And that someone is likely to be Red Ken!
It has taken me 5 hours, much venting of frustration, abuse of colleagues, a 2.5 mile run and a fruit flapjack to get over what was a highly traumatic (sorry Richard!) trip into work this morning.
OK, I admit, “traumatic” is hyperbole. In the words of one underground attendant this morning, the situation was grim. The journey to London was fine, for a change, but once at Euston we were informed that the southbound Northern Line via Charing Cross was still shut following the derailment over the weekend. In addition to that, the Victoria line (my usual route) was also suspended because of a “defective” train stranded at Oxford Circus. Oh, and they weren’t letting anyone down to the station because it was busy on the only operating platform! I resorted to trying to catch a bus with the other 10,000 stranded commuters.
I can see now why Mayor Ken is keen for everybody to use public transport in London because it’s so efficient and safe it’s got to be better than driving into the city! I considered bringing my bike down in the future and riding to work from Euston but cycling through London is only a fraction more dangerous than base-jumping from the top of the Petronas towers without a parachute.
I’ve been thinking of writing a letter to the makers of Monopoly and asking them to update the game so that Chance cards reflect life in London. Or more to the point, updating the four station squares to that if you buy them, you become responsible for all the problems and safety issues and will have to pay out compensation to other players when they draw the appropriate Community Chest card. Or better still, you have to pick a card which will have instructions like:
Station closed due to flooding. Miss one turn.
or
Wrongly accused of instigating a punch up on the platform which you were trying to stop. Go straight to Jail yada yada yada.
But I think my favourite card will be
Train defective. Stranded until end of game. You lose!
Do you think it’ll catch on?
23/10/2003 at 12:03 am Permalink
Poor you. It’s getting worse isn’t it? M left central London at around 9pm last Friday night but they had that derailment at Acton – he eventually got home at 02:50.