Squeak

Arrival time: 8.48am (on time - hoorah)

Yep, I went back to the rat race today.

Not feeling 100% still, but the workload pretty much demanded that I return. And it has been good for me too. I hate to admit that. It’s a weird psychological thing but I enjoyed being in the office today, listening to my colleagues chit chatting, catching up with their holiday happenings, seeing friendly faces. I don’t expect this will last, but I made the most of the novelty factor today.

Most things were the same as usual. I felt crap getting up so early (obviously worsened by still having my bug). It was dark outside. SC hadn’t been blasted off the planet (neither had Basingstoke or Woking either for that matter, more’s the pity ) . The usual suspects were in their usual spots when I got to the station. I took up my daily position next to Sun Man (I mean position on the platform, not that I pull a strange position with my arms in the air or stand weird like Noel Fielding does at the start and end of The Mighty Boosh, but that would be kinda funny so if you want to imagine that I do that then go right ahead, knock yourself out).

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, things being normal. The train pulled up to platform 1 at 7.20am as it usually does (apart from when the railway system is buggering about). I sat in one of the three seats I usually sit in, next to the man that I usually sit next to if he is there (although I actually prefer sitting next to Winchy Commuter Boy). My morning text from my pal came through just after I boarded the train. I did have my laptop to work, but I got peeved with it after a while so I sacked that off in favour of my usual snooze listening to music.

At Waterloo there were morons about the concourse like there always are. Some stupid arse kid was prancing around underneath the departure boards and crashed into me on the usual walk from the platform to the escalators. His mother scolded him. Immaturely, it made me smile and think “ner ner you little brat.” Score one to Blue. Muwahahahaha. The Metro was in its dispenser comme d’habitude (fed up of saying ” as usual”) and, as happens so often, some div made a meal of picking a copy up. As a result we all had to stop while he scrabbled about for it which interrupted what is usually a fluid movement - sweep down, grap paper, straighten up and walk off, all in one smooth movement, infact, I don’t think I usually stop walking at all. On the tube everyone stared at the floor or at the posters, religiously avoiding eye contact.

I can’t decide if I was narked at being back in this routine or if it was reassuringly predictable.

However, there were some notable differences:

• 4.3% fare rise (gits)
• train less busy than usual (guess commuters who are also parents are staying off for the week until the brats kids return to school)
• Ticket barriers quieter at Waterloo Underground
• Man dropped his bag and a fellow commuter picked it up for him - I can actually say “fellow commuter” and mean something more by “fellow” than “similar”. How very charitable.
• In-keeping with generally less-busy transport, I had no trouble getting into the Jubilee tube train (should have taken a photo of the carriage which had plenty of breathing room just to prove it happened). Appreciated not having to endure the usual groping and being in far too close proximity to some unpleasant speciman of human (smelly/sweaty/ugly/bad breath etc etc)
• Both tube trains that I caught arrived at the stations just as I was stepping onto the platform so no waiting (nice fluke there)
• Made it in 2 minutes early!

Hell, I was almost in a good mood. Apart from the £20 SWT nicked off me. R’argh. Give it a few days for anger levels to reach full strength again. And did you see how well-behaved I have been today: no blogging when I should have been working!! Pats on the back eh.

JET for 3/01/07: Weird writing 07. Anyway, I have been thinking about introducing another faddy feature to my blog: the MyPOD. See what I have done there? It stands for MyPictureOftheDay. There is one massive drawback though - it would require commitment in that I would have to post a picture every day really. I am not good with commitment. MyPOW (week) doesn’t have the same ring to it nor does it rip off a massively well-known product so isn’t half as clever. Perhaps I will just call it the MyPOD but only post sporadically. Yes, that is it. I mean, MyPOD doesn’t say it HAS to be a daily thing does it? (haha, reasoning as I type. Progressive thinking. Or not).

Milk War Update: Only had 2 cups of TEA today (no coffee, not that tea is much better for me) so can’t really assess the situation. But the UHT Potettes seemed to be behaving themselves. I had my sleeves rolled up just in case they tried to maim my clean clothes with milk again though. Clever, clever.

Shit, broke NYR # 4 “Stop writing such bloody long public blogs (password protected blogs are fair game).” Bugger bugger. I’ll try again tomorrow.