Monday mutterings
Greetings from a hazy Monday Croydon morning. This post will be very much stream of conciousness style – as I came on here without anything in particular to write about, but just the intention to write. Dangerous? Most certainly…
I commuted to my workplace in Croydonia from Watford today, on a tried and trusted route that maximises the cost:journey time ratio. Esssentially, Watford is in Zone 7, 8 or “special fares” depending on which station you use, but I get away with a Z2-5 travelcard for said journey; bus to Harrow and Wealdstone (buses are free on any travelcard no matter what the zones), then two trains to East Croydon. I think this is the best I’ll get costwise short of a bus pass (half the price, but double the journey time via 4 buses), and a ticket valid all the way to Watford would be almost double the price. I’m very happy with my route, plus I start they day with a moderate walk to the bus stop, which wakes me up very nicely.
The bus was late as it happens, and I was panicking as we arrived at the station as I could see a train approaching that looked like the one I needed to catch, arriving at the time my train would arrive. I belted it off the bus and into the station, up the ramp and onto the platform – wrong train. Result. Mine pootled along a few minutes later and I got to East Croydon so early I had time to go home and check if I had any new post. Very chuffed to find Transport for London has sent me £6 for various things – a cheque for £4 was a refund for a maximum cash fare incorrectly applied to my Oyster card. I think they actually owed me more, but since then I’ve replaced my Oyster card as it was seemingly registered to someone else, which prevented me from using it online – so I won’t write back as I’ve lost all my proof. I also had £2 worth of rail travel vouchers off London Overground – last week I came across no trains when I arrived at Willesden Junction, so put in my Customer Charter claim. I’m actually fairly philosophical about things like this – trains get delayed, it’s a fact of life, so I didn’t rant at them or anything. It didn’t even cost me too much, such are my operating margins – that morning the delay/route change just meant I didn’t get to work as early as I would have, but I still got there early. But their passenger charter says they’ll provide a certain service or pay me my fare back, so I made the claim and they were good for it. And very quickly too. Sorted.
It’s all gone a bit public transport geeky. Oops. So anyway, I now have £2 that I can only spend on National Rail – but I can put it on my Oyster card at a co-operative station, so will do so next time I’m passing one. Which should be today considering East Croydon is one of them… I have already quick pay enveloped my cheque – just need to go and put it in their special slot at lunch. I’m on the ball. All that is left to do is post my letter of complaint about the staff at West Ruislip station (am I getting old? I’m writing actual letters of complaint!) and my lunchtime of great activity will be complete. Oh I should probably eat too 
So that’s my brain this Monday morning. Welcome back to blogging – Scriv style.
Did the letter about the staff at WRU get posted….! I know you told me I probably shouldn’t read your blog… but…. I couldn’t resist… Geek
P
Not yet, went to Post Office for some stamps but the queue was so long I’d still be there now…
Welcome back! I am all over this shit dawg!
I’m impressed with the BBC so far as well for the most part
The worst part of the team in my mind is EJ, his interview with Bernie in Malaysia was just cringeworthy!
The best bit… has to be The Chain being back
And you’re right about the muppet, his blog is really good, he certainly is coming across better than when he was getting too excited behind the microphone!
Awww, you’re so sweet
)
Well, of course it will rain, as it always does when we actually get some time off together and make plans, don’t you just hate that guy called sod!!! Grrr! xx
Can’t wait, June is gonna be a fantastic month
D yay xx
:’( stupid depressing survival Sunday :’(
Why have you tagged Sheffied Untied… who are they? ;o)
Sorted
Woah…. a posting!!!!
You shouldn’t need any more things to keep you focussed, if you aren’t focussed now then you never will be….
It looks like Turkish coffee. If you’d called it that, everyone’d think you were very cultured.
YOU think oystercards are annoying…. try bloody working with the damn things then you will realise the TRUE extent of their annoyance
Was amazing, got better the further and further forward we got. Song of the night was either “Return of the White Rabbit” or “Girl From Mars” for me, or “Kung Fu” for that matter, on sheer crowd reaction alone
It worried me slightly when the person behind the glass at Gloucester Road rubbed the oyster card on the reader for several second when registering it…
I thought that your paper travel card was far better than anything with a chip in it
Of course it’s a valid hobby. When I went to that very 1st Z1 one day I really didn’t know what to expect and thought it would almost certainly be my 1st and last challenge. I wasn’t expecting to fit in at all or that people would talk to me. I couldn’t have been more wrong, everyone was friendly and chatty and of course the full network talk cropped up. I looked rather terrified at a tube map commenting “I wouldn’t know where to begin” It just looked so daunting, scary and impossible. Pete Lupton (Fat Buoy) said he had a route and would go around with me Amersham – Upminster. It never actually happened and it seems crazy looking back but it wasn’t even going to be a record attempt, just a “we will get around all the stations” which at the time just seemed impossible. The thought of ever doing this for a world record just didn’t seem a remote possibility, it’s madness this person I saw on the tube; Geoff Marshall is brilliant how could we ever even try for a GWR?
We supported Ric Brackenbury, David Scard and John Stark on a full network challenge visiting parts of the network we had never been near before and did a food drop for Peter Miller and his brother on our way to the start of the inaugral “snake challenge”. I can’t remember how the discussion came about to team the Browns up with John Stark and he came up with a full network route one lunch hour and we thought he was brilliant. Wow we have a route to do full the network this is amazing, this must be the only realistic possible route.
So we went out and did it on for children in need in November 2006, we hadn’t even run it through Transport for London journey planner but who cared, who knew we had a route!!
Since then Matt has teamed up with the Browns, Antony and his son Phil and my 2 boys Jamie and Ryan. We have spent many hours route planning at “headquarters” being the Air New Zealand office at Radius Park….
Wow actually there are hundreds of possible full network routes, Geoff Marshall isn’t so great after all, the time is not impossible to beat I have routes over an hour inside that!
So moving to the present day I have 2 world records, neither in great times and neither that satisfying or pleasing. Matt is incredibly unlucky also not to have 2 world records. The time has come down greatly and route planning, strategy and fitness have dramatically improved.
The alternative challenges and other events such as Zone 1 day, The random 15 championships and tube olympics are fantastic get togethers where we have met and made true and great friends. The social side after these events is also great fun with darts at the pub, a darts league and also social drinking and darts days without any tube challenging!
Yes it is indeed a valid hobby
So much for team spirit eh
Olly Olly Olly, oi oi oi, Olly Olly Olly, oi oi oi, Olly, Oi, Olly, oi, Olly Olly Olly, oi oi oi!
You know nothing
Ick.. I know someone with Crohn’s disease (a particularly complicated and tricky case as far as I know, though). It does not look fun.. :S
I don’t know much about it, they assure me it is manageable if indeed I do have it, but I’ll be tested further in due course. It’s wait and see time, taking it in steps – I am back at work tomorrow for the first time in a month and feel vaguely healthy for the first time in over a month, so these are good things
660-1 I get for that. Fancy a quid on it?
Don’t forget to also make a weekend trip to Schloss Wizbit um Deutsch zu sprechen
good luck wiv that he deserves more than most reminds me of July 8th 2008 i was determined that Sara would get her reward for all her hard work.
Hard Work? What hard work? Following you around
lol