Good Friday Morning
Good Friday is naturally a very important date in the Christian history – and I’m not trying to upstage it today. As I have talked about before, this day has special memories for me.. On Good Friday 9th April 2004, I came out to the world, went full-time, whatever you want to call it. Previously my male clone occupied my body, but three years ago, this was a very special (and slightly scary, when it got down to it) moment. I was hoping to be at the stage of having surgery worked out by this point – and, I can now say I have (see last Saturday’s post).
There are a few other thoughts too. Tomorrow is Saturday 7th April, which marks four and a half years in my current job HR mention to the new starts that the average tenure is 18-24 months (I’d have said more like 12-18 in practice). There have been ups and downs to the lot. With my current plans, it looks like I will stay there in the run up to surgery, unless I get a very unlikely and hugely life-changing offer. That would mean at least three months off afterwards, so that should clearly see me well into five years service in one job – very scary! Nothing is going to be set in stone this year though!
Of course, this time last year (Geed Geed Friday) did see our team night out, with spectacular results early on Saturday morning… and upon mentioning this, Caroline asked me not to get too drunk on our team night out tomorrow! I’m not a drinker, but not strictly an abstainer either…
… Put it this way. I’ve got lots of good things to think of, lots of recent happy times, lots of good memories. It’s time to commemorate and celebrate the achievements, and this is the perfect excuse… like I need one!
So, today, we are all going to be at work. As per last year, I am still on the “old old old” agency contract, so this is the one time of the year when I actually make a little bit more i.e. double time and a half. Thankfully they’ve not tied to mess our shifts around this time!
If you are wondering when the deeply moving personal stuff comes up, well keep watching. In the meantime, keep watching for the latest transport, work and love gubbins!
Labels: caroline, transition, work
Wow, what a week…
… can it get any better? Another beautiful morning in Dundee, paid a day early for Easter – and so deeply in love. You know the phrase “absence makes the heart grow fonder?” Well, by the messages we’ve exchanged ion the last 24 hours, I would say we are now growing deeper in love, despite being so far apart!
A ride home tonight was courtesy of Adam, who picked up two of his flatmate’s friends on the way along the Perth Road. I’ve never seen him getting so well double-teamed by the two in the back… we all love him really, honest!
Yesterday, we heard from Jay, tomorrow he heads south to Florida to see the rest of his family on holiday for a bit – enjoy your well-deserved break, and try not to relax too much! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t… (regular blog readers will be aware this leaves for plenty of scope…) So, for today, the words of Kelly Clarkson herself… (the *other* American Idol from Rochester! lol)… and it sums things up so well!
"Breakaway"
Grew up in a small town
And when the rain would fall down
I'd just stare out my window
Dreaming of what could be
And if I'd end up happy
I would pray (I would pray)
Trying hard to reach out
But when I tried to speak out
Felt like no one could hear me
Wanted to belong here
But something felt so wrong here
So I prayed I could break away
[Chorus:]
I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly
I'll do what it takes til' I touch the sky
And I'll make a wish
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget all the ones that I love
I'll take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway
Wanna feel the warm breeze
Sleep under a palm tree
Feel the rush of the ocean
Get onboard a fast train
Travel on a jet plane, far away (I will)
And breakaway
[Chorus]
Buildings with a hundred floors
Swinging around revolving doors
Maybe I don't know where they'll take me but
Gotta keep moving on, moving on
Fly away, breakaway
I'll spread my wings
And I'll learn how to fly
Though it's not easy to tell you goodbye
I gotta take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget the place I come from
I gotta take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway, breakaway, breakaway
Wishing you all a peaceful Easter (or religious festival of choice), and I will be here when you get back… probably still typing!
Labels: caroline, transition, work
The bits I missed earlier
I managed to miss out (believe it or not) a couple of important bits from my posts. I gave you an introduction last time, so I’d better do the same again. Caroline Mathieson was born 47 and a bit years ago in Irvine, but was educated in Dundee at Kirkton High School (now Baldragon Academy). After graduating from Dundee University, she has largely lived south of the border. She works as a software engineer in Meldreth, and lives in Royston, Hertfordshire - 45 miles north of London. She is also in transition herself. In the last few years, she has taken to walking pilgrimages in Europe, and has already walked 300km in March this year on a Spanish Camino. She has a website on such things, but I will add the link once it is back online – hosted on her own Apache server at home, ran on a Mac! I met her initially via an online support group (yes, another nutty romance, in more ways that one! Lol), and she has been fantastically supportive to me this year – despite only knowing me online. When I was depressed back in January, it is no exaggeration that she was first to respond to my messages. She did drive a 4x4, but recently collected a S-reg metallic silver Ford Ka from a relative in Angus… and stopped in Dundee on the way home, where we first met in the flesh on a Sunday (and a Monday…) Now you may be wondering – again – about the age gap. As I’ve said before, I’ve no idea when or how the HD will take over my body (if ever at all), so I may not be myself at that age. I’d rather enjoy myself now. All three people who have loved and cared for me in my recent past may be from the same vintage, but their backgrounds could not be more diverse. There are other coincidences and situations between them too, but that is all an irrelevancy. I’m on a “learning curve” in some respects, but I am also climbing out a rut in some ways. That may sound bad, but it’s almost as if all the recent developments over the year have awaken something deep inside me. Something that has ever had the chance to get out, largely because I didn’t see myself in the right body (initially). In the last three months, I have changed quite a bit – just read back on the blog. Some of the meds that made me upset are on the way out. I’ve got what I’ve hoped most of my life for, coming later this year. I’ve had wonderful people to help and support me. I am happy with life. Caroline is also very happy at the moment, new(ish) car, just back from holiday etc. – you know the sort.
Speaking of love, Jay's “letter from America” has arrived (well it was an email) – “Suzy, it is so wonderful you are so happy...and in Love!!!. I wish the two of the all the happness in the world. I have always told you you are a great lady, and now you have someone in your life that feels as I have all along”.
I do want to talk here in the coming weeks more about my own personal feelings and how I see the future, my (our) future. Just because I’ve not got time to type it all up right now doesn’t mean I’ve not been deep in thought.
Labels: caroline, work
Busy day
A very busy day – then I headed for work! It was a wonderfully warm, bright summers day – almost like I’ve stolen the summer and brought it to Scotland! Caroline said that the morning (in Royston) was good, but the afternoon wasn’t.
Hopefully I will get caught up with everything soon enough! Thank you to everyone for all your kind words, emails, texts and thoughts!
Labels: caroline, transition, work
Wide awake
The Megabus headed north, and I drifted in and out of sleep, before falling asleep totally. I woke up to the news that we were getting a 30-minute stop at Hamilton Services until 0730, so went for a coffee in Costa. OK, when we were at Clackett Lane, Caroline was sat opposite me. Couldn’t do that this time, did take a look at her picture often enough though! Anyway, we got into Glasgow, left at 0830. There had been an accident on the M876, so we got into Dundee ten minuets down at 1035. I got home, and tried to get the pictures off the camera card (apparently you need to eject the device on a Mac before removing the card in a card reader. On a pc, you only need to remove it to change the reader, not the card). Lots of technical issues here! No chance – but then I remembered that the photo kiosk got them off the night before. Took the card to Boots, and burned the lot onto a PictureCD for £2.99. Then, headed for my usual web café, only to find it is closed (being a Dundee public holiday). I was able to get access via MBE in the end, and upload all the pictures from the weekend. You can see them all here.
So, to work I went for 1500. I logged in, but then was called away to a meeting. There is going to be a reshuffle of management by new bosses, but (once again) the agents come out almost unscathed. After I had my visit to the meeting, I became “crowd control”, gathering people for the meetings and showing them through to the correct meeting room. I’ve not done crowd control since my underground days! Lol surreal or what?
Anyway, made it to the end of the day, and out. Called Caroline on the way home (too much noise in the background of the Dart I was on – now I know why they were called sheds)…
Labels: caroline, transition, transport, work
Quiet Sunday
Probably the most pleasurable Sunday I’ve had for a while…
… We woke up when it became light, and cuddled up for a bit. After over an hour, we decided we had to get up. The clock showed 0830 – several hours earlier than either of us expected. Maybe time did really stop after all. As I am sure you can all appreciate, we were both incredibly happy. We ended up going back to bed for a bit, and up again. We had a genuinely fun afternoon. I booked my return from London to Dundee using no wires at all (her PowerBook is part of her wireless network). She was doing some work on her new Mac Mini. We took some pics of the both of us together, and this was our mutual favourite of the two. She said to me “See, I told you I’d get you smiling for a photo”.
So, the time came – and we decided to make a move at 2130, for the 2144 train south. Enough trains pass by - check out the overhead line equipment and tracks that you can see from the window! As the train (in full First Capital Connect livery, complete with some of the picture branding) pulled into Platform 2 of Royston station, we said our thank-yous and goodbyes, until the next time, and I instincitvly headed for the train. Then I realised, we weren’t pulling off immediately. The clock showed we still had two minutes to go until departure time, but most trains (in the south at least) get doors closed by the guard with thirty seconds to go. So, just enough time for me to walk to the door, arms onto the platform, one last kiss, and pulled apart bang on 21.43.30. Talk about making the best possible use of my time…
… and that was it. For now.
The train journey was a little interesting. Because of engineering work, the train ran through, but via the Hertford North, Cuffley and Enfield Chase line, rather than the via Knebworth, Welwyn, and Potters Bar, that we did on the way up. You know I always like to vary my journeys, and see the world go by (even fast and dark), but this was another interesting twist to the weekend. Never been to Cuffley before either… been to Hertford North and Enfield (Chase) before. I had been winding Adam (from The Illusion Principle) up about playing one of his bands songs as we passed through Knebworth, just so we could say that TIP played Knebworth. Once he got it explained what Knebworth referred to (a music festival of old), he was happy! As you can see, didn’t get the chance, but I will be back again.
So, a few texts exchanged. Thanks sent to S&S for their hospitality yesterday, which came back with a “congratulations for you both” when I explained what had occurred after we’d left theirs. I was still in awe – it had been a wonderful weekend. I alighted the train at Finsbury Park (same trip as last time), after adding some more credit to my Oyster card. What a forty-eight hours since I passed here in the opposite direction (it’s ok, I will shut up about it by the end of the month, honest… lol)
The Victoria line train once again took me south, but instinct somehow meant I headed for the Piccadilly line platform initially… never mind, they are parallel. As we sped down the tracks, we made it to Victoria, where most things were closed at 2300ish on a Sunday night. The station was still open for access, and one or two shops still open. I spent some time and a few coins of loose change and got a few of the pictures that I took this weekend, printed off by the photo kiosk. A photo tells a thousand words, they say. I headed for Greenline Coach Station, and could see that Neoplan 50127 was ready to take us all north. I headed upstairs, sat down, and pulled out the pictures for a quick look, and some texts were sent out too.
Now, you would have thought “that must surely be the end of the weekend now?” Nope!
One last bonus was the ride out of London. Most of the time, drivers leaving London would run via Hyde Park Corner, Park Lane, Marble Arch, Baker Street/Gloucester Place, Finchley Road, come off at Childs Hill, Brent Cross Flyover, North Circular, to Staples Corner, then the M1. However, we got to just after Hyde Park Corner, and traffic was gridlocked – yes, at ten to midnight on a Sunday night. So, we turned around using one of the turning lanes, and headed back to Hyde Park Corner. We left town via Knightsbridge, which was interesting to see all the changes. The building work on the Knightsbridge station (Harrods side) has all finished now. It was also interesting to see the changes in some of the shops – Harrods now also has a small food type shop on the other side of the road – and we then headed along via South Kensington, and towards Earls Court Tesco. At this point, we were on the M4, heading for the west (towards Heathrow), and we followed that to the M25, and joined the M1 shortly after. It was an extra bonus to be above ground and seeing some of these places, for the first time in ages.
Wow, what a weekend!
Labels: caroline, london, subway, transition, transport
A Tale Of Two Cities
We woke up fairly early, promising to be “on the road” for 0830. We were still munching breakfast and chatting then. Caroline had prepared a “German breakfast”, and got all the names right – I think, it was early for me. She is REALLY spoiling me – and I’m not complaining! We hit the road a little early – 0850 – and we were refuelling at Royston Tesco at 0900. There was an Arriva Wright bodied single on a 331 to Hertford, which seems to form an “A10 corridor” group of routes – the 310 does Waltham Cross (not Enfield any more) to Hertford, then the 331, then the 26 of Stagecoach works from Royston to Cambridge. The appointment was not till 1130, so we had plenty time to get through all the traffic snarl-ups… with the Ford Ka… … except that there weren’t any. Sarah & Sylvia got caught in these big time yesterday, and as I was reading it out, the Ka started swerving to the right… but very quickly rectified, before we hit the crash barrier! Oops… but anyway, this was once we’d got to the M25. By this point we went via A505, M11, M25, M23/A23 etc., A27 (Brighton By-Pass), then downhill at the University through to the Downs Hotel lights, then turning right.
In the car, I was ok. I became a little bit nervous in the car, but not too bad. I knew all the questions that I’d be asked, and I thought I had done enough question asking of my own, to know what was involved (see last Saturday between Montrose and Stracathro!) Sarah was in for her 10 week post op check-up, right before my initial consultation. I could see Sarah sat across the seating area, together with Sylvia, and Zoe. Sarah and Sylvia went off to see Phil Thomas, and Zoe stayed to wait for them, and then proceed to visit another friend of theirs upstairs (which I’ll come to later on). I was ok. If I’d not read the experiences of a previous visitor, then I’d be a lot more nervous here.
As S&S came out, Zoe joined them, and we agreed to talk and chat afterwards. At this point, Carla came out for more coffee for Phil, as to “perk him up a bit”… I didn’t ask. Just before the time came, I offered Caroline to come in with me… and she agreed! which was good. When the time came, Liz & Carla came out for me, and we spoke briefly on a few specifics, before being taken into see Phil himself. (we did briefly meet on the reception desk, although I only twigged later). He was then getting into all the specifics, explaining the specifics from his diagram. Then, the phone rang.
“Tell her to get her a**e in gear”… he said. (It was the 1230 appointment person, who had just arrived at Gatwick with around 40 minutes to go). True, he doesn’t mince his words right enough! I feel sorry for whoever that was… but the receptionist could probably filter it out. I’ve missed a variety of buses & trains over the years, so I could sort of sympathise – but we very quickly went back to my own issues. We talked about a number of things, and I was able to answer most of the questions… until they stumped me! “How heavy are you?”
Aah f**k. (My weight does have a habit of going up and down). “I don’t know… have you got a set of scales there?”
Well, they did – in the cubicle - and at 6 foot and 17 stones, I am currently a little overweight. I had to go back off behind the cubicle, on the bed for the physical, and I’d been warned last Saturday by Sarah that this could “mess with your mind”. It wasn’t so bad, but I could see why some people wouldn’t exactly enjoy it. I’ve had fingers and worse stuck up tighter places, so a brief check of the “area to be worked on”, and he said the words “hmm, that’s interesting”.
Turns out my weight is a bit baldy distributed. Although I am technically a little overweight, there is no build-up of fat on the area to be worked on. There is enough material to work with, and no requirement to get rid of any genital hair before hand. (Yes… that is a result – time, as well as cost and pain!)
So, we all got back to the main room (Phil, Liz/Carla, Caroline and myself), and we discussed what will happen. In brief, there is no need for any hair removal. There is no need to make any changes to my life, but losing 10 kilos would make me feel better, and make the recovery more pleasant. It wasn’t tied into the work or anything, it was just a suggestion – and it would also help my depression etc.). At the moment, I admit I am doing a bit of “comfort” eating, so cutting that out should make this easy. As for a date – well, the “first available” is quite a bit away, given that he is fully booked through the summer. We are therefore looking at late August, early September time. As has been echoed by just about everyone there, the staff there are fantastic. I wasn’t at all concerned or upset, but they wanted to reassure me as only they could. While this is the person who will be performing life-changing work on my body, the significance seems to be hitting in gently, rather than shaking me up.
We got out, and myself & Caroline sat down briefly (so I could send Sarah a text, as requested – Liz and friends encourage the use of mobiles at the hospital). We were happy, and Caroline was hugging me tightly. I wasn’t upset at all – in fact, fairly happy at the result.
As we were sat in the delightful waiting area downstairs (and I do mean that, the place seemed more like a hotel than a hospital), Sarah came downstairs alone (from the first floor of the hospital). She said that Jasmine and her mother were happy for me & Caroline to come and see them… and we headed upstairs to her front-facing room. This didn’t show us the view from the back of the hospital, but faced onto the Warren Road (lots of B&H 2’s and 22’s going past!). Now, if I remember rightly, this was her first day back on solid food post-op. She was happy, content, and enjoying the lot. So, for a Saturday morning, she was fairly talkative – and had to be, with myself, Sarah & Sylvia, Caroline, and Zoe (as well as her mother) to speak to. That wonderful post-op “glow” that is talked of seems to be already in place, and genuinely she was in no pain. Everyone says religiously that “it does not hurt” – but I don’t fear pain. As if I needed any more reassurance, Jasmine’s wellbeing was more than enough to show that yes, this was the right place. It somehow seemed that making it personal, and talking to people, has taken the edge off what could have been a routine appointment with an un-named person, in a huge hospital. Zoe left for Manchester, and soon after we left Jasmine & mom to chat for a bit, while we raided the coffee machine. Sarah, Sylvia, Caroline and I sat together in what is the ophthalmic outpatient waiting area, but not on Saturdays it would appear. One of the nurses passed, and recognised Sarah from her visit. That was reassuring. – by this point, I’d long passed the point of needing to be reassured. It just added to the atmosphere. Maybe I’m lucky, but then again, it means Sarah has also been lucky, Jasmine is lucky too, Zoe is coming here soon, and everyone else who has came and gone – many every week – are also being well cared for. I can live with that. It all seemed so “right”. The view from the back of the hospital, over the Downs, is like this…
S&S had offered the two of us to come to Cambridge for the evening, which we gracefully accepted. It was while we were sat down that she said “Neither of you are afraid of snakes, are you?” I’d remembered reading the story of Axmister’s bite, but Caroline appeared to have forgotten… but we agreed to meet up around six-ish.
We headed back, but headed back to the seats to avoid interrupting Jasmine’s bed bath. Her mother joined us in the seating area briefly, and we talked. It seemed wonderful that she was being so supportive of her daughter (in my eyes), and that she was willing to talk of such things. We rejoined Jasmine, and then left about quarter past two I think. We headed out to the car park, and I’d somehow managed to make a half hour appointment turn into to a three-hour visit – it truly is a wonderful hospital, the staff are good, the patients get exceptionally well cared for. As we left, I noticed a stash of copies of the current slimline edition of the Brighton & Hove bus timetable on a table behind the exit – Tails Prower 2040 had picked up one for me on his previous (completely different) visit to Brighton a few weeks ago, but I still love how they can fit the entire city map and summary timetables onto what is effectively an A3 sheet of paper! As you will have gathered, they seem to be magicians in this part of the world… maybe it’s something in the water!
(For the bus hairies reading this, there seemed to be a lot of Route 25 branded buses passing through Woodingdean on the 2/22, but I presumed these were just spare at he weekend because the 25 is the University service. If I remember rightly, and I am no expert on this part of the world, the 25 buses are the newest in the fleet – being the huge Scania OmniDekka 90-odd seater jobs – which looked just about every bit as functional as stylish. One in construction is on the front of the current [winter] edition of Pocket Bus Times).
So, we split here in the wind, vowing to meet again later in the evening. Sarah showed off by managing to start her Toyota Synergy hybrid drive car in electric mode – and yes, it was wonderfully quiet!
So, what a day so far – and it was far from over. We went back essentially via “outward route in reverse”, but I could tell someone was being especially thoughtful and caring for me! We agreed that because we were heading out for a curry in the evening, we didn’t want to fill up right now, but stopped at Clackett Lane services – another M-way services that I’d never visited before. I’m not collecting them or anything, but this weekend it seemed likely
Note that the Apple windscreen sticker was not applied by the current owner! I pointed this out when she visited to collect it, and she had not noticed it until then! We talked about all what we’d just seen and heard, and I was very happy - awestruck maybe. We then carried on the M25, naturally going through the Dartford Tunnel rather than across the QEII Bridge in this direction. I was in a wonderful state of mind – almost enjoying this a little too much.
It was about fourish by the time we left Clackett Lane, so we decided to head straight for Cambridge via the M11. S&S have a wonderful place not far from Cambridge Station, and directions were supplied by return text message. It was at this point that Caroline made her one slightly incorrect turning manoeuvre during the entire 250+ miles trip, and pulled into a bus stop to attempt a u-turn. We made it – just! Cambridge is a city I’ve never been to before, and it looked wonderful. MAN’s and Tridents of Stagecoach (ex Cambus) appeared to be the mainstay of the Citi branded network around the city, and were well loaded throughout. Some familiar faces could be seen on the Park & Ride services – the first batch of East London Tridents, which are now non-compliant for TfL work, but perfectly adequate for the rest of the world.
So, we got there, and found a tiny parking space – Caroline did well at parking the Ka in it, and we were reunited with S&S. We managed to interrupt Sarah’s livejournal posting session, which included a rant about her gridlocked M25 the day before! We met the snakes (my apologies that I didn’t remember all the names, but it had been a busy day by this point!), as well as talking about some trans related stuff too. After getting my rear kicked by Sarah on Super Mario Kart (I’ve not played it since SNES days, and this was my first shot on a GameCube), we headed for The Golden Curry.
They were unusually busy for a Saturday night, and the waiter apologised for this. They said that they had an unusually large group, which they don’t normally take on Saturdays. We had a small round table up against the window, which was perfect for conversing and watching the City go by (Citi?) The food was excellent, and probably the best that I’ve had from such an establishment. All the food was served up brilliantly, After much talk and entertainment all round, we headed back to S&S’s place for a bit, where a pot of Jasmine tea was served up in honour of the person we’d visited earlier! We called it a night around 2300, when Sarah started to flag. It was a truly wonderful night, and we left with safe wishes for my journey north.
Now, if you thought, “that day couldn’t possibility get any better”… there was still time!
We drove down the A10 to Royston, and headed straight to Caroline’s flat, which we had left about fourteen and a half hours before. We talked in the car, and I pointed out how well she’d looked after me for the weekend. We got back in her flat, and she started making hot chocolate. During this time, I slung my arms around her shoulders, and thanked her for everything… told her how I felt and what a wonderful person she was, and we sort of went from there. We sat down on the sofa, and we were very much in love. Caroline’s now my girlfriend, partner, lover, call it what you will. The next time we checked the clock, it was 0230 on Sunday morning. To avoid any suggestions of “April fools”, we agreed to metaphorically stoop the clock for a few hours at 23.59.59 on 31.03.2007… or do the bus industry/London underground trick and call it 2630 hours…
Remember when I was depressed back in January? A certain woman was first on the scene to say lots of nice things to me… and things went from there. I have turned my life around, and am now a very happy woman.
Labels: caroline, surgery, transition, transport
Dundee to Royston – on a Friday
Today formed Part One of my weekend away. The reason for going south is for my “initial consultation” with my surgeon tomorrow, in Brighton. A good friend of mine, Caroline, has very kindly offered hospitality, and transport as required. How can I turn down the offer like that? Caroline was up north on 17-19 February, which included meeting me twice in Dundee city centre. So, it’s good to see her once more.
I got to Dundee Bus Station in time for the 0900 megabus to London. To my own surprise, we started the trip with Volvo/Plaxton Panther 54009 – one of the brand new single deck, 65 seat, 15m long ones – pulls up, blinded M11 London. Is this wise, given that it’s a Friday? Well, this was all irrelevant as we changed to Neoplan Skyliner 50150 (double deck, 91 seat coach) at Perth Broxden Park + Ride.
I called Caroline on the bus, just as the controller came on the coach and yelled almost parallel to the mouthpiece of the phone… and then a young child was crying, quite a bit, so we decided to stick to texts for that point. We got in and out of Glasgow on time, to head south at 1100.
I briefly checked my email several times using the new brick (mobile). I had received an email from Stuart Henry at Travel West Midlands/Travel Dundee re my letter of complaint on Service 14. To their credit, they are willing to have a meeting at work (noting when I will be in and not). Travel Dundee’s MD is currently on annual leave, but back soon. I will deal with that in more depth early next week.
When we got to Preston Bus Station (pre-redevelopment), a few sights taken from the window of the coach included a Solo headed for Blackpool! We were very lucky with roadworks and accidents, because of many miles of stationery traffic on the M6, and then the M60, but both the opposite way! We were due into Manchester at 1540/out 1545, and were a bit late on the way out due to traffic (in the main). Roadworks then started to hit us – the M1 was meant to be a problem. Bear in mind that we were “due” into London at 2015. A few passengers asked about a stop (the toilet was blocked) when we did a driver change at Watford Gap Services, so we stopped there from 1900-1915. I sent Caroline a text at the “35 miles to London” point, but of course, that is when it starts hitting worse with M1 extensions and widening.
I spotted my first London bus – an ALX400 (DLA I think) from Arriva, running off the 142 dead back to Garston (Watford) garage. Now I know that I have (almost) arrived. Soon after, we got to the legendary Staples Corner (junction of the north Circular, Edgware Road, and the M1). It is now home to Staples stationery store, amongst others. Having said that, it was not where the name came from – apparently there used to be a mattress factory here called Staples – I never knew that until last week! We finally got in well over one hour late. I made it out to the tube station, and had enough credit on my Oyster card to make it to Finsbury Park for the First Capital Connect train to Royston. (The previous franchisee, National Express owned WAGN, was informally known as “We Are Going No-where”).
Now, here is a simple figure to work out.
OPTION ONE
Victoria to Kings Cross, £1.50 single by Oyster (off-peak) x 2 = £3.00
Kings Cross to Royston, £24.50 Saver Return
TOTAL - £27.50
OPTION TWO
Victoria to Finsbury Park, £1.50 single by Oyster (off-peak) x 2 = £3.00
Finsbury Park to Royston, £20.50 Saver Return
TOTAL - £23.50
So, work out how the same length of journey can cost an extra four quid, for no additional saving – just a different stop to jump ship. Kings Cross to Finsbury Park is about the same on the Victoria Line as it is on the overground – the latter gets about seven minutes. I had to visit overground briefly to get tickets for this bit of the run, and the first three machines had issues – only the fourth and final one was working! The new Finsbury Park bus station (remember I’ve not been here for some time) has been tidied up quite a bit, from the one I used to remember from years gone by!
So, from Finsbury Park north, not quite the 2057 (fast) or even the 2111 (stopper) that I expected to get – in fact, not until the 2211 stopper an hour later! so I sent a text to Caroline to tell her… and got one back saying “I somehow knew you would not be here until 11 hunny. I’ll be at the station waiting for you”. This is nice… even more so as the train didn’t leave Finsbury Park until two and a half minutes late! The train was a nice electric thingy, but still in Network SouthEast livery (or so it looked like), and the sealing strips were hanging off the side of the wall. Lots of label sticking of new fleetnames, and even a nice poster about how things would improve under the new franchise with First. That sounds familiar… In any case, it was a quiet and smooth journey, and although it sounded like Ned-U-(Don’t)-Like at Hitchin, I was the only one in my carriage for the last few stops to Royston. The train was blinded (and announced) “Cambridge via Stevenage” until after we left there, and it became “all stations to Cambridge”. Anyway, we got in about six minutes late to Royston, and Caroline was there, waiting for me. We chatted for a bit, and then she worked on supper until about 0100 hours on Saturday morning. Appreciated, given that I’d been travelling for 14 hours…
Tomorrow is going to be more fun – a visit to the surgeon and back. The rest of the day is pretty much open. Wonder what might happen…?
Labels: caroline, london, subway, transition, transport
