Let me start this blog post on an up note: I am spending this evening writing, drinking wine, eating pizza, and scheming with my roommate (all happy schemes). Now lets head down a few keys: this morning was my worst morning in London. I leave my apartment just before 9AM (plenty of time for my 40 minute commute to work). I get to the tube station and the circle line is down. Fine, I hop on the district line and transfer at Earl's Court to get on the district line going west. Now there are no trains going through Bayswater. This means I can't take the train to work because I have to go through Bayswater!
So I run aboveground and catch the 74... going the wrong way. Of course (because I've never taken this bus before) I don't realize this for 30 minutes. I get off and walk to the bus stop going the other way. I practice my breathing and try not to cry. I get on the 74 and at 10:30 I am back where I started. I transfer to the 10 and am planning to get off at Tottenham Road Station to switch to the 55. Except, for some reason the bus driver turns before that stop and instead drops us off five blocks away. I walk those five blocks back to Oxford Street and wait to catch the 55. There are actually tears in my eyes but i blink them away.
I get to work at 12. The 55 drops me off right across the street from my museum. I know a large part of this was my fault but a lot of it was also just plain bad luck. However, there were so many people today who made me feel better. Here goes:
Thank you kind woman who let me use her iphone to call work; thank you sandwich boy who asked me if I was ok when I came into your shop for a to-go lunch; thank you Annabel for giving me chocolate at work; thank you to my boss for being so understanding; thank you to Brendon for sending me happy tweets; thank you to the busker at the Picadelly Station for singing songs I know and love; and thank you to Ellie for giving me wine.
As the Beatles said,
"I get by with a little help from my friends."
That does sound awful and like an ordeal I would find myself in (when I came to Scotland, I had to transfer at LHR. I was in terminal 3 and I needed to be in terminal 1 for my connecting flight to Edinburgh. So I got on the the train, but it wasn't just an inner airport train, but one that went out to Paddington. After 15mn I realized we weren't at the airport anymore and panicked. Luckily they let me ride back and I still had time for checking in, security, and made my flight. But boy was it nervewrecking)
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing what the kindness of strangers can do for our morale though. Glad you had a few helping hands and wine and chocolate always make you feel better :)
Thats no dun :/ but it's good to know there are nice people everywhere!
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