Day 9 - Homeward bound with booty

Work was a series of meetings and non meetings and at lunch I decided to go for a walk just to stretch my legs and did my lap around Kings Cross and St Pancras stations.  One thing I noticed is that next to the office building I work in a wine bar has opened and I was quite stunned to see a sign that advertises breakfast wines from 8.00 a.m.  I must admit you must be in a bad state to want a wine at 8.00 in the morning.  Needless to say I will not be queuing ready for the offerings in future.

One thing I noticed in the office is when a colleague approaches you and introduces you to someone who you have not worked with yet or really know what that person is going to do, it is so awkward when neither person has anything to say.  I have witnessed that a few times recently.  That being said another difficult one and it happened to me today is when you see someone you have worked with before but not seen for a while and you think, I better be polite and go say hello but again you have nothing to say, only stuff like, “oh what are you working on now” and after their response I normally say, “oh that’s nice” and that is it I stand there feeling uncomfortable until you start to say goodbye and then both parties suddenly start talking at a hundred miles an hour with the usual goodbye pleasantries.

The next trek for me was back to Kings Cross for my Hull Train service back home.  Even though I know it takes about 2 minutes (literally) to get from the office to the station but I always set off 30 minutes before they are even due to open the doors to the train.  I think it is a sort of mental thing that I know as soon as I hit the station I am on my way home and finished for the day and this week is even better as I have tomorrow off so the weekend has already started, whohoooo.

The journey was going well, I had a nice seat, had my ear phones in and eyes closed as we sped across the countryside.  Until Grantham that is, when the train stopped and stayed stopped while apparently the driver tried to fix the broken train.  So we were sat for a total of 30 minutes when finally we lurched forward and were back on our way.  The problem was now that our entrance into Doncaster was scheduled for 20.58 and my train home was due to leave Doncaster at 20.56.  If I missed that train then it would be another hour before the next train.

As the train rolled into Doncaster I was at the door and looking desperately for the Goole train and magically it was there and as I got the doors open I hurtled across the platform and caught my train.  Life was good.

What seems to be normal now is that the train which only has a dozen or so passengers, they have started putting two conductors and on this occasion there was an older chap and a youngish lad who seemed quite rough.  Every sentence contained the F word as he was talking to his buddy but what he did as we approached Thorne amazed me.  The train was about to set off when the young guy said to the older one, “hang on” he walked over and kicked this young bloke who was asleep and shouted, “Thorne, wake up, you’re at Thorne”. 

The guy woke up and then went straight back to sleep so he walked up again and kicked him and shouted again.  This time the guy woke up and got off the train. 

I thought, hmm mental note, don’t close my eyes as we approach Goole.

One more job to do was to visit Tescos on the way home and see what reduced stuff was on offer and bingo, I got a nice bunch of flowers for the wife for 10p, some bread rolls for 10p, a bread loaf for 10p and the best, a bag of carrots for 1p. 

So taking my fare home got me into the good books as I walked through the door to start my weekend properly.