1. Getting up at 6.45am.
2. Scraping ice off the windscreen.
3. Train being late or not arriving at all.
4. Forgetting my iPod.
5. People continually asking: "Did you have a good Christmas?"
6. People continually asking: "Did you have a good new year?"
7. People continually saying: "Yes, there's a lot of it about".
8. Freezing my nads off walking from Charing Cross to the office.
9. Ringing someone and getting an ansaphone message saying "I'm not back until 12 January".
10. Getting to Charing Cross in the evening to find all trains to Tonbridge are delayed/cancelled.
Apart from that, I'm really looking forward to seeing my esteemed colleagues!
26 comments:
Did you have a good Christmas though Iain?
I'll be one of those annoying peope, not back until 12th January.
wv: Gloat.
Well, at least you have a job and an income...
I'm back in my office on press week, and can't find any way of motivating myself. And I'd be happy never to see Bath Spa train station again!
You could add to the list the annoyance at discovering your monthly season ticket has gone up by £60!
Iain, why not do what I do...go by bus to T.Wells and catch a later train?
I always do about three hours first thing, then pop onto a 254 bus to be in town just a little later, for much, much less!
You've got a laptop haven't you?
You grumpy git. Ain't like real work is it? Get paid to observe, research and talk politics all day - ay carummba.
Top marks for Total Politics Totty - pip pip and perhaps a toot toot for good measure.
I'll be up at 5:30.. and have teh joy of knowing when I renew the annual train ticket it will be over £8,000. Lovely....
You should add paying for your ticket from Tonbridge to the list.
Jon - £8,000?? 8 grand?? 8 thousand English pounds sterling??
Afraid so Dick..... only a 6% increase from the £7592 last year. Who knows... the may actually turn the heating on in the carriages tomorrow.
At least nobody will be asking you how West Ham got on at the weekend
Geez, that's gotta be 12k on your wages. What journey is it? That's about £40 per day if you chuck in a bit of holiday and stuff. That's bloody scandalous.
Newark to Kings Cross. My own fault (well ours as my wife commutes too) as we dont want to live in London.
Errrm . . .10 things I'm dreading about going back to work . . . .
1. Getting up at 6am
2. Wading through my 2 briefcases of paperwork (which havent seen the light og day for 2 weeks!)
3. Dragging myself into a workplace full of 'not my kinda people'
4. Having to be pleasant to people I grossly dislike (& who have been hounding me throughout the hols. with intrusive e mails - to which I haven't replied!)
5. Pretending I'm interested!
6. Walking into a classroom devoid of any trace of Christmas cheer!
7. The prospect of canteen SLOP at lunchtime!
8. The even worse prospect of OFSTED within the next few weeks.
9. Mouthy kids returning on Tuesday to verbally abuse me for another 5 weeks!
10. The 5 week count-down to half- term which will no doubt pass as quickly as a tortoise on Tafil!
(So, think yourself lucky Mr Dale! ;-))
Hats off to you both - guess you know what you're doing. Happy new year.
Dick . . .please may you grant me the pleasure of viewing your Blog!!??? PPPPpppp . . . .pretty please? ;-)
Tory Poppins - it seemed like a good idea at the time but I realized I had bugger all to say really (apart from whinging about the mouse in my kitchen who keeps on avoiding the cage I bought to humanely trap him - he gave me proper eyeballs yesterday as if to say 'bugger you, ya muppet') so have temporarily shut it down.
Seems that Mr Dale & GF do a much better job than I could.
It's like that old joke, 10 things to prove that men are lazy:
1)
Oh shucks Dick! I was so bowled over by your extra-sensory profile! Particularly your occupation as a cheese smeller - your love of Bros and your obvious passion for "My Beautiful Haemorrhoids." We have so much in common! Anyway - good luck with said pickles! Tp
P.S. Give me a Ping when you get 'back up' darling! ;-)
But then, at least how it seems to many people, that you enjoy. Few people have that luxury
Tory Poppins 9.41 pm
I assume you are in Secondary ed.
I retired as a Primary head after 30 years in the biz.
I actually looked forward to seeing colleagues and children every morning.
You really ought to find another job. Your disaffection must be pretty obvious.
Iain
I thought you spent the day blogging at home in your pyjamas.
And there was me thinking Iain just did all his work from home in his bed whilst wearing pyjamas.
Still, at least you have a job. I don't even have that!
How glad I am to be a retired gent - a member of the leisure class. No more cold drafty platforms for me.
Happy New Year to the Workers! Just keep counting the days until you too get your Freedom Pass, courtesy of that very wonderful man, Ken Livingstone.
so funny Iain so funny/
from russia/bekasovo/ with loves
Iain,
I used to moan about commuting by train to London Bridge, and after 25 years got a new job in the Thames Valley.
After 18 months driving from your neck of the woods every day to Reading, crawling in traffic for >2 hours each way on the M25/M4, plus countless 4+ hour journeys due to congestion, accidents, bad weather, I was longing for a job back in London. Yes rail fares in the UK are outrageously expensive compared with every other country in Europe, but travelling daily by train is infinitely preferable (assuming you get a seat). You can read, sleep, work on your laptop, have a beer (or in your case a soft drink) - none of which you can do when driving. Also the current Class 375 / 377 rolling stock is much more comfortable than the cattle trucks of the '80s, which were cold in the winter and sweat boxes in the summer.
And as the Bear has rightly pointed out, at least you have a job.
Hang on. I thought Total Politics was your baby. If I am right, you conceived it and put the package together. I also understand your partner works there too, so that's two people who do the journey.
There is no reason on earth why you should have the office in Central London. Really. Give me one good reason. You could have saved the planet, and a lot of sturm und drang and located near your home. Instead, you have chosen to spend every day, twice a day sitting on someone else's stale farts, and that's if you are lucky enough to get a train.
You are just contributing to the sum total of urban misery.
Did you have a nice Christmas?
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