Why can’t people just say what they mean?

So I left Cornwall yesterday afternoon knowing full well this was almost certainly going to be a bad day for travelling. I mean, have you seen the weather of late? Actually, I ask because I haven’t. Cornwall has been fairly well shielded from most of it. Devon on the other hand had up to 55cm the other night. Suffice to say I assumed my travel problems would be there.

How wrong could I have been? Sailed through Devon without a hitch, In fact, sailed all the way to Paddington station without a hitch. Slowed a little in places, but for the most part it was a fairly boring journey I spent watching the rest of the firefly TV series on my laptop.

The trouble all started just as we were coming into London. The announcer on the train told us that we had made good time and were in on time and that to add to our good fortune all the underground lines were running just fine too. Well that’s handy, maybe I can get an earlier train than the hour later one suggested to me.

Yeah, as if things could go that well! As I go out the main station and into the underground I can’t help but notice a lot of lost looking people, even for a big tourist place like Paddington. Turns out the circle line was shut down, the whole thing! Well, that’s handy. Thinking cap on, I know, District line down to Earl’s Court, then District along to Victoria. OK, sorted. At Earl’s court I am met with about 3 times the number of people that station can handle and a train that claims Victoria isn’t on the District line. Quick look at my map and I’m still right thankfully. Find a train that claims to be going to Victoria, get on that, they announce all stations. It is pretty packed, not much room to move. We rattle through the stations one by one until we get to Sloane Square (the one before Victoria) and then they decide our next stop will be St James’s Park. Oh come on guys, no, not again. You see, several years ago I was on a train to Victoria when they decided it was closed (twice) and we sailed through it. This time I had already given up and just stood there waiting to sail through. Thankfully, little luck on my side and we actually stopped there this time.

All in all, I love the underground. That is not to say it is without faults. I have been on much cleaner; better, easier to understand systems in other parts of the world, but none of them have quite that character. Maybe it is the little mistakes from time to time that make me like it so much, even if it does cause me to almost miss my trains from time to time…