"Let the train take the strain ..."

The photo above was taken at Colchester train station, at 1:40pm yesterday. In the picture you can see two trains (And a load of confused National Express train staff). The train on the left is the 11:00 from Liverpool Street, due in to Colchester at approximately 11:45, whereas the train on the right is the 11:30 from Liverpool Street, due in at approximately 12:15. Remember when I took the picture? That's right, 1:40pm ...


Yesterday I spent 4 hours on trains getting to and from work, double the time I would normally take. I wouldn't mind (As I had plenty to watch on my PSP) but yesterday morning I got up at 4:30am so I could get the 5:33am train and be in work for before 7am. I had a 1/2 day yesterday so I could go and see Bethany's school assembly, and there was work I needed to get done before leaving so decided the extra hour in the office would be of use ... Unfortunately Network Rail decided otherwise, as we were sat at Manningtree from 05:33 to 06:15! I finally got into work at 8am, 15 minutes later than I normally get in when I catch my regular train!


Then there was going home. Got to Liverpool Street for 12pm, only to discover there were no trains in the station which would get me home. The delayed 11am arrival came in at 12pm, and became the 11:30 back out again - confused? So I got on the 11:30am departure at 12pm, and finally got to Colchester at 1:30pm where I then had to get off the train with the rest of the passengers and squeeze myself onto the already quite full 11am from Liverpool Street. I finally got home at 2pm, but most importantly I made it to B's assembly.


The girls went on their first ever sleepover together last night, when they stayed with my brother-in-law Matt and sister-in-law-to-be Michelle. Mia and I went out for something to eat (Where a waitress tried to sell us a border collie puppy for £150! I did google them this morning, but have talked myself out of it), got home, then discovered we had left Bethany's car seat in our car, so had to drive all the way back to Ipswich to drop the seat off. The girls weren't too fussed to see us, and didn't scream or cry to come home much to Mia's dismay. (We also noticed that Bethany had put her toothbrush in with Matt and 'Chelle's, so obviously wasn't planning on going anywhere soon!).

And today ...? The Dublin office are doing their disaster recovery test, which means I need to test things from the London office. I've been in since 10am (After a 2 hour journey to get here, as there are no trains ...! Planned engineering work this time though) and have done not a lot ..
The communications line between here and Dublin have just gone down, so something must be happening. And once I'm done here, I might nip across to Tottenham Court Road and get myself a Line 6 USB connector thing, so I can plug my guitar into my computer ... All depends on when Dublin stop having a disaster.

And then there's the 2 hour plus journey home. Good thing I filled up my PSP before leaving home this morning. I'm currently watching 'The Unit', and find it passes the time but does try and ram a message down your throat with every episode. I finished season 1 of 'Damages' last week, and decided that if I ever met Glenn Close in real life I'd probably run ... Her roles as the demented woman in 'Fatal Attraction', Cruella De Ville in the '101 Dalmations' films, and Patty Hewes in 'Damages' really don't do her any favours ...