chrishansenhome

I left work at 4:30 pm, intending to go to London Bridge and get some exercise by walking home from there. Got down into Canary Wharf Jubilee Line station, and there was a totally packed train standing there. Uh oh. It closed up and left, and I waited for the next train. Mind you, the display on the outside of the station said that we should be careful of slipping on the floor since it was wet. It didn't say anything about delays. Well, there was a signal failure at Finchley Road, about 10 stations away, and it basically closed down the entire line. After sitting on the train for a while, I decided to get off and go to the Docklands Light Railway and go to Bank station, then take a Northern Line train down to the Elephant. I actually was sick and tired of hearing the train driver's silly attempts to be light hearted and humourous about the situation; after all, he is in his cab and inaccessible and safe; the rest of us have to squeeze and squash our way around inside the car and just wanted information, not cheering up--it was too late for that.

Well, I got on the DLR train at Heron Quays, and we went one stop, to Canary Wharf DLR, when the train attendant (they don't have drivers, only a guard who sometimes looks at tickets and passes) said that because of a dead train ahead we would be going to Stratford instead of Bank. It's now 5:30 pm and I am pissed off.

I got off at Bow Church and walked about 3 blocks to Bow Road District Line Station and got on a District Line train to Ealing Broadway. We rolled along until just after Mansion House. We stopped. After about 10 minutes the train driver informed us that there was a defective train ahead of us and we would be waiting until the passengers discharged to move. We waited for about 15 minutes, and then crept into Monument station, where hordes of people were waiting for us. They all crammed in, and we crept from station to station, delayed at every stop by people who wanted to get on this already-packed train. I had a seat, but watching people try to treat the train door as a mosh pit really made me nervous and angry.

We finally got to Embankment, where I transferred to the Bakerloo Line which, miraculously, wasn't delayed at all, and finally got home at 6:30 pm. Two hours from the time I walked out of the client's door.

Pfui! as Nero Wolfe would say. Not that Nero Wolfe would ever get on an Underground train.

The upshot is that I didn't feel like cooking, so HWMBO went out and got Chinese food. I snapped at him all night; I couldn't keep from doing it--being grumpy and nerve-racked is hard to shake off. I am still angry. Years of underinvestment have produced this situation.

PFUI!!!

I really dislike the Christmas and New Year holiday season here in Ould Blighty. Everything shuts down or has morbidly shortened hours, so you never know when anything is open. Everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING!) shuts down for Christmas Day, with the exception of the corner stores owned and operated by Muslims. No public transport, no large stores, no nothing. Again, on New Year's Day, everything is shut. Today everything shut at 5 pm.

Tomorrow the world regains its equilibrium. Stores are open normal business hours. The shelves are almost free of Christmas junk. The first trayful of chocolate Easter eggs will be put out in Tesco's.

God's in her heaven, all's right with the world.