I get to the platform (9) at 08:23, but this is okay, the 08:22 is normally late anyway, besides, there’s always the 08:27 Exeter St. David train which is just as fast. The platform is fairly crowded so I assume the 08:22 hasn't arrived yet, but something’s not quite right, ah, the board with the times isn't working, ah well, wait a few minutes.

Soon follows an announcement that the trains are delayed, fine I think, the next train to Woking has to be soon-ish. I text Agent Normski & Ricky Bobby suggesting I'll be 20 odd minutes late. Agent Normski replies he too is running behind schedule with no current ETA. Another announcement follows, the next available train to Woking is currently at platform 11 and will be a stopping train. We're informed the others are delayed by 40 minutes at least. So I follow the few that decide this is the best option to the platform 11.

-- at this point my laptop battery runs out, thankfully it manages to save this partial entry before dying.

At platform 11 I hop on the train & off it shoots, happy as can be I switch my ipod to the Zefyr II playlist I've recently created, only then to find that this train isn't actually going to Woking, I had been misinformed, I should have got the next train that got to platform 11. I get off at the next stop which thankfully is common with the Woking stopping train & manage to get the Woking train which catches up a couple of minutes later. I text Ricky Bobby again to let him know I'll be getting in around 10. I read the horoscopes & comic strip as usual & complete the soduku puzzle in the Metro newspaper, I have no excuse to not finish it as the journey duration is twice as long as usual.

Getting in I know that Lestat won't be in until 1 as he is on the uber-late shifts, meaning any FTW work that came in before 1 was directly assigned to me. I get a message from Ricky Bobby that a colleague from the interfaces team wants a hand with something, I oblige.

Then, trawling through the hundreds of emails in my Inbox and the few sent directly to me, I find I have 3 things to look at quite immediately. Snowie has assigned back over something that has nothing to do with me, but through the day we manage to get this sorted. There are some other issues that I work on & other things get chased that I have little to no knowledge of. Now work aside I'm finding my eyes hurt but I've left both pairs of glasses at home. My head hurts & I feel like a charged fireball ready to explode. Thankfully I don't, this said I'm not saying there were no reactions.

I was snappish to everyone I came in contact with just about, the only people that probably got out without a hint of it are those that either gave me short concise responses or those that didn't speak to me. In the midst of this all, upon my return from lunch I find the blinds next to my window seat are fully pulled up, the string tied in knots & taped to the ceiling. This'd have to be Ricky Bobby's doing. I spend the next few minutes working through the knots & undoing it all.

I can't sit next to a window with the outside visible, else I'd just stare outside all day, that & like they said I do have vampire qualities, I don't work well in lit rooms, the gloomier & duller it is the better, yet another reason why the London shift suits me well, blinds down, lights off, the only light I get is from the 3 monitors in front of me.

I later found evidence that confirmed it was Ricky Bobby's doing with a little help from Lestat. It was a joke to wind me up & on any other day I'd have seen that, even now I do, but at the time, a little less so, my head was spinning and the light was not helping. Come 3 o'clock the Bully decided it'd be a great time to change the passwords on the dial-up docs, two of the checks we use these for are done at 3 o'clock. I brought this up with him, he was actually quite helpful & in the end I didn't need the doc anyway so it all went well. He had to get into Super Mario mode for some server reason which delayed it a little anyway & both checks were completed without incident. This was plain luck, snapping at the Bully wouldn't go down well, that's for sure, besides he's a 2 & 7 person (people that associate with him will always come off better), so he needs to be kept sweet. As the fusion of pain in my head grew I also realised I was possibly hungry. I hadn't eaten since the lunch the day before. I managed to vent through some toast & get through some of that important stuff that needed doing.

I left at 17:20ish and got the 17:30 train back to the Junction & shortly after 6 the bus home. I decided to go to Aldo's (Italian restaurant that's like a cosy diner) across the road. i ordered myself a Cappuccino, a Bruschetta & a Penne Arrabiata (with an addition of Mozzarella). This is the best pasta I've had in a long time. I'd say only my sister can make better Pasta than this (& maybe me on those rare occasions).

Finishing this entry up this morning:
From here things got a lot better it would seem, I went home sent a few text messages, wrote up all this gibberish & fell asleep with the TV/monitor on by 21:30 or there abouts. I assume this from the 21:40 text that I read this morning. *sighs*

Silent Salutes'
_ram-jaane

P.S: I just want to apologise to anyone that's even interacted with me between the begnning of this stint & now. Here's hoping it has in fact come to an end. It seems that way.