The daily commute

You might have noticed that the blog only gets updated after the weekend. This is mainly because our mid-week life, while fun to us, is probably not as exciting to you. A typical day goes:
Get up at 6:45, have breakfast, leave house and catch 7:42 to London. Tim heads to his office and I catch the Picadilly line to Hammersmith. Work. Leave at 5:30 - I head back across London and catch 6:15 train back to Bedford. Arrive back home at 7:15. Tim catches Thameslink from London bridge and arrives home at about the same time. Have dinner. Go to band/choir/badminton/pub. Come home. Go to bed.

This may sound terrible to some people, but we don't mind it. And (ignoring the commute) you probably have a similar daily routine. Every now and again though, some aspect of our day goes horribly wrong and all you can do is laugh. Here is the tail of my commute home yesterday...

Leave the office at 5:20 - slightly early to make sure I catch the 6:15 train. Forget to check the transport for london website, so don't realise until I get to the station that the Picadilly line is suffering severe delays.

Not a problem - decide to catch the district line, change at Victoria and take the Victoria line to King's Cross. Catch the district line.

District line is slow. Get to Victoria at 6:00 and join the slow moving seething mass of commuters trekking down the stairs, round the corner and onto the Victoria line platform. Reach platform to hear an announcement that King's Cross is closed due to overcrowding.

Not a problem - decide to get off train one stop early at Euston, and walk to King's Cross. It will only take 10 minutes, I'm already too late to catch the 6:15 but I'll be in plenty of time for the 6:55.

Victoria line is not slow and (surprisingly) not too crowded. It rattles along and slows up at Euston, but doesn't stop - the driver announces Euston is closed due to overcrowding. We then drive straight through King's Cross, which is also closed due to overcrowding.

Problem - I am now at Highbury and Islington (I have no idea where this is in relation to anywhere else in London). I wonder if there is a bus?

Follow the slow moving seething mass of commuters along the corridors and up the stairs to the outside world. Try to phone Tim but the network is busy due to all the commuters ringing their friends to complain about being in Highbury and Islington.

Find a bus stop, interpret the map and work out which bus and which stop I need to get to King's Cross. Find the bus stop, sit and wait for the number 30.

10 minutes later catch the number 30 towards King's Cross. Bus takes another 10 minutes to reach the station. Still, I'm in plenty of time to catch the 7:30 train home.

Get home at 8:20 - Tim, alerted to my plight has dinner waiting for me. Laugh at the succession of calmities which has caused me to have the longest commute home so far - three hours door to door.

What can you do but laugh? getting angry doesn't help and just makes the situation worse. And days like yesterday really are the exception rather than the rule.

Oh well - look forward to a post full of fun activities after the weekend!