I know some of you turn up at 7am each morning to see if I've written about something that interests you. Well, you can go off and enjoy your Saturday because today's post is for committed omnivores (and MWLB) only.
My journey yesterday
Train 1: So long as I leave the house early enough I can just turn up without needing to check departure times, whereas if I leave it any later I might be waiting around for up to 10 minutes like it was still the bad old days. The guard said they should be opening up the front seats again soon. Train 2: Please remember to stand on the right hand side of the escalator. I got past eventually and hit the second escalator just as the train was pulling in, but I still caught it.
Bus 1: I forgot they'd changed the stop this bus leaves from - I still don't understand why - so walked the wrong way and nearly missed it. The Next Bus Indicator Screen was disconnected so provided no useful information. I need to write a post called "Revealed - all the buses that travel over a mile between stops" before Callum beats me to it. Bus 2: I didn't need to catch this bus, it was an entirely gratuitous changeover. My bad, the next bus I wanted pulled out in front of us at the station and we never caught up. I was surprised nobody else got off by the cafe with the clocks that isn't there any more. Bus 3: There were three buses to my next destination but no more than two of them left from the same stop, so that was a pain. I almost picked correctly. Not Bus 4: I don't know about you but if there's a long gap until the next bus I always like to walk ahead along the route until just before it eventually catches up. In this case there was supposedly a 12 minute gap, so I set off (down a road I'd never walked before) and traipsed for over a mile before it eventually caught up, by which time I didn't need to catch it any more. Bus 4: Blimey this one rattled a lot. It was also quite busy, so much so that the ginger bloke with the sports kit signalled to me to nudge over on the back seat. I travelled two stops more than almost all the other passengers. Because the bus only had one door I hadn't quite reached the front before the first young passenger came leaping aboard, but they were very polite about it.
(interlude with bluebells...
...seriously bluebells, I wondered if I might see one or two but this was a veritable carpet under the trees by the river downstream from the waterfall, and it's March for heaven's sake, what is up with the weather?)
Bus 5: I caught this one just as it was arriving thanks to Citymapper (which I still prefer to the TfL Go app, mainly because it's not obsessed by only showing buses nearby). We rode past the bus stop that still makes me smile because over here it's a street name not a place name. Then a road closure sent us off on diversion which was mostly traffic jam, dammit, so I missed my onward connection. Not Bus 6: I can never remember if you're allowed to ding to alight while a bus is on diversion... but it wouldn't have helped. This bus sailed past in the opposite direction and then there was a 27 minute gap before the next one - much worse than normal - so I gave up and went a different way. Bus 6: Being at a bus stop with a Countdown display is usually very helpful but this bus was '2 min' away for the best part of five minutes. I grabbed the top front seat and enjoyed the unfamiliar ride and the blossom and eventually the topiary. Then I forgot to get off and ended up too near the shops.
(interlude with just the two bluebells, both runty and premature, which was more like it)
Bus 7: This was rammed and I actually had to sit next to someone on the upper deck. They weren't happy. Almost immediately we got stuck in traffic - this town always seems to be Jam Central - so I gave up and hopped off after two stops (and of course the bus then sped up and got there first). Bus 8: This was mostly empty - I never understand why it needs to be a double decker. I admired the driver's patience in negotiating past parked cars on a not quite wide enough residential road. Blimey, I'd not been here for over 10 years. Bus 9: OK, I'd had enough by now so it was time to catch the long distance bus halfway home. I need to write a post called "Revealed - all the buses that travel along the same road twice" before Callum beats me to it. The driver enjoyed the speedy roads with hardly anyone to pick up, and so did I until he suddenly stopped by the common and waited for five minutes 'to even out the service'. Not Bus 10: I spotted this bus just behind us as we approached the terminus so hopped off one stop early and flagged it down. The damned bus driver drove straight past, despite my very obvious signal, and I had to wait 7 minutes for an alternative. Bus 10: One last top front seat, but the view round here was so dull that I whipped my book out and read that instead. If you're counting, all today's bus routes were different and their numbers added up to 2152.
Train 3: I could have gone either way but chose this way because there'd be a more frequent service on Train 4. I should have read the disruptions board before plunging underground. Not Train 4: Hang on, what, no trains? The announcer was being borderline sarcastic and telling all those waiting for an eastbound train to find alternative routes or be stuck here for hours, but I stayed put because the Next Train indicator showed a westbound train in 7 minutes. Unfortunately this turned out to be an eastbound train coming in on the 'wrong' track, so those who'd ignored the announcer caught that and I had to find an alternative route. FFS announce things better, sarky staff. Train 4: I don't normally catch this one. Still, all the stair climbing had been keeping me fit. Train 5: Bored now. I could have been at home with a cup of tea if I'd caught the alternative Train 3. I wish someone would fix the beep on the Oyster pad, you always have to look to check it's registered. If you're counting, I was last here seven hours ago.
