The joy that is the tube
You know the day is shaping up to be good with headlines like "Monday Tube Mayhem".
I didn't actually know anything was wrong til I came downstairs to leave and Liv told me that the entire central line was suspended. We went to the station together (in the rain) and were told to catch a bus. Liv then realised that she had left her bag at home! Such a goose. She went home and I waited for a bus. I went to ring the agency to let them know I was going to be late so they could let the client know but then realised I had left my phone at home. It really was one of those days!
To cut a long story short(ish!) I waited outside the tube station for an hour to get a bus to Stratford. Liv came back to the station and we met up and I used her phone to ring the agency. We eventually got on a bus, after lots of pushing, shoving and both passengers and bus drivers being dumb, but I'm sure our bus took the scenic route. It's only one stop away but took an hour to get there! Once at Stratford though they announced that the Central line was running again, just with delays.
Getting to Oxford Circus and walking to the office only took about 30 mins. I got there just after 10 so was an hour late... not really how I wanted to start my first day! But "the tubes were fucked" is a valid excuse in london so they were cool about it. I was working at the ABB - Association of British Bookmakers. It was quite a cruisy day after that though cause I really don't have to do much work. Basically just answer the phone and do other office shit like handling the post, faxes, etc. Easy as! My day was spent on the net :)
What did shit me off though was when I got back to Oxford Cirucs that night to go home my oyster card wasn't working but I had put a weekly on it that morning at the tube station! I told one of the chicks and she was really rude and just said you've go no money on it. She didn't want to hear my explanation. Went and checked my balance and I had -10p... no wonder the english get into so much debt! Then I had to go and line up to speak to someone at the info booth. I explained my situation and luckily I still had my credit card receipt with me that showed I'd paid for it. Otherwise I would've been screwed. It took about 20 minutes of the guy looking confused, then asking someone else, then ringing Leyton station for him to realise that I was actually telling the truth. Turns out that in the morning the station hadn't finalised my transaction so they voided it, without topping it up! I got it topped up with my weekly and also got the last transaction put back on my card, since that was why I was in debt, it should've been using my weekly but cause they hadn't put it on it was using the little amount of cash I had on it, which was seriously not my fault.
Finally got that sorted and was so looking forward to going home. Sadly though the tube was still fucked and I had to wait ages for a train. Then they closed the platform due to overcrowding. I barely managed to get on the train when it eventually showed up. The tube on days like these is even more shit than usual. It's hot, it stinks, it's cramped etc etc. Add to that at every stop we were left waiting for ages while the doors tried to close cause there were so many people on that the train wouldn't/couldn't leave. The one highlight of this journey was the old irish guy that randomly started swearing at everyone about standing away from the fucking doors. What did crack me up was that he mumbled some stuff and then yelled out "I want to get home and take my fucking medication so I can fucking go to sleep!" Classic! Karma's a bitch though and I ended up sitting next to this dude. Yay for getting a seat but he stank of tobacco and it actually gave me a headache. I glanced over at him and his whole hand was stained yellow and his thumb and forefinger were a dark brown colour. It was gross!
Got to leyton eventually. The journey that usually takes 25-30 mins took about 1.5 hours! I went to the info booth and asked about my credit card receipt. All I wanted to do was go home and had a bad feeling that they were going to have no idea what I was talking about and think I'm some crazy loon. But thought that if I didn't bother to get it, despite having to wait in line for 15 mins, then I would no doubt get charged twice on my card and have no proof of the days events. The lady at the counter was actaully really helpful and nice. She knew exactly what I wanted and where it was and she was really appologetic, which was nice.
Crashed in front of the tv when I got home and waited for the girls so we could all watch America's Next Top Model together. That was the highlight of my evening, although I did finally get to see an episode of Pimp My Ride International where Lil Jon was the host instead of Fat Joe. Fat Joe just has no pizzazz and I did see one episode where they pimped the van of a soccer star... like he doesn't have the money to do it himself! Lil Jon saying yeeeaaaah alot and being afraid of spiders was awesome!
Other than that, not much has been happening. Was late to work again today. Partly cause the tube was still fucked and partly cause I left the house later than usual. One of these days I'll be on time... or possibly even early! Third times a charm :)
I didn't actually know anything was wrong til I came downstairs to leave and Liv told me that the entire central line was suspended. We went to the station together (in the rain) and were told to catch a bus. Liv then realised that she had left her bag at home! Such a goose. She went home and I waited for a bus. I went to ring the agency to let them know I was going to be late so they could let the client know but then realised I had left my phone at home. It really was one of those days!
To cut a long story short(ish!) I waited outside the tube station for an hour to get a bus to Stratford. Liv came back to the station and we met up and I used her phone to ring the agency. We eventually got on a bus, after lots of pushing, shoving and both passengers and bus drivers being dumb, but I'm sure our bus took the scenic route. It's only one stop away but took an hour to get there! Once at Stratford though they announced that the Central line was running again, just with delays.
Getting to Oxford Circus and walking to the office only took about 30 mins. I got there just after 10 so was an hour late... not really how I wanted to start my first day! But "the tubes were fucked" is a valid excuse in london so they were cool about it. I was working at the ABB - Association of British Bookmakers. It was quite a cruisy day after that though cause I really don't have to do much work. Basically just answer the phone and do other office shit like handling the post, faxes, etc. Easy as! My day was spent on the net :)
What did shit me off though was when I got back to Oxford Cirucs that night to go home my oyster card wasn't working but I had put a weekly on it that morning at the tube station! I told one of the chicks and she was really rude and just said you've go no money on it. She didn't want to hear my explanation. Went and checked my balance and I had -10p... no wonder the english get into so much debt! Then I had to go and line up to speak to someone at the info booth. I explained my situation and luckily I still had my credit card receipt with me that showed I'd paid for it. Otherwise I would've been screwed. It took about 20 minutes of the guy looking confused, then asking someone else, then ringing Leyton station for him to realise that I was actually telling the truth. Turns out that in the morning the station hadn't finalised my transaction so they voided it, without topping it up! I got it topped up with my weekly and also got the last transaction put back on my card, since that was why I was in debt, it should've been using my weekly but cause they hadn't put it on it was using the little amount of cash I had on it, which was seriously not my fault.
Finally got that sorted and was so looking forward to going home. Sadly though the tube was still fucked and I had to wait ages for a train. Then they closed the platform due to overcrowding. I barely managed to get on the train when it eventually showed up. The tube on days like these is even more shit than usual. It's hot, it stinks, it's cramped etc etc. Add to that at every stop we were left waiting for ages while the doors tried to close cause there were so many people on that the train wouldn't/couldn't leave. The one highlight of this journey was the old irish guy that randomly started swearing at everyone about standing away from the fucking doors. What did crack me up was that he mumbled some stuff and then yelled out "I want to get home and take my fucking medication so I can fucking go to sleep!" Classic! Karma's a bitch though and I ended up sitting next to this dude. Yay for getting a seat but he stank of tobacco and it actually gave me a headache. I glanced over at him and his whole hand was stained yellow and his thumb and forefinger were a dark brown colour. It was gross!
Got to leyton eventually. The journey that usually takes 25-30 mins took about 1.5 hours! I went to the info booth and asked about my credit card receipt. All I wanted to do was go home and had a bad feeling that they were going to have no idea what I was talking about and think I'm some crazy loon. But thought that if I didn't bother to get it, despite having to wait in line for 15 mins, then I would no doubt get charged twice on my card and have no proof of the days events. The lady at the counter was actaully really helpful and nice. She knew exactly what I wanted and where it was and she was really appologetic, which was nice.
Crashed in front of the tv when I got home and waited for the girls so we could all watch America's Next Top Model together. That was the highlight of my evening, although I did finally get to see an episode of Pimp My Ride International where Lil Jon was the host instead of Fat Joe. Fat Joe just has no pizzazz and I did see one episode where they pimped the van of a soccer star... like he doesn't have the money to do it himself! Lil Jon saying yeeeaaaah alot and being afraid of spiders was awesome!
Other than that, not much has been happening. Was late to work again today. Partly cause the tube was still fucked and partly cause I left the house later than usual. One of these days I'll be on time... or possibly even early! Third times a charm :)