Choo Choo...
Well hello my lovelies…and a late late late Eid Mubarak…!
Been meaning to wrote something for aaages…but not had the chance, as usual…!! Alhamdulilla managed to get the last 10 days of ramadan off so spent that at home with the family which included eid too. Sad in a lot of ways but I was thinking that this period, a mere 10 days, was the longest I had spent at home consecutively for nearly two years…! Crazy I know. Now back in London and back at work……alhmadulilla enjoying it though.
Winter is upon us as I write this with the clocks having gone back a week or so ago….and as with most people, I think I suffer a mild form of S.A.D or Seasonal Affective Disorder….as in in the summer you feel more energetic and lively whereas in the winter you can't be bothered to do anything. Even worse for me though as I never see the little sunlight there is…! I leave my flat at 6:30, when its dark, and then I get home for 7 ish, when its dark…! And given your in an air-con building, you lose track of the weather outside….!
Trains. YES. Trains. You know, those things that run on tracks and take you from A to B. That's what I want to talk about..! The train system in the UK is sooooo messed up, its ridiculous. Like so many times when I'm trying to go home on a fri evening, I'll buy a ticket, then because there are no seats left, face standing up for 4 hours before I get home…! I mean, if there's no seats left, why do the train companies continue selling tickets..?! Why should I pay £50 to stand for 4 hours…?! CRAZY. Also, even more crazy is the way these train companies win their licenses etc etc….don't wanna bore u with the details but its MESSED UP and leaves us, the consumer, not very well looked after. In the age where everyone is super conscious about the environment, I can't understand why they can't make trains, one of the most energy efficient modes of transport, more accessible for people….like if four people want to go to London and back from Manchester, by car it will cost them £40 petrol…? And £10 depreciation of the car….? Whereas by train you're talking at least £200…….
So every time I'm going back home on the train, there will inevitabley be one problem or another…either there won't be any seats left…or the train will be delayed…or like during ramadan when I purchased an "advanced" ticket which I was supposed to pick up from the station..but when I got there, there was a Huge queue for the machine so I ended up missing my train…!
Another thing that bothers me is how often you get a generic ticket (i.e. no specific seat) so everyone waits, with their eyes glued to the screen which will show which platform to go to for that particular train…and people wait, stare, wait, stare….and then the screen shows platform X for all trains to Y and people literally start running to get to the train so they can get a seat…and you see all these elderly people trying their best to drag their luggage and also get to the train…quite upsetting
If you manage to get to the train, then you have the issue of finding a seat…! Because often people will pre-book seats and not turn up….so you have to take the chance and sit on seat which says "reserved" and just cross your fingers that this person doesn't turn up….thankfully when i went up I ended up finding a seat which was not even reserved so I sat down and smugly watched as other ran around me like headless chickens looking for a seat to sit down in…
So two rows ahead of me, there was a seat which said "reserved" but a guy came, asked if anyone was sitting there and then placed his bag on the seat and told the guy next to him that if no one came for that seat, he would sit there…and so he stood near that seat waiting to see if anyone would come….1 minute later a woman came up the aisle, saw that the seat had no one sitting on it and asked if anyone was sitting there…so the guy with the bag said he was hence his bag, but he was waiting to see if the official reservee turned up…but the woman seemed to just ignore this, remove the bag and sat down….so the guy who had "reserved" the seat by placing his bag on it went upto the lady and said something like "errrm…..what are you doing, I just told you i'm sitting there" , to which the woman replied "I don't think you are, I'm sitting here"…….and so the argument started….and the man kept saying that he was sitting in that seat so had placed his bag there to wait and see if anyone actually claimed it, whereas the women, who was getting incredibly hysterical kept saying that the fact was he was not physically sitting there, so she dat down….the whole scene was bizarre because there was something quite clearly wrong with the woman…and her husband tried to calm the guy down by telling him she was not well etc etc…but the woman just kept becoming more and more animated and started pushing the guy, even though she was the one clearly in the wrong….and then she snapped and started shouting at people to call the police because this man was apparently "attacking" her…to which the "innocent" guy was even more perplexed at what was going on….so the train stewards came, then the police etc etc….and 20 minutes later, when they realised that the guy had done nothing wrong and this woman clearly had "issues" they decided they didn't want to take things further so they ended up putting the lady and her husband in first class, and the guy got his seat which he had reserved with his bag
All this. Over who would get to sit down..! I mean surely we're missing the point here…! If you've paid £50+, surely, at the very least you should be entitled to a seat regardless…! Crazy….
So Yes. Trains. Very useful things. But as is ever the case in the UK, not as useful as they could be.
Salaam
Been meaning to wrote something for aaages…but not had the chance, as usual…!! Alhamdulilla managed to get the last 10 days of ramadan off so spent that at home with the family which included eid too. Sad in a lot of ways but I was thinking that this period, a mere 10 days, was the longest I had spent at home consecutively for nearly two years…! Crazy I know. Now back in London and back at work……alhmadulilla enjoying it though.
Winter is upon us as I write this with the clocks having gone back a week or so ago….and as with most people, I think I suffer a mild form of S.A.D or Seasonal Affective Disorder….as in in the summer you feel more energetic and lively whereas in the winter you can't be bothered to do anything. Even worse for me though as I never see the little sunlight there is…! I leave my flat at 6:30, when its dark, and then I get home for 7 ish, when its dark…! And given your in an air-con building, you lose track of the weather outside….!
Trains. YES. Trains. You know, those things that run on tracks and take you from A to B. That's what I want to talk about..! The train system in the UK is sooooo messed up, its ridiculous. Like so many times when I'm trying to go home on a fri evening, I'll buy a ticket, then because there are no seats left, face standing up for 4 hours before I get home…! I mean, if there's no seats left, why do the train companies continue selling tickets..?! Why should I pay £50 to stand for 4 hours…?! CRAZY. Also, even more crazy is the way these train companies win their licenses etc etc….don't wanna bore u with the details but its MESSED UP and leaves us, the consumer, not very well looked after. In the age where everyone is super conscious about the environment, I can't understand why they can't make trains, one of the most energy efficient modes of transport, more accessible for people….like if four people want to go to London and back from Manchester, by car it will cost them £40 petrol…? And £10 depreciation of the car….? Whereas by train you're talking at least £200…….
So every time I'm going back home on the train, there will inevitabley be one problem or another…either there won't be any seats left…or the train will be delayed…or like during ramadan when I purchased an "advanced" ticket which I was supposed to pick up from the station..but when I got there, there was a Huge queue for the machine so I ended up missing my train…!
Another thing that bothers me is how often you get a generic ticket (i.e. no specific seat) so everyone waits, with their eyes glued to the screen which will show which platform to go to for that particular train…and people wait, stare, wait, stare….and then the screen shows platform X for all trains to Y and people literally start running to get to the train so they can get a seat…and you see all these elderly people trying their best to drag their luggage and also get to the train…quite upsetting
If you manage to get to the train, then you have the issue of finding a seat…! Because often people will pre-book seats and not turn up….so you have to take the chance and sit on seat which says "reserved" and just cross your fingers that this person doesn't turn up….thankfully when i went up I ended up finding a seat which was not even reserved so I sat down and smugly watched as other ran around me like headless chickens looking for a seat to sit down in…
So two rows ahead of me, there was a seat which said "reserved" but a guy came, asked if anyone was sitting there and then placed his bag on the seat and told the guy next to him that if no one came for that seat, he would sit there…and so he stood near that seat waiting to see if anyone would come….1 minute later a woman came up the aisle, saw that the seat had no one sitting on it and asked if anyone was sitting there…so the guy with the bag said he was hence his bag, but he was waiting to see if the official reservee turned up…but the woman seemed to just ignore this, remove the bag and sat down….so the guy who had "reserved" the seat by placing his bag on it went upto the lady and said something like "errrm…..what are you doing, I just told you i'm sitting there" , to which the woman replied "I don't think you are, I'm sitting here"…….and so the argument started….and the man kept saying that he was sitting in that seat so had placed his bag there to wait and see if anyone actually claimed it, whereas the women, who was getting incredibly hysterical kept saying that the fact was he was not physically sitting there, so she dat down….the whole scene was bizarre because there was something quite clearly wrong with the woman…and her husband tried to calm the guy down by telling him she was not well etc etc…but the woman just kept becoming more and more animated and started pushing the guy, even though she was the one clearly in the wrong….and then she snapped and started shouting at people to call the police because this man was apparently "attacking" her…to which the "innocent" guy was even more perplexed at what was going on….so the train stewards came, then the police etc etc….and 20 minutes later, when they realised that the guy had done nothing wrong and this woman clearly had "issues" they decided they didn't want to take things further so they ended up putting the lady and her husband in first class, and the guy got his seat which he had reserved with his bag
All this. Over who would get to sit down..! I mean surely we're missing the point here…! If you've paid £50+, surely, at the very least you should be entitled to a seat regardless…! Crazy….
So Yes. Trains. Very useful things. But as is ever the case in the UK, not as useful as they could be.
Salaam
posted by Me at
9:43 AM
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