Like many people I commute to work. I live in Essex and work in London. It takes about 1hour 45 minutes each way.
I have a 10 minute walk to and from the station which isn’t bad, a train journey that takes about 1 hour with pretty good views of the sea for 3 stops. Once in London I have either 40 minute walk to/from my office (the girls in my office could do it in 30 minutes but I have short legs and it is a really boring walk). I however usually get the underground which should take about 15 minutes including the walk to my office at the other end and stopping for coffee on the way (I need my Pret A Manger coffee or I’m a bitch). But no…… every morning we get held up at one station being told the train is running early even though some days we wait 10 minutes for the bloody thing to turn up. Considering I use the Circle Life which goes to all the tourist spots I think it’s one of the worst serviced lines we have.
Anyway…… I could work local but I would have to take a drop in pay of about a 1/3 of my current salary, which I can’t afford because I would still probably have to pay for parking, petrol, more in car insurance etc. Also for the work I do the jobs which are considered local by agencies can be up to 20 miles away, so it isn’t really worth my while at the moment especially as I like my job most of the time.
So I commute and even though it is a pain in the arse, costs me approximately £400pm, and come 9pm most nights because I’m up at 5.30am I’m usually falling asleep on the sofa watching TV (thank you Sky for Sky +), but call me a nutter I actually don’t mind commuting.
I find that I have to be as organised as possible (which isn’t always the case) I don’t usually get home until 6.45pm at the earliest, so dinners have to be easy to prepare and in my case diabetic friendly. While dinner is cooking I have a quick shower and prepare lunches for work the next day.
When I lived in London I would get the bus to and from work. I could get the bus outside my flat and it would drop me 5 minute from old office. It would take about an hour but it was cheaper and more convenient than the underground even though it took longer. I used to get the same bus every day (assuming it turned up) so I got to meet some great people (and some not so great people) and being a Publican’s daughter I will talk to anyone (except weirdos). We even used to have nights out after work and a Christmas Dinner.
My journey now is longer I usually walk to the station in the morning with my next door neighbour (but we usually get different trains unless I’m running late). I get on the same train carriage in the morning and at night so usually see the same people most days, as they do the same. Sometimes if I bump into people I talk to regularly we have a catch up chat but the time I spend commuting is my down time, I usually read a book, tweet, play my Nintendo or write a review (which can be interesting if it’s for my other blog and someone looks over my shoulderJ).
Although people tend to keep themselves to themselves, usually the journey into and out of London is quite pleasant and I’m lucky as I usually get a seat. The people I have got to know since doing my journey started as usual because the one time people will talk to each other is when they are annoyed with the wait, delays or cancellations of trains and you are left stranded in the middle of nowhere (being diabetic I now carry food with me for that reason always), the inconsiderate yob or passenger who is talking to loud or playing music in the quiet carriage OR maybe a smile or regular good morning/evening.
Although I try to avoid weirdo’s I’m not convinced that some people I talk didn’t think I was their weirdo after all let’s face it as kid we were all told not to talk to strangers LOL.
Wow! How interesting it was to read your experience as a commuter. For me it's another world: trains, underground...As you have seen, here distances are very short but although a trip could take you let's say 15 minutes with a car tops, the problem is that the buses are so terribly inefficient (not to mention uncomfortable) that a 10-15 minute journey can take you an hour. The routes are terribly organised and everything revolves around the capital city so it doesn't really matter where you are going. Somehow or another you have to go to the capital to take a connecting bus. Sometimes I could spend 20 minutes if not more waiting for a bus driver to decide to leave the bus station and forget about shelters to wait for the bus! so I could easily spend 20 minutes waiting under the terrible summer heat or literally under the rain and gale force wind...there are a couple of bus shelters but they are so bad that if it's raining you will get soaked anyway...they are made of something that looks like plastic so in summer you will boil...you're lucky if you find a seat with all the tourists and you have to push your way to the entrance door because the buses don't have an exit door so everyone goes on the bus and out using the same door...crazy right...oh well, one day I will write my transport experiences here LOL oh yeah, I almost forgot, no AC for summer and most of the times the windows can't be opened either 'cause they are too old or anyway they are too small to make any difference or else the windows were never built to be opened...not to mention the bus drivers talking on the phone and smoking...oh well...I could go on and on :D so, not exactly a good opportunity to relax and read a book...first because most probably you will be stressed out after waiting for so long for the bus to leave or to come to your bus stop and second because with all the tourists most probably you won't find a seat...
ReplyDelete