And here is the ridiculous e-mail he sent me:

Thank you for notifying me about this item i won and I want to inform you that i have paid suficient money for the shipment to my son address in West Africa immediately i won your item, and it has been deducted on my account.The item is meant to be a christmas gift but as i am unable to to meet up i am making it new year gift.I would have sent it myself but i am out of town for An AID'S/ HIV CAMPAIGN RESEARCH.And i want you to send the item to him on time because i want him to receive it ASAP for New year gift purpose that is why i will want fast shipment to his place through Royalmail 1st class Service.I have paid GBP 40 for the shipment.T

his is his shipping address below:Name: Jide RichardAddress: 65 Ogunleti StreetCity: OjotaZipcode: 23401State: LagosCountry: Nigeria.Awaiting your fast response to ship when you get confirmation of the payment.Regards.

How DOES he sleep at night?!

Late Again.

2007-01-05T10:54:00.000Z

Boo hoo
I have realised why South West Trains are being overwhelmingly thoughtful and charitable to me in the mornings by benevolently providing tea and coffee free of charge.

Engineering works means that all services are being delayed by a few minutes here and there.

Normally I don’t object too much about this in the morning. I get to work over 30 minutes earlier than I should do according to my payroll. However, this allows me lots of flexibility with train times and delays, and I can grant myself an unhurried saunter from the station to the office as opposed to a power-walk of stress.

On the way home, though, I require a train that arrives on time and delivers me to my destination on time.

I do not want to wait an extra half an hour on my train as it waits patiently just 10m away from the station I need to get off at, while we wait for the green light. This is what happened last night. I was not pleased.

As the train chugged closer to my intended station, I had put my book away (Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’ is the current read) and had checked my phone for the last time before shoving it into my handbag and zipping it up. I had rearranged my scarf around my neck in preparation for the 11 minute walk home. I was ready to go.

And then we stopped. For 35 minutes. I wanted to bang on the doors and say ‘please let me out – I can walk up the track if need be. I don’t want to wait here for this silly train. Oh, signal failure you say? Who needs a signal to say you can go?! You can SEE that the platform is clear!’

As a result, I got home nearly 40 minutes later than I normally do. Which is a shame as it makes the evening feel sooooooo short.

I attempted to comfort myself with watching a bit of the new Celebrity Big Brother on C4. What a total pile of cr@p and who are all those people anyway? I seem to remember saying this last year and ending up absolutely loving the programme, to my shame. Who knows- maybe that will happen this year. maybe not. However, CBB did not provide much comfort to me. I imagine I’ll be arriving late home every night in January. January is when the engineering works are being engineered. Expect delays. No kidding.

New Gadget and more Freebies

2007-01-03T10:35:00.000Z

To my delight this morning, the free tea and coffee was back. Today however, South West Trains were slightly more enterprising than yesterday. Instead of simply supplying free drinks, they have diversified into selling newspapers and cookies too. They are hoping that, in receipt of a free hot drink from them, we may also be tempted into purchasing some reading material or some sugary snack. Such inspiration. You can’t teach it.

Today, I had a new-fangled gadget on the train to play with. A handheld computer thing. I’m not really certain what it is technically called. You can do Microsoft Office on it and access the internet (if there is a wireless network somewhere). I spent the first half of my journey tapping on it with the little baton and looking tremendously accomplished. I intermittently do some freelance translation work in my spare time for a company that I used to work for when I was a student. So, the aim of this new gadget is so that I can do it while I am on the train. Using my time wisely.

As my BF pointed out, this could come in useful.

At £12/hr, you could earn 48weeks*(50/60)minutes*5days*2per day =400hrs, *£12/hr = £4800 over the year if you charged for all your travelling time. After tax, that's £3744, which puts you £2144 in pocket after paying for your fare. Ker-Ching!

That would be nice. Very nice. Unfortunately, the freelance translation work is not quite frequent enough to allow for such a profitable extra income.

But it is a nice gadget.

Happy New Year.....back to it

2007-01-02T10:22:00.000Z

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.

A week off work - the Christmas holiday!

2006-12-24T15:07:00.000Z

Hoorah – a week off train travel!! And one week to prepare my finances for the abrupt shock of the gold card lump sum. What do you want for Christmas? Money please !!!!
No, only kidding – I managed to persuade my company to bestow on me a season ticket loan

It’s not something they normally offer actually, but I think they took pity on me as their furthest traveling employee! Can you believe that? Silly me travels the furthest to work of anyone in the company (about 50 people), as far as I know. This must mean there is something wrong with me, surely. I’m never the person to be ‘the most…’ anything, or ‘the least…’ so this has come as a bit of a surprise.

Anyway, seasons greetings to anyone reading this. I trust you all enjoy the time off work. Make the most of having a decent lie-in (if you are lucky) and not having to go to the office.

Is anyone working over the Christmas period? I’m lucky enough to have the whole time off as the office shuts down. However, in my last job in London, the office opened for two days between Christmas and New Year so you could choose whether to take the time off or not. Needless to say, both Christmases that I worked for that company, I decided to take the opportunity to get out of the house and go to work, where we sat around in the morning chatting, and then went to public house at lunchtime where we stayed for the rest of the day. Taxing stuff huh. The sensible option to saving annual leave for when you really need it! However, back then I was fortunate enough to be relatively close to my place of work. Not so easy to work inbetween Christmas and New Year when you are visiting relatives half-way across the country !

Annual Season Ticket Woes

2006-12-21T09:55:00.000Z

Boo hoo

After three months of buying monthly rail cards, I have decided I need to commit to my train commuting lifestyle. I need to acknowledge that this is my fate in life for at least the next year. I shall no longer be in denial about it and pretend that this is merely a provisional situation and that I shall actually be moving to live just 5 minutes away from my workplace.

I shall purchase an annual season ticket

A gold card eh? That makes it sound rather elite, as if I will be a member of a very select club that only very special and exceptional people are qualified for.

Right?

And then I enquired at the train station as to how many British Pounds it will cost me.

Eeeeek.

How on earth can they validate charging so much? I know I would actually end up paying more than that if I continue to pay monthly, but still! If I pay them that much in one go, it is as if I am saying to them, ‘look here, it’s ok if you persist in providing a crap service to me, it’s not as if I can do anything about it since I’ve already paid you well in advance. You have already banked my money and are reaping the interest from it. There’s nothing I can dooooo’

And another problem. Where am I going to uncover that sum of money from in a lump amount? So, a humble trip to Accounts is in order I think!

But, at least I get a little ticket that says ‘Gold’ on it. Hehe. That makes me special.

Big Grin

2006-12-19T09:20:00.000Z

When I travel on the train to work, I step into my little cocoon. My world of books and sleep. An occasion to catch up on sleep and thoughts before I get off at my stop and enter into the real world of work. The train is a place where I am a nonentity; nobody knows me (well, except for chance encounters) and I can simply escape into my own little world for a time.

Sometimes, as I have frequently mentioned, I nod off on the train. Perfect. I never go to bed early enough anyway. What better opportunity to catch up on sleep while travelling to and from work?

Every so often, when I fall asleep, my mouth drops open slightly. We all do it. It occurs when you fall asleep whilst in an upright position. It’s the uncomplicated law of gravity that Sir Isaac Newton himself ascertained. Just substitute that apple with my drooping chin, and voilà ! Gravity explained!

If I attach this picture of gravity in my post above left, will you think I’m clever?

**************************

Anyway, there I was one evening after a lengthy, arduous day at work, sitting on the train. My head began to loll a little to one side. My hands began to feel weak, so I put my book away. Indeed, the hands are usually the first signs that I’m feeling drowsy. It begins to feel like too much of a hardship to continue to hold the book up, my hands are feeble and they want to relax. My eyes get weary. My eyelids droop. I begin to relax even more. And before you know, you’re asleep.

You stay in blissful sleep until you wake up, gather your things and get off the train. And that’s all you know of it.

Except, I forget that two of my colleagues often take the same train as me.

There is no justification for forgetting. From time to time we appear at the station at the same time after work and travel part of the way home together.

So, once I had put my book away, leaned my head back and started to sleep, that was it, I was gone.

The next day at work, one of my colleagues came laughing into the office and said to me,

“what were you thinking last night?”

“Pardon? Erm….[slightly embarrassed]…what do you mean?” I stammered. I didn't think I was going to like where this was going.

“On the train last night. I was going to come and take a seat with you but I saw you were asleep. Your head was back and you had this HUGE grin on your face while you were sleeping. [does an impression of my huge grin]”

“Oh my god”

“it was very funny, I thought ‘she must be having some very nice thoughts'”

He has managed to pass this slightly embarrassing story around to a few people now, to general hilarity.

I should try and be more careful about who is around me before launching into ‘anonymous train commuter’ mode shouldn’t I?

Terrible Teenagers Talking on the Train

2006-12-18T09:31:00.000Z

Ah, the week prior to Christmas.

Finally!

At this time last year, when I was residing in London and taking the charming Northern Line to work everyday, I noticed a distinct plummet in the numbers of people squeezing themselves into moist, condensation-filled tube trains every morning. It seemed that the Christmas period had encouraged masses of people to take the last week before Christmas off work. As a result, the tubes were a fair bit quieter than average.

Consequently, I have anticipated seeing a similar outcome on the South West Train that I now take into work every morning.

More maths:
fewer people+quieter trains=happier sleeping me.

This is not the case. This morning, the train was crammed full of over-excited, adolescents and their hormones shouting and squealing, and generally talking at the tops of their lungs in a carriage full of people who really don’t deserve such an aural beating.

It is almost as if the Christmas period has had the reverse effect on teenagers. They are all turning up to school/college this week (probably because there is less work and more partying) and getting incredibly energised by it. I can’t understand why a collection of teens need to shriek at each other in the morning on the train. But there you go.

Perhaps this is the first sign of many that I am now, legitimately, a ‘grown-up’. It makes me cantankerous and grouchy to see these youngsters having fun in the morning. It annoys me. I wish they would just turn the volume down on their loudspeaker vocal chords and sit quietly in their seats, just as I do.

So, perhaps it is January I need to wait for in order to witness a slump in commuter numbers. In January, these teenagers may not feel quite as chipper in the mornings and, here’s praying, actually sit down and shut up.

Oh dear. I’m grumpy.

Saying that though, the office gossip this morning from Friday’s Christmas festivities have perked me up a little. You’ve got to love inappropriate behaviour amongst work colleagues haven’t you? Not me, that is. But witnessing it is extremely amusing indeed.

I also enjoyed a rather drunken ride home on the train on Friday evening after the party. On a lovely quiet train with no teenagers bawling at each other.

And I’m ashamed of it now, in the cold light of Monday morning, but on Friday night in my drunkenness, I even put my feet up on the seats…..

Bumping into someone while suffering from a hangover..

2006-12-15T10:46:00.000Z

Today I bumped into someone I knew on the train platform. I’m new to the area (well, three months now) so this sort of thing doesn’t occur very frequently. It was a surprise to notice one of my old childhood’s friend’s uncles standing alongside me.

Considering it was the BF’s work Christmas Party last night and I still had to awaken at 6.30am this morning, I wasn’t feeling in a remarkably social disposition. I would rather not have seen someone I knew this morning to be frank. I would rather have slumped into my uncomfortable carpeted train seat and fallen asleep as swiftly as possible, wallowing in the depths of my hangover and universal tiredness.

However, I had to appear alert and make dialogue. Under normal circumstances, I am happy, even slightly ecstatic to see someone I know in this new town of mine. Today is not a normal circumstance. I was already hung-over this morning and was on my way to work to do more drinking still. It was all I could do to muster up the motivation to sound alive and, dare I say it, intelligent.

Not sure how I fared on that one. Hopefully, he didn’t notice. Fortunately his stop was about halfway along my journey, so I had at least half a journey to catch up on sleep.

Off to the Christmas lunch in 1 hour 15 minutes. Merry Christmas!

How do I wake up on the train at the right time every morning?!

2006-12-14T10:58:00.000Z

In the spirit of Christmas merriment resulting in a higher level of mundane chitchat at work, some people today were enquiring, ‘how on earth do you sleep on the train? I just couldn’t, I would be so fearful of missing my stop.’

This led me to consider.

Somehow, everyday without fail, when the train pulls into my destination, I awake. I return from my peaceful slumber to the harsh reality of the working day. I don’t know how I comprehend in my sleep that it is my stop. I just do. I don’t think it is a consequence of the train stopping, because I sleep through previous stops without difficulty. There is just something that tells me, ‘Right, I’ve spent nigh on 58 minutes in this seat now. It’s time to wake up.’

There’s no science to it. Perhaps that is the vaguely worrisome thing about it. No science. No system. Therefore, there is every likelihood that, one day, the system fails. I’ll sleep past my train stop and end up in Waterloo.

Now for the maths bit....

If I continue to do this commute for, let’s say, 5 years (god help me) then that’s about 1,165 train journeys. Let’s say the chances of me sleeping in is a 0.5% chance (pretty insignificant if you ask me). However, that means I’m going to sleep past my train stop 6 times! Bugger!

This is the problem you see. My train stop is not at the end of the line. Indeed, it’s far from it. If I stay asleep, it could well be a misfortune that means I miss half the morning’s work. Obviously, that would be dreadful. I love work in the mornings! However, I’d need to produce a sparkling explanation as to why I was late. I think ‘I overslept on the train’ would only induce ridicule and, well, that’s hardly professional is it! :-)

It’s not even like I stir whilst the train is on its way between the stop before mine, and my stop. No, that would be too dependable. I awake once the train has already stopped and people are already queuing up to get off. I then hastily seize my bag, rub my eyes clear of sleep, and join the queue, to the restrained amusement of some of my fellow passengers who observe my rushed jumping up from my seat.

Perhaps I should set an alarm? ….

Christmas party number one tonight !!!

The Annual Work Christmas Party and My Fears for Drunkeness

2006-12-12T16:00:00.000Z

Work Christmas Parties.

You’ve got to love them really. Mine is on Friday. It will be my first party with this company as I joined in September. I’m looking forward to it, even if some of the more cynical amongst my colleagues are not. All the “youngsters” are though! It’s free drink, a free afternoon off work, and an extremely fine opportunity to get to know the people I spend everyday with a lot better!

From what I hear, it promises to be a really drunken affair. Nothing new there then. What else do you expect from a party with limitless supplies of free alcohol?

The slightly bad thing is, I have my boyfriend’s work Christmas party to go to the evening before my one (which is a daytime turning into an evening bash, so it’s an early drinking start)

So, I am going to TRY not to drink too much at the BF’s party (as if) so that I can still raise my weary head at 6am to get the train to work to go to another party.

I can just tell this is going to be a disaster.

I tend to drink quite a lot when I’m in a slightly awkward situation. I think the BF Christmas Party just might count as one of these situations. Standing around with a group of people I don’t know, who don’t know me, and making random conversations all night long.

And then, once I have decided to leave my own Christmas party (which I can tell is not going to be until late – I never am good at leaving a party early), I can battle with the trains home again. Whilst drunk. Perhaps I’d better make sure that I don’t go home steaming drunk during rush hour. I’m also fearful of some kind of incident on the train. Such as being sick. At least there are loos.

I had a friend who was once just sick in her lap on a packed train of commuters from London. She then had to sit there with everyone screwing up their noses in distaste at her foul behaviour. I really would rather not do that. I have already thrown up in the car this month. Not a good thing to do. Especially not if you put your head out of the window but forget to look backwards… if you understand me.

Anyone would think I didn’t want a Christmas party ?! I dooo !!! Just not two in a row !!! I’m not hardcore !!!

The delights of the M27 - suddenly, South West Trains don't feel too bad.

2006-12-11T09:40:00.000Z

From some of my previous posts, anyone would think that I do not like my daily train journey. It’s a struggle, a bore, a pain, tedious, monotonous, irksome etc

Well, I’ve changed my mind.

I LOVE THE TRAIN IN THE MORNING! It is by far the best way to commute to work. It’s fast, comfortable and you can do other things whilst you get smoothly taken to your chosen destination. Hell, you can even sleep.

Why the change in attitude?

I drove to work this morning.

If I thought taking the train for 58 minutes was bad enough, I was sadly mistaken. Spending 2 hours in the car this morning with only Radio 1 for company while I endlessly release the clutch for just a few meters of first gear bliss, was one of the most stressful ways to get to work.

Despite leaving the house at 7.10am I was still 10 minutes late to work (start time is officially 9am). Plus, I was bursting for the loo, something which I have mentioned that always seems to happen to me in the car in my very first post.

By all costs, avoid the M27 and the M3 in the mornings. What a drag!

I can’t wait to get back on to the trains tomorrow!

Being Stuck on the Train

2006-12-08T13:28:00.000Z

A small number of you commented on my post ‘The Day a Stranger Asked Me Out (On the Train)’. It seems there are many of you with experiences of random (frequently drunken) conversations with people on the lengthy commute. It’s quite a strange environment, the train. The perfect writer’s device for building a plot. You know, the one where people are stuck in a strange situation/place that they can’t get out of and so therefore are forced to talk to each other eventually and all of the old social barriers that mattered in the life before no longer matter.

It reminds of a French text I studied years ago in A Level French, ‘Boule de Suif’ (Guy Maupassant). This short story revolves around a group of people thrown together in Wartime France (Franco-Prussian war of 1880s) attempting to escape the country in a ferry from Le Havre. For a reason that now eludes me they ended up sitting in an immobile horse and carriage for ages and had to strike up conversation with each other eventually. It turns out that one of the passengers is a former prostitute. A former prostitute in a carriage-full of vicars, mayors, businessmen and their wives. Naturally her status in life does not go down well with the bourgeoisie of nineteenth century small town France. She was accordingly alienated from the group.

I think she ended up sleeping with the Prussian guard in order to save their sorry lives, despite their petty attitudes in the face of danger during the war. A classic tale of wrongful assumptions, the underdog saving the day etc. Sorry if I have just thoughtlessly given away the plot there!

I’m trying to think of other novels where the plot revolves around being stuck in a strange situation with a group of people you otherwise would not spend time with. Can you think of any?

Anyway, the comments to my post (back to the topic!) got me thinking about talking on the train, an enclosed environment, and how this is generally deemed to not be a good idea for varying reasons!

And then I remembered something my Mum telling me about her ‘Train Gang’. She used to commute into London everyday. A 40-minute journey (not as long as mine now, Mum!) that she used to call (in a far from affectionate manner), ‘The Journey to Hell’. On that commute, over the years, she began talking to the people she saw everyday on the same trains. Her reasoning was, ‘it just gets a bit embarrassing to see the same people all the time, making eye contact sporadically, yet still to never actually utter any words to each other!’

They built up quite a solid comradeship as the years and train miles passed. I think there were about 5 of them. A couple of men, a trio of women. One by one, they stopped travelling on the train for various reasons (redundancy, change of location, general knackeredness) but they still meet up today for ‘Train Gang’ meals and reminisce about those days on the trains. (good days, but according to Mum, mostly bad days).

She hasn’t been a train commuter now for about 6 or 7 years. Yet, she still meets up with them at the Café Rouge/ASK restaurant of choice each year. Incredible.

Does anyone else have a simliar experience?

And I baulk at the thought of even smiling at anyone on the train!

Flooding on the Line

2006-12-07T14:59:00.000Z

The line was flooded today. Fortunately, not at my station so I was able to get on the train into the warmth at least. Not like all those poor sods caught in the rain at their deserted, water-soaked stations wondering where the hell their train was. Typically, it was only those stations that don’t have any sheltered area to stand under that were affected. Nice.

Why can’t UK cope with any adverse weather conditions? A spot of rain and the entire transport network breaks down! Just a couple of months ago, the alarm buttons were frenetically being pressed because we don’t have an adequate supply of water following such a drought over the last year. Yes, we should be delighted to have all this rain come down and fill up our dehydrated reservoirs!

I’ve just read about a ‘tornado in London’ on the road where a friend of mine used to reside. Chamberlayne Road in Kensal Rise (my friend always used to assert it was Queen’s Park actually, but I can’t talk. I used to live in Brixton but insisted it was Clapham really). Strange times indeed. I suppose it is all to do with climate change. Or just another English winter finally starting (sadly)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6217514.stm

The South West Trains Book Club!

2006-12-06T12:44:00.000Z

Following on from my Harry Potter blog entry, it has started me thinking about what makes a good commuter book and a bad commuter book.

I think that travelling on the train to work daily and relying on reading a good quality book to get me through the journey has actually modified my reading habits in a couple of ways.

1.it has transformed me into more of a prolific reader. I now read about 2 or 3 books a month rather than 1 book every 2 or 3 months.

2. it has made me impatient with books that don’t grab my attention easily in a train journey. With things going on around me such as tannoy announcements, people sitting down next to me, listening reluctantly to people’s conversations, ticket conductors etc, it makes it harder to concentrate on the literary prowess of the book in hand

Point 1 is undoubtedly a positive thing that has come from my train commute.
Point 2 on the other hand, is not. I now necessitate a book that will grip me and is relatively undemanding to read.

So, no classics, no booker prize novels, no orange prize for fiction novels. I now need to veer more towards the Richard and Judy Book Club. Sometimes there is a cross-over between the two. But more often than not, there isn’t.

I don’t mind this. In fact, I rather enjoy the novels recommended to me by this celebrity-married couple. But it makes me alert to how the train has made me intolerant to a book that requires a morsel of thought. A bit of concentration.

I am currently reading Harry Potter (see below). I have recently read the following:

The Dice Man: Luke Rhinehart (not one for the train, a little sluggish in parts)
Perfect Match: Jodi Picoult (average. effortless for the train though)
Saturday: Ian McEwan (easy to read and somewhat engaging. Perhaps it is because this is a short book)
Jules et Jim: Henri Pierre Roche (a bit of a haphazard choice actually. Not one for the train. Perhaps more for French film buffs!)
A Sparrow Falls: Wilbur Smith (recommended by the BF. Perfect for the train. Easy to read, good hearty family saga type thing.)
The Glass Palace: Amitav Ghosh (another good read, although copious Indian/Malasian names make it hard to follow in parts)

Next on my list once I have finished Harry Potter is to be Daphne Du Marier’s ‘Rebecca’. Something tells me this will not be a particularly good ‘train read’, but I really want to read it all the same!

If anyone has any good suggestions for good commuting books, I would love to hear them.

The Day a Stranger Asked Me Out (on the train)

2006-12-05T11:18:00.000Z

I read a little piece on the Internet that reminded me of a rather startling train encounter I once had.

One man has written to some variety of Agony Aunt, in the form of Auntie Yahoo in this case.

He writes:
“What can you say to a girl on a train?
im in london and every day i get the tube to work or wherever..but i always seem to see pretty girls on the train..they look at me i look at them, but never know what to say..then i or she gets off and i never see her again!! what can i say with out looking stupid, or freaking her out?

I don’t truly think about this sort of thing on the train. I mean, I simply fall asleep, or sit there and read. Or think. Predominantly, I think. About things in my life. From time to time, I observe a handsome man here or there. But mostly not.

But this summer, I was taking the train into London and a strange thing happened. As I disembarked at Waterloo station, a man in a suit let me pass before him when queuing to get off the train. He then walked beside me as we all strolled/marched (*delete as applicable depending on whether you are late or not) down the platform towards the barrier. The bottleneck began and we had to slow down to a more leisurely pace as the mass of people got denser.

He turned to me and said,

“This is going to sound a bit strange, but can I have your number please?”

I was verging on the dense here. I think I knew what he might be getting at, but didn’t dare assume that would be the case. So I asked,

“Why?”

The poor guy. He most likely hadn’t realised he had selected someone who would insist on him spelling out his every objective. He looked a little flustered.

“Oh, well, because I think you are really attractive and I’d like to go for a drink.”

Wow! That doesn’t happen?! So, I said,

“No, sorry, you can’t have my number.”

I think I tried to smile to alleviate the blow. I mean, I do have a boyfriend after all.

“No worries.” Said he. And we parted company.

Easy.

I wondered to myself, ‘he is extremely courageous to ask outright for my number.’ I felt some sort of admiration for him kick in. I would never have the nerve (and neither the inclination to be honest) to do something like that.

And then, the other side of the coin presented itself to me.

‘Hang on,’ I thought, ‘if he asked me out and has taken the rejection so effortlessly, how many times does he do that? Every day does he pick out some unsuspecting female in the hope that, by asking many, one just might be audacious enough and, most importantly, single, and say yes? In fact, I’m not special at all. He does that everyday!”

It did give me a slight spring in my stride it has to be said. Coupled with the fact that I was on my way back to London having being offered a new job. Well, that made for a good day.

Harry Potter and The South West Train Journey

2006-12-05T10:01:00.000Z

I fell into a deep sleep this morning on the train.

I have 58 minutes to get comfortable, warm, and dozy and then fall into a beautiful slumber. I generally fall asleep about 20 minutes into the journey. I do my best not to. Honest. I don’t think it looks professional to turn up to work with bleary red eyes and, just maybe, a smear of dribble on my chin. But sometimes, no, in reality mostly, I just cannot resist that tender rocking of the train as I snuggle into my thick, warm winter coat.

I find it also depends on the book I’m reading as to how long it takes for me drift away into DreamLand.

I am presently reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I used to be a huge Harry Potter fan almost three years ago. I was one of those who got into it late and then manically read the first four books in one week. I then waited eagerly for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to be released. When it did, I read it whilst sunning myself on a beach as I was working in South West France at the time. Life was first-rate! In fact, I didn’t pay all that much attention to the book. I just kept being sidetracked by that damn beautiful sea. And there was the end of my Harry Obsession.

Before that, I once had a birthday party to celebrate my 22nd year with a Harry Potter themed bash. It was wonderful. I bought the soundtrack. I bought the piano score. For the party I invented an odd Sorting Hat game. I read the books in French while living in French Canada (hey, it was an excellent language exercise!) and then in English (again).

But the fifth book was long, dark, and too adult-like! So I only read it once (!) and somewhat instantly forgot the plot. Apart from remembering who died.

So now I’m onto the sixth book. I have to say I am enjoying it immensely after a three year break from all Harry Potter books. Although I struggle to remember the intricate plot details from Book 5.

In any case, Harry Potter 6 is one of those books that should, in theory, prolong my falling asleep on the train. Purportedly I am too engrossed in the book to think about feeling tired and warm. Although that didn’t work this morning.

J.K Rowling, you need to work on this!

Stockmarket?!

2006-12-04T17:13:00.000Z

Spending so much time on commuter trains (there’s the train-link, I have to get it in somewhere!) with dapper looking city-slickers in my old London days made me think… How can I find out about shares? The mystery that is the StockMarket.

As a relatively young female with only 2 or so years of working life under my belt, I’m hardly rolling in disposable, spare cash. So, what is the point in showing interest in the wonder of the stockmarket. Surely that is for big (they are always big in my mind for some strange reason), rich, confident, risk-taking types. Not me. Not me who saves a little a month, adapting a rather dedicated approach to finances rather than a flamboyant one. Why would I want to give up my averagely performing savings account for the perils of what is, essentially, gambling?

I don’t really I suppose. That’s why I have taken up the idea of Fantasy Shares. Yehha!!! MSN Money have given me one hundred thousand of her Queen’s pounds to play with to make me my fortunes and change me my life. Oh yesss..

So I’ve been doing it for about, um, er, three days now. Where’s my fortune?! The riches!? The success?! The offers of chairperson of large multi-conglomerates!?

Rats, I’ve gone and lost £169 so far without a smidgeon of satisfaction to go with the experience. Ok, I have picked 6 companies based on careful considering and pondering of the finest detail of the share performance charts and close monitering of how the FTSE100 has performed over the last three days.

Or not. I picked the company I work at, the company I used to work at, the company my boyfriend works at, a company whose name I like, and another company whose share value has dropped in the past month at such an alarming rate that surely it will come up to skyscaping levels in the (hopefully near) future and make me loads of money.

Ensured of success am I not?!

Oh, I’ve just found out it’s not real money………..

Life on a Train

2006-12-04T16:10:00.000Z

Well, I am tentatively entering into the well-documented world of the personal blog. I must remember a few things...
do not write about work do not write about work do not write about work do not write about work do not write about work
In fact, blogging came to my attention as a result of reading about the woes of certain bloggers when their blog turned from intimate musings to explosive life-changing incendary device.

I have (not very inventively) called my blog, "Girl on a Train" , simply because this is top of my mind as I create this page.

Yes, I spend a lot of my life on a train. Like many people do in the UK. The simple necessity of Full-Time Work means I get to sit on a train for 1 hour each way to get to the office (oops, mustn't mention work!) and spend 8 hours there and then sit on the train home.

Actually, that makes life sound rather dull doesn't it? Most people wince slightly when I tell them of my train journey. But you get used to it. You have to. In fact, I marginally enjoy it. I get to read books now. Lots of them. That certainly beats sitting in a car for 40 minutes getting more an more irate at the inadequacy of other drivers, or feeling frustration at the impending traffic jam. Or needing to use some facilities desperately, yet knowing you have at least 20 minutes on the road before you are home. In fact, there is nothing more annoying than that, and it seems to happen to me strangely frequently!

Ah yes, back to trains. Onboard facilities are the norm, so your hour-long journey doesn't turn into one of excrutiating pain/discomfort.

And then there are your fellow travellers. Each in their own world, just like I am, staring out of the window, or staring vacantly straight ahead, or sleeping, dribbling (often that is me) in sleepdom, engrossed in a good book, engrossed in a crap book, reading the paper, partaking in a spot of sudoku. It used to surprise me when I was a child that people would travel so far from home every day in order to get to work. My mother was a commuter for a time. I couldn't understand. And now here I am (for the second time in my relatively short career) spending over an hour to get to work.

And, damn, is it expensive! Probably one of the most expensive forms of travel in the UK, I estimate. You can fly to Manchester from London cheaper than you can take the train (maybe, I'm not sure about that, but it sounds good. I have been told this by a few people but have never bothered to check the verity of it). I'm not sure how train companies justify those prices. Some providers are particularly poor service. Fortunately, my provider is not too bad (so far, but I have only been doing this route for 2.5 months now. Not long enough for me to start assuming the current performance will develop into a trend) apart from my 'first week at the new job' scenario. More about that another time, I think.

If only the standard commuter train was like the train advertised on the Virgin Trains advert (You know, the ridiculous ad with the red indian riding alongside the train, supposedly attempting to steal the 'entrepreneur' type's notepad with million dollar making ideas written inside it. And then the red indian gets knocked to his death by the fast on-coming tunnel. Charming that is, Branson.) whereby you can sit there in comfort with a table to yourself, drinks poured at your demand and plenty of leg-room. Perhaps this is how it is in the exclusive 'First Class' carriage. Although not the First Class of my train provider, it looks just the same as 'standard' class, to me. Not worth the extra buck. Although perhaps a tad less crowded. Fortunately I am usually cunning enough to get a seat on my train. I never understand those people too afraid to ask people to move their damn bags (there's a shelf for those don't you know/) or budge up a little.

So, from the looks of this first blog, my life consists of exciting tirades against train companies... I can understand this may have made for a fascinating read. Hmmm.. Well, I promise to liven this up a bit. Perhaps less social commentary about train life huh?

2006-12-03T12:44:00.000Z