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 !
Sunday, 24 December 2006
Thursday, 21 December 2006
Annual Season Ticket Woes
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.
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.
Tuesday, 19 December 2006
Big Grin
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?
Monday, 18 December 2006
Terrible Teenagers Talking on the Train
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…..
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…..
Friday, 15 December 2006
Bumping into someone while suffering from a hangover..
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!
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!
Thursday, 14 December 2006
How do I wake up on the train at the right time every morning?!
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 !!!
Tuesday, 12 December 2006
The Annual Work Christmas Party and My Fears for Drunkeness
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 !!!
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 !!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
