Tube Strike.....oy.
I doubt it's been in the news outside of the UK (lol, maybe not even outside England) but the London Underground system staff went on strike. Anyone who lives in a city that pretty much relies on the public transportation system to get around knows what a big hassle this would be. Unfortunately, unlike during the last tube strike, my workplace is on the opposite side of London. ;_; I ache in places I didn't think I could ache!
Now, before I get into the cursing and whatnot, I'll tell you what they were striking over. They wanted a 5% pay rise even though we're going through a bloody recession, millions of people are unemployed and others are taking pay CUTS. Train drivers also earn a basic salary of about £40K a year for a 36 hour work week, not including overtime pay and they get about 40 days holiday a year. I'm pretty sure they're much better off than half the bloody country! Two words: very selfish. Especially when the people who are still lucky to have a job at the moment risk losing two days pay or (like me) have to go through sh*t to get to work! OH! And I forgot! They were also striking over a guy who got fired for STEALING and another who opened the doors on the wrong side of the train (you'd have to see a tube station to know, but that is really really dangerous).
I usually leave my house around 8, takes me 40mins on the train, I'm there in time to get myself ready, maybe have a hot choco. These past two days, I had to get up at 5.30, get on the bus for half 6 in order to start work at 9. My work isn't that far, when you consider it takes two hours to get to ANOTHER PART OF THE COUNTRY! But somehow it took me nearly 3 hours to get to work. Sigh. The buses were full. At half 6 in the morning. People were squished. People were angry. Some people clearly hadn't bathed. It was not nice. We were stuck in traffic for hours but by some miracle I got to work on time.
Getting home, however, was a different story. You can choose how early you wanna leave, but everybody goes home at the same time. I've never seen London so packed. I've never seen so many office ladies wearing trainers! XD People were biking, people were walking. That day, I got home at 9.00 after leaving my office at 5. Yesterday, I ended up walking (A HELLA LOT OF WALKING DAMMIT) and jumping on random buses to get me anywhere near home and it only took 2 and a half hours.
I can only think though, that no matter how tired and angry I was, there was a lot of people who were worse affected than me. I can't imagine what it was like for kids trying to get to school or people that find it generally hard to move around at all. But the tube buttmunches don't care. Cos their jobs aren't cushy enough!!
And guess what....THEY'RE GONNA DO IT AGAIN! Cos their union boss was so pleased with the results, and was basically well chuffed that he caused so much misery to so many people. I never thought I'd agree with Boris Johnson, but he was right. "F***ing b****cks" indeed!
Sigh. I'm gonna put in for a holiday next time they do this. My legs can't take anymore! ;_;