New Toys Have Arrived.

Well the Connect project has finally gone live on my line.
New hand held radios have been delivered, and much fun and games are about to ensue. These new hand held radios work between stations, and we can get information direct to all radios on the station and the whole line from the Line Controller and the Line Information Assistant.

But best of all, I can order my bacon sandwiches directly from Barry at the next station and vice versa.

Having A Blonde Moment.

I jumped on the 18:55 train home, and 50 minutes later, I was getting off at Wellingborough station ready for the 15 minute walk home.

As I patted my coat, I noticed two things.

Firstly, no noticeable bulge in the pocket of my work coat.
Secondly, no jingle of keys in any part of my work coat.

F**K

I rang work urgently, and asked the late turn Supervisor if I had left my keys on the table, he asked me if they had a Tesco's fob on them.

Double F**K.

Unfortunately, I have no spare key (which will be remedied tomorrow) so I had to travel all the way back to London, and then all the way back home again, finally getting home for 22:30.

Lazy Day

I've done sweet fa today, apart from play Half Life all day, and I'm serious.

13 hours on the PS2, what a way to while away the day.

Why Is It

On my days off, I will get

a) An early morning phone call.
b) An early morning knock at the door.
c) An early morning ring of the door bell.
d) All of the above.

Deepest Sympathies

My deepest regards go out to three of my colleagues, who have all suffered from a loss this week.

Tony, who has lost his ex-wife and the mother of his children, Barry who has lost his Grandmother, and finally Marlon, who has lost his Godfather.

My deepest sympathies go to all and your families.

Happy Being Dad.

One thing I love about these weekends with my kids, is that my son is a cuddly little bugger, and loves hugging me.

He loves seeing his dad, and last night was no different.

"Dad, can I sleep in your bed please?"

So I had the company of my son, tucked up in bed, asleep.

AS I got into bed last night, my son stirs in his sleep and say in a sleepy voice.

"Night dad, love you"

That brought a lump to my throat.

However later this morning around 7:30, my daughter climbed into bed as well.
So you have me stuck in the middle, son to my right, dsughter to my left.

My son got out of bed around 8ish to watch a bit of TV, so I promptly rolled over to get more space, and found myself sitting on the floor looking at my wardrobes.

My daughter is wetting herself with laughter, as her dad has just fallen out of the bed and almost got his head wedged between the bed and the bedside cupboard.

St Pancras Station

This is really the only thing I like about travelling home on late turns, well apart from the fact I'm going home.

St Pancras Station.

You walk into an old Victorian station which has just gone through a huge renovation, as you travel up the escalator, you get a wonderful view of a magnificent glass front.

I've often looked at these windows and marvelled at Victorian engineering.
As you look from the top of the escalators, you can see stretch out behind you the long roof, all this has taken around seven years to renovate, but it does look great when you're underneath it.

A Big Thank You

Has to be said to my ex-wife, for ringing me this morning and waking me up.

My first day off, and she picks my lovely first day off to call.

She will see me this afternoon when I collect my kids, if it was an emergency then fair enough, but a simple call about something for my son, it could have waited woman.

Argh.

A Funny Old Day.

Firstly, as I walked into the office, I was greeted to the sound of the Army Marching Band blaring out of the PC.

Colonel Clink was at work, and as he is an active T.A. member, he acts like the regimental (mental being the operative word) Sergeant Major.

He walks around the station like he is on parade, with his army ribbons attached to his work blazer, and his bum bag (or fanny pack to my american readers) present and accounted for.

It can sometimes be a bit embarrasing working with him, but if there was ever an incident and he was on duty.

You would find me elsewhere.

Secondly, I was chatting with Barry during the week about a young female who comes through my station, and as she is rather attractive, i said i was going to ask her out for a drink. He dared me to do at, so today I did, unfortunately I didn't count on her having another half, but she still said yes, if only, which all men know means.

Yeah right.

Thirdly, today was rag dag for the student nurses, with there short dresses on, stockings and high heals (and that was just the blokes), all I can say is two things:

No1, Phwooorh
No2, Tom Reynolds your a lucky bugger to see that every day.

Lastly, I have finally finished my long week of eight straight shifts, and as today is only a short shift I'm home early.

Adding stuff to my flickr account, having dinner, relaxing and enjoy the weekend off.

All I need to do now is make the journey to Southend and back TWICE over the weekend, as I have the lovely pleasure of my kids this weekend.

Some Bugger Got Me Back.

8:54 I was asleep.

one minute later, I wasn't.

Where I live is a school, and one of the lovely mummys, car alarm decided to start sounding.

8:55 beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep, 50 seconds later, silence.

8:56 beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep, 5o seconds later: silence.

8:57 beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep, 50 seconds later: silence.

8:58 beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep, 50 seconds later , silence.

8:59 beep beep bee, silence, hooray mummy has returned.

9:00 whooOOoohw whooOOoohw wooOOoohw whooOOoohw, arrgh that's the alarm on my phone.

Bollox time to get up.

The Silliness Of Me.

As the tedium of the night wore on and before the disappoint of failing my assessment began to get me down, I sat in the office and thought what can I do to relieve the boredom.

I know I shall record a silly sound on the digital voice recorder, so thats what I did.

The sound of me going aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa for at least ten seconds, had me chortling away to myself, to the point where I had to record it four times.

But worse was to come, instead of deleting the sound, I set it to play at 02:30 so it would scare the night man.

What a silly bugger I am, even typing this I can image the expression on the night mans face thinking what the f**k is that.

I'm wiping the tears off of my cheeks even as i think about it.

A Tad Pissed Off

As I arrived at work this afternoon, I opened up Outlook and there staring me in the face was an email from LUL Careers.

 

It said:

 

Thank you for attending an assessment for the position of Station Supervisor 1.

 

I regret to inform you that your application will not be progressed to the next stage of the process.

 

Each role has a unique set of competencies that all applicants need to demonstrate in order to be progressed to the next stage. This role of Station Supervisor 1 requires a level of competency that, unfortunately, on this occasion you did not meet. However, in our experience applicants increase their levels of competency as they gain more experience in their current roles, therefore we would like to reassure you that if you gain more experience you may reach the required level of competency in the future.

 

Experience, after almost 19 years working working for LUL and they don't think I have enough experience.

 

However I have said to a couple of colleagues, that I think I had fluffed it, but hey only another 6 months before I can apply again.

He's Given Birth

I popped down to see Barry for my meal break, however on arrival, as the door opened I was beaten around the face and nose by a horrendous odour.

 

A reserve Supervisor was at the station, and just before I arrived, he had gone for his daily pooh.

 

The stench almost knocked me off my feet and after asking him "what the f**k have you eaten"?

 

"Oh nothing past the normal, but i always have monster poohs"

 

Now there was two things about this conversation.

 

Firstly, the supervisor in question is normally a gentleman.

 

Secondly, I didn't think this man had the energy to have a monster pooh, however the image of him bashing his monster poohs with a stick did come to mind, as he declared that when he works at a different station, he goes to a special toilet on that station, not mine I hasten to add

Assessment Time

After a rather hectic night, I had the first part of my assessment.

It might only last 17 minutes, but my head has never been that taxed working in the real world.

The fact you have to use there terminology and not real Underground jargon didn't help.

Doing P.A's into a tape recorder and not into a microphone didn't help, It was information overload, a different scenario every minute to deal with.

In the real world, you don't normally get that sort of situation, the computer based training simulation, was really not very help full as by the time you had done a PA, written down information (and I'm not the fastest writer in the world), or anything else, you were into the next minute.

My head was frazzled, my face was red, my heartbeat was thundering along at a million beats a minute (OK just a tiny bit of a fib there, as I'd probably be dead now) and finally after 15 frantic minutes the examiner said , " You have two minutes to go over your assessment then it's pencil (see they don't even trust us staff with a pen you know) down please.

Thank you for attending, we will notify you by email within five working days weather you passed.

So that's it part one over and done with, fingers crossed I get through.

Then it was back to work as normal, and abusing Barry yet again.

Ear,Ear.

You might be wondering why on earth I have put a picture of my ear on my blog.

The reason, as I'm getting ready for my SS1 assessment, I have taken out my three earrings for the first time since I was 16, that's almost 24 years with my earrings in.

I can't wait to get home again, as I feel naked.

Water, Water Everywhere ...

... And Not A Drop To Drink.

I've had a pretty boring weekend incident wise, but last night that all changed.

As I sat at work, my mobile rang, my next door neighbours number flashed up.

"Hi" Says I

"Hi John, you have a problem, there's water pissing out your kitchen door, I looked in the window and your kitchens flooded".

I'm straight on the phone to the manager, and I'm in luck as it's one of the managers who will put himself out if there's a problem.

I'm on the way home by 20:00 and thanks to my neighbour meeting me at the station, I get home by 21:10.

As I stood out side my front door, I was dreading what I was going to find,

I walked into my sitting room and I wasn't even a third of the way in, when squelch.

Shit.

I switched off all my wall sockets from the mains and headed for the kitchen, Water was gushing out from behind my washing machine.

As I ripped the machine away from the wall I got sprayed by a fountain of water, the hose pipe leading to my washing machine has ruptured and there's water everywhere.

I looked at my flooded kitchen and drenched sitting room carpet, I thought,

"I wonder if there really is an International Rescue"?.

After a quick change, I'm now wading around the house in shorts, t-shirt, an aqualung, snorkel, flippers arm bands and a rubber ring.

So I after that I spent a pleasant evening brushing water out of my kitchen, mopping the floor, then came the fun part, a phone call to a mate of mine who works as a cleaner and has one of those huge industrial Vax machines, I started on the carpet but after a while realised I had a bigger problem.

The water has flooded the underneath of my sitting room floor, I ripped up a good part of the carpet, and lifted a floor board.

"Bollox"

I have at least nine inches of water under my floor.

I spent the next four hours or more with my hand under the floor using the hoover to suck up the water.

By 2am this morning, most of the water has gone, only little puddles under the floor, that I can't get too. My kitchen is gleaming, the carpet is spotless (whilst it was wet I washed it), Luckily the only thing that was slightly damaged was the front of a sofa, but once up against the radiator it soon started to dry out.

I would just like to thank Barry, Kate and James (especially for his text about an indoor swimming pool, but at least I can count Mr booking clerk) for their text's, sorry I didn't reply as I was a tad busy, and lastly my daughter for ringing me after having had only 3 hours sleep.

All I have to do now is ring the letting agents, and explain to them what happened, and then pass my SS1 assessment.

How To Suck Face And Live

During my lovely shift tonight, that's all I saw. It wasn't nice and it wasn't pretty

Couples sucking face until the were going blue and almost collapsing with exhaustion and palpitations.

But I did have a huge slapper (male and female) alert on the train home.

As I was waiting for my 23:15 train home, I noticed two women walking along the concourse towards the platform and just stop.

Looking over these two women were swaying with the breeze, and as there wasn't any wind, that was a neat trick.

One of these women stumbled forward and bounced off an an equally pissed bloke.

Next thing I know they're chatting away happily, and laughing and giggling.

The staff at St Pancras let us board the train and as there was so many inebriated people on the train, I fled towards the front of the train with a couple of the regular last train travellers. We all got a seat and sat down. Phew

The train departed on time, but 15 minutes later I decided to get the free coffees in, as I made my way to the bar, who came the other way but the stumbling female and the inebriated male.

As I ordered the coffees, but as I looked over at the pissed up couple and all I saw was a snog fest.

Fook me that's fast work on both there parts.

Tedium, Boredom and a Struggle.

That's three discriptions of the shift I've just had.

Tedium because nothing happened. Boredom because life went by the big square window of my office and still nothing happened, and a Struggle, because after a little while with tedium and boredom, I was struggling to stay awake.

I even fell asleep twice on the train home.

So no excitement, no nothing.

Oh well, maybe tomorrow night will be more hectic.

8 Solid Days

This is the week that drags the most, I have eight straight shifts to do, Thursday through til Thursday.

Leaving for work every day at 12:45pm and arriving home every morning at 12:45am a good twelve hours out of the house, through wind, rain and sometimes even snow.

These weeks are long, hard and often tedious.

Luckily I have Barry on board to hurl abuse at for most of the week, Monday I have my assessment to look forward to, and next weekend I have my kids again.

So there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

It's Been A Bitch

I finally made it to the end of a set of seven of the worst nights I have ever worked.

I think this is the first set of nights I've come home every single night feeling both mentally and physically exhausted.

What with untold contractors every night including Saturday which is normally a night of rest, snow completely buggering the service, Kate having an accident and going visiting in the mornings (I'm not complaining, it was my choice), drunken twats, going out for an Indian meal my sisters birthday on Saturday night and as I was working that night, I was not allowed to have one single beer (that's just criminal), not sleeping properly due to being on nights, general service disruptions most mornings, getting pissed off with the contractor who mans the gates and asks a stupid question when I've closed up the station and pulled the gates across "Has the last train gone?" and getting a vexed reply "NO I always close a station when I'm expecting more trains".

So all in all, I'm glad I'm on rest days.

I only have ironing and house work to look forward tomorrow.

Oh and time to rejoin Weighter Watchers once more.

I Must Be More Tired Then I Thought

I just went to start my dinner for my last night at work.

I poured out the kettle to refill it with fresh water, half way through I realised my kettle was warm, the thing is I can't remember boiling the kettle when I came downstairs.

So I'm currently sitting at home looking confused, which come to think about it, isn't really that unusual.

Night Six Of Seven.

The usual suspects were on site tonight, and what with having only had 3 hours kip yesterday, I wasn't prepared for this.The only thing that keep me going was a lunatic from next door and we discussed everything from Myspace profiles, my dirty woman and Necrophilia, I still don't know how the hell we got on that subject.

I upset a few of the contractors by not letting them using the staff toilets to fill up there buckets with water, well if they didn't keep trashing the toilets I wouldn't have minded.

Well I think it's time for some well earned sleep, my booking clerk who was admitted to hospital was allowed home yesterday, to rest and relax, fat chance with her kids on half term.

It doesn't seem so long ago that all I was blogging about was warm undercrackers.

Only one more shift left to go. YES.

A Room With A View

Once more into the breach, er I mean hospital I go, and find Kate in a hell of a better condition then I last saw her.
She is propped up in bed, tired but smiling, she is still in a bit of pain but I think the Morphine might just be helping. Either that or the smiling was wind.
Kate's colour is also a lot better too, as she looked very pale yesterday, this morning she ate her first hospital meal ever, jam and toast (poor woman) with a little help from me (I have been working nights after all). She hopes to be free sorry I mean discharged on Wednesday and I think she will be relieved just to go home.
However they had to put a new gizmo (which means I don't know what it's called) as the one on her other hand was severely bruised.
Also as a treat the hospital have moved her up a few floors and she has got a lovely view across London.
A lot better then that grotty old station across the road I think (I know I'll get abused at work tonight for that one).
However If you don't like heights, just don't look down

Kate Yay Update.

My booking clerk rang me, Kate is back from theater, and apart from the broken leg, she looks 100% better.

The funny part is, my work mate went to check on Kate for me, and bumped into kates mum, after explaining who she was and why she had come to check, Kate looked around said thank you to my work mate and promptly dozed off again.

I might see if I can sneak in tomorrow and see how she is getting on.

Just a Couple Of Things

Firstly a picture of Kate's leg, all nicely plastered up.
Secondly, the view from Kate's window. You think she would have had enough of the Underground.Thirdly, my booking clerks arm, and the drip that was. Luckily this has been taken out now, however it looks like she will be in for a little while longer.

You Wont Believe This.

After I finished work and once more popped in to see Kate in hospital.

I looked around her ward, and there in the bed opposite Kate was another woman with the same leg plastered, and guess what yes she has broken her ankle too, but the wierd thing is, she broke hers on the Underground too.

How about that for coincidence.

So not only is she sharing a ward with one of my booking clerks, she is also sharing a ward with with a woman who has the same injury, and they both had accidents on the Underground.

Kate was told that she was going to have her operation this morning and will be in for another two or three days, so I called my work mate and asked her to pop round to Kate as she was feeling down and on her own, so my work mate popped around to keep her company and give kate some moral support.

I recieved a text from my work mate, Kate went down for her operation about 11:30 and my work mate said she will keep an eye out for Kates return and text me.

And who said Underground staff are usless.

Kate Of Yayness

After I finished work at 7am this morning, I popped down to the hospital to visit Kate.

 

The hospital just happens to be no more then 300 yards away, talk about a lucky break for me (groan).

 

I couldn't believe they let me in at just after 7am, wow.

 

Kate was laid up in bed resting looking slightly pale but generally OK, she was OK with me blogging and didn't tell me off so that was nice, she was supposed to have an operation on her ankle today, but because of more threatening cases coming in all day, she was put back until Sunday.

 

 

As I'm typing this she has been texting me about being kept awake by other patients, how inconsiderate of them to keep a fellow blogger awake on a Saturday night.

 

Now for the surreal bit, as I walked into the ward, the first person I saw was one of my staff who is a booking clerks, she came to work yesterday, started feeling bad and has been for the past few days, went to casualty and was admitted.

 

Fancy that, both on the same ward, who would have expected that.

 

So to two lovely women in my life (no not that way people), I hope you both get well soon.

 

I wonder if me and Barry can sneak into the ward tomorrow morning and wake them both up.

I'm Feeling Totally Bolloxed

This has been the busiest night shift I have done in absolutely ages, and to make matters better I had a trainee Supervisor with me as well.

 

The high light of the night was dealing with Kate, and making sure she was OK.

 

However after dealing with Kate and the ambulance staff, I ambled back into my office, only to have my trainee Supervisor tell me somebody had called the up on one of the platform help points, but never answered.

 

Next thing is I'm being called upstairs to deal with a drunken twat.

 

I want to complain about the person who answered the the Help Point, so being the good Supervisor that I am, I let the trainee who had spoken to him deal with it.

 

My trainee apologised for any misunderstanding, but this drunken twat wouldn't except it, and kept citing stuff about us not know how to do our jobs, and that he will complain about it.

 

After my trainee apologised for what must have been the 17th time and Mr Numb-nuts wasn't listening, I stepped in and explained that my trainee had apologised but that he wasn't listening.

 

OK he says I'm going to complain, that's fine as we didn't do anything wrong, he demands a complaints form and was duly handed a Customer Service Card.

 

I asked him where he was trying to get to, and after he waffled on again about complaining and me asking four times where he was going, i finally found out.

 

I give him the directions and then he asks for a complaints form again, I told him to contact Customer Service, but he's not happy again and apparently we weren't doing our job properly.

 

I had to send my CSA to the platform to see off one of the last eastbound trains, and when she comes up he is still prattling on about basically nothing.

 

This drunken twat had already taken up over 20 minutes of my time and as he still wasn't listening I told him he had been given his directions to get home, now good bye.

 

As I walked off my poor trainee gave me a perplexed look and couldn't get a way fast enough and got collared again by the fool.

 

After the drunk had finally buggered off, I then got bombarded by the usual contractor, and joy of joys, one of these lovely people have gone and broken the staff urinal, now that's taking the piss.

 

It's almost the end of my shift and I'm feeling seriously tired, so I will go home and pass out 

Kate Yay

I met up with Kate Yay on the way into work this evening.

 

We travelled to my station as she was going to have a coffee and a chat.

 

Just as we went to alight the train she twisted her ankle and collapsed all her weight onto her left foot and ended up in a heap on the train floor.

 

I haven't even started work and I'm holding the train in the platform of my own station administrating first aid.

 

I managed to assist Kate off of the train and got her onto one of the station benches. After much deliberating between myself and Kate I persuaded her to let me call an ambulance as she couldn't put any pressure on her foot.

 

The wonderful people in green uniforms arrived and carted a poorly Kate off to the local hospital.

 

About two hours later Kate text me she has broken her left ankle, and will need to

 

I rang the hospital this morning to find out how Kate is getting on and found out that she will having a was told that she is sleeping, but will need to have an operation to help set her ankle.

 

Get well soon Kate, and don't worry you will be soon kicking people with your cast, can I be the first person to write on it.

Ahhh!!!!! Bliss.

I just did something tonight I haven't done for a good, good few years.

It might sound a bit sad, but I can't explain the feeling except as bliss.

As it's been freezing up this way today, I decided to put all my clothes for tonight on the radiators, so when is finally came around to getting dressed, I slipped my undercrackers off the rad, and pulled them on, ah the feeling of warmth to the good old undercarriage was just plain ecstasy.

Mmmmm that wonderful feeling of warmth, the bliss that is heat.

I could just die happy.

I will apologise as this post might be just a tad graphic.

Flickr

As I have been nagged to death by my colleague next door, I have finally gotten around to putting some more of the pictures of the first night I was let loose with my Nikon Coolpix 8700 onto flickr.

I hope to load up some more once i get the files dragged across.

Three Down, Four Left.

As I arrived at work, I picked up exactly where I left off from 7am this morning.

The service was still knackered with the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines suspended, severe and minor delays to four other lines.

Half my ticket hall was cordoned off with contractors re tiling my ticket hall floor, what with the electricians then asking if they can work in my office and getting told, come back at 1am after the last train, the service and station were pretty hectic.

After the last trains departed, I closed up and what with one contractor and another the night flew by, Barry sometimes gets a bit shocked with the way i speak to all my contractors, but as they have been working on the refurbishment since 2004bc, their used to the abuse I give them.

I must admit I do get away with murder at times, but as I used to work on building sites I know how to banter with the contractors.

Finally it came to opening time, and unfortunately because of a late running staff taxi, my station stayed closed, finally opening 15 minutes late and after the third train should have stopped.

Luckily all morning the service ran sweetly, and no PA's had to be made because of a good service on all lines.

I got away nice and early to, so I was on an earlier train home, but whilst walking home from Wellingborough station, I got a bit carried away and after getting a couple of peculiar looks from a few people, I suddenly realised I was singing AC/DC's Ride On out loud.

Oh well, time for another baking hot fried egg sandwich, this time with brown sauce, I might even have fried bread as well.

"Oi The Nutters Are Out"

I couldn't believe it last night, I made it safely down to Wellingborough station and whilst chatting with a work colleague before my train arrived, all of a sudden from accross the other platform, up pipes a voice.

"Do you believe in Jehovah"?

Now that wasn't a question I was expecting, I looked at my friend, he looked at me equally perplexed.

"I said do you believe in Jehovah"?

It was then we noticed the beer can in the hand, My friend muttered something obscure back at him, and next thing we have is a dialect going back and forth across the the rail tracks from platform to platform.

Shortly afterwards our friend with the beer, stutters into a mumbling self dialogue. Phew.

"Hello" says a passenger on our side of the station " I couldn't help over hear your conversation, but do you think we are facing the Armageddon"?

My head slowly lowers into my hands and i begin to think "Oh F**K I wanna go back home".

Unfortunately, we had to put up with this lunatic all the way to London, talking about this, that and anything that popped into his head.

We discussed him being a vegan, carbon emissions from aeroplanes, solar heating on houses in England, him being a mature student as he has never worked in his life and been claiming the social since he left school almost 20 years before, Tai Chi and him maybe moving to another country possibly Thailand or maybe Tiawan.

We finally reached London over 15 minutes late, because the train was only running on three engines instead of five, once the doors opened myself and my friend fled with all haste.

Walking Home Again

As I walked home this morning, I was walking up the long hill towards my house, and at the first road I found a BMW parked OK not parked, but sitting with its front bumper resting on the kerb, whilst the rear of the car was sat slap bang in the middle of the road.

There were a couple struggling to get the car moving as tit was well and truly wedged, the man looked frantic whilst the woman just glowed, so being the decent fellow that I am, I offered to help, so with a bit of brute strength and ignorance, we lifted and shunted the car backwards and I safely carried on walking home.

When I arrived home, I looked out the window of my house and thought my little garden looked lovely, I snatched up my camera, and as I've started to get into this photo stuff, decided to take a few pictures.
I didn't realise how much had fallen since this morning, but it must have been a lot as I had, had my post delivered earlier and there were no foot prints by the front door.
It felt so silly being out in my back garden taking picture, that I just had to do it. Yes I am a 39 year old kid.
The strangest sensation was feeling the snow flakes (not snow drops as some pointed out last night, my excuse is i have hayfever) pattering of my head, as a few people who know me will realise that I don't normally have hair as it's usually shaved.

I have only started growing it again since the start of this year as I want to see what colour it is by the time I'm 40, so it was a bit of a weird feeling standing in the back garden with snow bouncing off my head, both pleasant and invigorating.
However as I had promised myself another fried egg sandwich, I decided to have it with mushrooms as well.

And The Snow Starts Falling.

All we need to do now is hopefully start a service, which suprisingly for a snow laden morning actually started on time.

My first eastbound and westbound services ran normally, however the 5:30 arrived, and the fun began to start.

From that time onwards I never got off the PA, my throat was sore from changing the details so often.

First this part of a line suspended, then that line running with severe delays, then two minutes later become suspended.

The Jubilee line knackering the Metropolitan line because of a faulty train at Neasden.

The Northern collapsing at both ends of the line.

The Pic not knowing what it was going to do next.

You try and get seven different lines into one single PA announcement, I fooked it up at least 15 times before i was happy.

Finally as I walked out of the door to get my train home, there were problems on the Bakerloo, Central, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Northern and the Piccadilly line.

I'm gald my early turn Supervisor arrived early, the only problem was that as I rushed for my 7am train home to Wellingborough.
I arrived at St Pancras to see the red lights on the back of the train vanishing up the platform.

Bugger.

Application Time Part iii

I woke up about 2:30 and rang the LUL recruitment line, and after getting through I booked my appointment.

So my assessment date is Monday 19th Feb at 3pm, I will need to be in Ashfield House by 2:30.

Typically I'm on a late turn duty so I will be coming back to work straight after and finishing off my shift.

All I need to do now is let my GSM know about my assessment, and simply attend the session.

Postponement Of Later Running

Seeing as Ken has now taken the wind out of those wankers called the RMT, maybe Transport For London will finally get around to giving us our much over due wage rise.

Please note that you don't hear any station staff moaning about the three year pay deal, just those greedy bastard called.

Train Drivers.

Snow Advise.

Tonight London, the Midlands and the Southeast of England are to be hit with the worst snow falls in the last 10 years (allegedly).

So before you travel in the morning, do yourselves a big favour and check the TFL realtime information page, to find out what the train services are like.

It might save you a wasted journey.

Now just think of me trying to get a train home tomorrow morning, I wonder if work will put me up for the day in a hotel, not very likely.

Travelling Home.

As I headed northwards between Luton and Bedford the fields were getting whiter and whiter, so a quick snap out of the moving train and hey presto this is what I got.
As I left my station on the way home, I started to feel frozen again, knowing full well that I had a 15 minute walk from Wellingborough station to house, and it's mostly up hill.

Walking up the road from the station I came across the smell of a real coal fire, and noticed the house with plumes of smoke wafting lazily into the still morning air.

The smell from the smoke brought back memories of when I was a kid and we used to sit around my aunts open fire, drinking lemonade and playing games.
Then lastly to get rid of the freezing sensation of the trip home, I made myself a lovely tasty baking hot fried egg sandwich, nice and hot and runny. I think the same might be called upon tomorrow
Oh well only another few hours before I'm up and about again and getting ready for work.

First Night Down. Only Six To Go.

I knew it was going to be one of those nights as soon as I left home.

As I walked down to the station, I became colder and colder, even wearing my heavy duty coat, Wellingborough station was freezing and my train was running late, but as I leave in plenty of time for work, I wasn't worried.

I arrived at work and my late turn colleague informed me of a fatality at my station on Friday.

An elderly man fell down the last three or four steps and smacked his head off the floor, according to my colleague the ambulance arrived very quickly.

Unfortunately the old fella had slipped into a coma and died in hospital on Sunday.

I spoke to my colleague next door and we had a few sharp words about last Thursday night, and to give us a chance to cool down, we didn't speak again for a good few hours.

As usual I was bombarded with contractors, only 53 tonight but still quiet a few considering this refurbishment was supposed to be in April 2006. Not saying that's its slightly over run, but we are hoping to finish during this millennium.

I spoke to my colleague later, and after more discussions about Thursday night, we've put it behind us and are mates again.

Then came start of traffic.

To say it was good would be an out and out lie.

Firstly, the Central Line had severe delays, engineering works at White City

Secondly, the H&C and District suspended between Whitechapel and Barking, 10 minutes later it resumed to a good service.
15 minutes later the H&C and Circles have gone into minor delays, with the Met joining in with a couple of signal failures, this then suspends the Pic service between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge.

The Central resumes to a good service, then collapses again with a faulty train.

Northern Line decided it was feeling left out and feel over between Golders Green and Edgware so another suspension.

Finally the District dies again and suspends from Barking to Upminster because of a signal failure at another station, I was tempted to ring the supervisor and ask if he could manage.

The service problems were all in the first two hours of the start of traffic.

Then I went home.