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Nov. 6th, 2005
I should have taken the coach...
Nov. 6th, 2005 09:09 pmWell. A busy weekend. And fairly stressful.
Saturday - got up WAY too early, drove to Hastings to help Hubs do some filming of the 'Old Town' for itvlocal. Director's Assistant job - always tremendously dull. Tends to consist of holding stuff, carrying stuff and looking supportive. The Owl Lady cheered things up a bit (hence my extremely random comment last night). She's from a local bird sanctuary and comes down to one of the museums every Saturday with 4 tame owls that the kiddies can pet and collects money for charity. Hubby did an interview with her, and then filmed me stroking the littlest, fluffiest, cutest owl. Very sweet.
Then - drove to Jools & Sylv's lovely new flat in Rochester. Fairly disconcerting driving on an unlit motorway on Fireworks Night - there's different sets of fireworks going up all around you. All very pretty, but since I was driving, I didn't really get to enjoy them. Then we got lost in Rochester trying to find the flat. I HATE getting lost in a town I don't know. You have to drive really slowly, peering everywhere for street names that more often than not don't exist, there's always somebody impatient on your tail & my little car and I both get all hot and bothered. It was worth it, though. As well as all the usual suspects, Dave G turned up, which was great, since I haven't seen him since the wedding. Lots of catching up, lots of hilarity with Crazy Kev and Flo, gloriously drunk yet again!
Due to driving back, still being all hyper, etc, didn't get to bed til nigh on 4, then up for today.
Oh, sweet Zeus, today... the Sunday from Hell. NEVER try to travel to London by train on a Sunday. EVER! I left the flat at 12.20 (was going to leave earlier, but we found out after holding on National Rail Enquiries for about 10 mins that Canterbury East was closed so I had to go to the other side of town and thus would have missed the earlier train) and got in just before 9. I spent an HOUR at the exhibition in Olympia (went because it was run by the same company I'm joining, in the same venue to the same design, so i wanted to get a taste of what I was going to be doing) so I have spent 7 1/2 hours travelling to and from a venue, what, 50 miles from where I live...? Trains crap, tube crap, walked wrong way for a while because I couldn't get my bearings. Journey back was worst. Trains only went London to Canters once an hour, so I left giving myself loads of time to catch the 5.24. Good job too, because the tube was at a crawl, stopping and starting. It was only a 4 stop journey, but it took nearly 1/2 an hour. THEN I had another 20 mins wait in Victoria, watching the board for our train. They finally told us what station to board from 2 minutes before it was going to leave. We all ran. Unfortunately, we were also running with the crowd going to Orpington, whose train was also just about to leave, from platform 2 - being the platform that trains to Canterbury have left from for the past eternity. My train was on platform one. Platform one doesn't start until halfway down platform 2, making platform 2 look like it's actually platform 1. Needless to say, I got on the wrong FUCKING train! Didn't help that the LED screen saying 'this train is going to Orpington via Brixton and a bunch of other stations you've never heard of' didn't flash up until the train was already leaving the station. I ran up and down the length of the train, trying to find a member of staff to help me. Of course, there wasn't one. A minor panic attack later, and with my phone credits running out, I got off at Brixton station to see if I could find anyone to help. Brixton station was utterly deserted. I tried to switch platforms so I could go back to Victoria, and found myself on Brixton High Street. A larger panick attack after that, I finally found some unmarked stairs that led the way to the Victoria bound station. A delayed train journey later, I was back in Victoria with another half hour to wait for the 6.24 train, which came in at a different platform, again, with two minutes notice, again next to, and at the same time as, the train to Orpington. Luckily I got on the right one this time, but I was really pissed off with how few staff were about and how unhelpful they were when I could find them. And that one took me to the station the other side of town again.
So, to cut a long story long, My weekend was largely spent travelling and getting stressed, British Rail sucks big hairy cock, Rochester's confusing and Brixton's not a nice place to have a lonely panic attack in the dark in.
And people wonder why I never have time to write any more...
Saturday - got up WAY too early, drove to Hastings to help Hubs do some filming of the 'Old Town' for itvlocal. Director's Assistant job - always tremendously dull. Tends to consist of holding stuff, carrying stuff and looking supportive. The Owl Lady cheered things up a bit (hence my extremely random comment last night). She's from a local bird sanctuary and comes down to one of the museums every Saturday with 4 tame owls that the kiddies can pet and collects money for charity. Hubby did an interview with her, and then filmed me stroking the littlest, fluffiest, cutest owl. Very sweet.
Then - drove to Jools & Sylv's lovely new flat in Rochester. Fairly disconcerting driving on an unlit motorway on Fireworks Night - there's different sets of fireworks going up all around you. All very pretty, but since I was driving, I didn't really get to enjoy them. Then we got lost in Rochester trying to find the flat. I HATE getting lost in a town I don't know. You have to drive really slowly, peering everywhere for street names that more often than not don't exist, there's always somebody impatient on your tail & my little car and I both get all hot and bothered. It was worth it, though. As well as all the usual suspects, Dave G turned up, which was great, since I haven't seen him since the wedding. Lots of catching up, lots of hilarity with Crazy Kev and Flo, gloriously drunk yet again!
Due to driving back, still being all hyper, etc, didn't get to bed til nigh on 4, then up for today.
Oh, sweet Zeus, today... the Sunday from Hell. NEVER try to travel to London by train on a Sunday. EVER! I left the flat at 12.20 (was going to leave earlier, but we found out after holding on National Rail Enquiries for about 10 mins that Canterbury East was closed so I had to go to the other side of town and thus would have missed the earlier train) and got in just before 9. I spent an HOUR at the exhibition in Olympia (went because it was run by the same company I'm joining, in the same venue to the same design, so i wanted to get a taste of what I was going to be doing) so I have spent 7 1/2 hours travelling to and from a venue, what, 50 miles from where I live...? Trains crap, tube crap, walked wrong way for a while because I couldn't get my bearings. Journey back was worst. Trains only went London to Canters once an hour, so I left giving myself loads of time to catch the 5.24. Good job too, because the tube was at a crawl, stopping and starting. It was only a 4 stop journey, but it took nearly 1/2 an hour. THEN I had another 20 mins wait in Victoria, watching the board for our train. They finally told us what station to board from 2 minutes before it was going to leave. We all ran. Unfortunately, we were also running with the crowd going to Orpington, whose train was also just about to leave, from platform 2 - being the platform that trains to Canterbury have left from for the past eternity. My train was on platform one. Platform one doesn't start until halfway down platform 2, making platform 2 look like it's actually platform 1. Needless to say, I got on the wrong FUCKING train! Didn't help that the LED screen saying 'this train is going to Orpington via Brixton and a bunch of other stations you've never heard of' didn't flash up until the train was already leaving the station. I ran up and down the length of the train, trying to find a member of staff to help me. Of course, there wasn't one. A minor panic attack later, and with my phone credits running out, I got off at Brixton station to see if I could find anyone to help. Brixton station was utterly deserted. I tried to switch platforms so I could go back to Victoria, and found myself on Brixton High Street. A larger panick attack after that, I finally found some unmarked stairs that led the way to the Victoria bound station. A delayed train journey later, I was back in Victoria with another half hour to wait for the 6.24 train, which came in at a different platform, again, with two minutes notice, again next to, and at the same time as, the train to Orpington. Luckily I got on the right one this time, but I was really pissed off with how few staff were about and how unhelpful they were when I could find them. And that one took me to the station the other side of town again.
So, to cut a long story long, My weekend was largely spent travelling and getting stressed, British Rail sucks big hairy cock, Rochester's confusing and Brixton's not a nice place to have a lonely panic attack in the dark in.
And people wonder why I never have time to write any more...
