I was caught up in a rather crap display of public transport this morning. I suppose it started badly when the bus driver went for a cup of tea in the middle of our 20-minute journey, but the train was unbelievable.
It being rather hot down here, I was hoping to get to work early, to avoid the heat. So, I toddled into Reading to get the 0725 train, with a view to getting to work for eight o'clock. Of course, it was cancelled, but that was OK, since I could get another train in half an hour.
Fairly obviously, that train was cancelled, so I impetuously jumped on the next train out, which stopped at Wokingham. Maybe I thought I could walk the rest of the way - I don't have full command of judgement at that time in the morning.
A long wait there ensued, before a train pulled into the other platform, allegedly terminating there.
We watched it roll in, everyone get off, and then it roll back down the line to Bracknell, my destination, where it was going to re-start. Apparently it was too risky to allow anyone to travel on the train; but given how heavily unionised train drivers are - I hardly doubt the train was going to crash.
In such moments of collective stress, you often end up making bland, "Isn't this awful?" platitudes to your fellow traveller.
Perhaps I shouldn't have chosen the man who was talking to himself as he filled in his customer complaint form, but how was I to know?
Within five minutes, he had suggested that I quit my job at Dell, and join him in an Internet company.
I'm sure you think that sounds good, but then again, what do you think of those adverts tied to traffic lights that advertise, "MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR COMPUTER"? Exactly. Even I'm not enough of a mooncalve to fall for an Internet franchising scam. There were moments when I thought he would try to get me to join a bizarre gullibility cult.
I finally bid him farewell at Bracknell - "Never have I been so happy to see Bracknell," I did say - and he left for the Met Office. He was not Michael Fish, by a long stretch.
Perhaps I'm being unkind, but when has that ever stopped me?
No doubt, another instalment of my exciting journals, the next time I'm in Debenhams.
Unless I do join the Merchant Navy.
Cheers,
Derek.
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