Commuting Hell

If like me, you commute to work in London, then you will understand some of my ramblings on this post. And the frustrations of going to work 5 days a week on those train and tube journeys. If however, you work from home or your workplace is just a stone throw away from where you live, then count your blessings!

I've had it up to my neck with issues on the trains. First, navigating round the ever-changing and complicated time-table. Apparently my journey time had to change last week because they are now running the winter time table. Next is the frequency of the trains. Where I live, sometimes if you miss a train by one minute, the next one could be in 45 minutes. By then of course, you are very late. When you get on the (smelly) train, you jostle with other passengers for a seat and settle down for the journey into Central London. Your thoughts are (rudely) interrupted by an employee of the train company coming and shouting "Tickets please!!". You fish in your bag and produce your ticket with a mixture of pride and anger because you know how much that ticket has cost you for the uncomfortable ride. Anyway sha, you finally arrive in the City. You get to work and you need 5 minutes and a cup of tea to recover, before starting the day's activities. Going back home, you repeat the whole process again.

Add that to my issues with other passengers. How come some people at 7.00am in the morning, are already smoking their cancer sticks? Yesterday a lady sat beside me, and I nearly choked She had been smoking just before the train arrived and she stank! I had to start "faning" myself with my newspaper until she got up. I hope she got the message. Then there was a guy was coughing, sneezing and sniffing behind me. Last week someone got into the train and sat in front of me and I had to bolt out of my seat and change carriage otherwise I would have choked to death. He had such a nasty odour going on.

My commute takes three hours out of my day, every Monday to Friday, becos it takes approximately 90 minutes each way. Like that is not bad enough, recently the train lines have gone haywire, breaking down at every opportunity. So for the last three weeks, my train has been cancelled, delayed, diverted, or kindly replaced by the train company declaring, "we have a replacement bus service running....". Oh the frustration!!

Sorry guys, I needed to rant about it. Poor hubby has had to come and rescue me a few times when I am stranded on the way home, so I can't exactly complain to him. Writing to the train companies doesn't help much either, nothing changes, because they know we don't have a choice as commuters. All they see is their profits at the end of the year. So we have to accept it as "that's life in the City".

But you know what, I will let it inspire me to find a new way to earn my income without the commute. So I'm looking forward to the day that I can work from home. And if I must show face in the office then I will do it with my personal chauffer-driven Bentley. That will be the day :)