The Station: Got to be here at 7:45 a.m!
I wake up at 7:00 a.m. Oh, no! I have over-slept by about half an hour! I guess that noise in my dream was the alarm bell after all!

Get dressed and ready for work. Wearing a two piece (womens’) suit makes dressing very easy. No worrying about what matches and whether I look fat.

No time for breakfast unfortunately. I normally have microwave porridge though. It’s really fast. I remember to take some vitamins though.

7:40 a.m. Richmond Station

I leave five minutes too late to make the fast 7:45 service to London Waterloo… I secretly don’t mind missing it because that train is worse than a cattle carriage. In order to get on the service you have to press yourself into the carriage using force, mumbling, ‘sorry, sorry, excuse me please… ‘ to those around you.

Then you are in for 23 minutes of disgustingly crowded conditions. You are pressed up against people you don’t know. It may be hard to find something to hold on to. I keep my eyes closed and listen to my iPod…

One improvement is that the trains are normally on time now. They didn’t use to be. I strongly suspect that is partly because the train company have taken some trains out of service, thereby having less congestion on the tracks and more congestion of people in the carriages instead.

I get on the 7:49 all-stations train and actually GET A SEAT! This journey takes 30 minutes instead of 18 minutes though. I listen to a Christian audio book on my iPod and flicker through a copy of Metro.

8:20 a.m. - iPod Drama and a Brave Man!

The train pulls in at Waterloo station and I get off with everybody else. As I swing my backpack over my shoulder, I manage to make the iPod disconnect from the headphones and fall through the gap between the train and the platform!
Just how I dropped my iPod!
I can see the iPod laying on the track, but I really wouldn’t dare jumping down to get it. And at any rate, it is impossible since I am wearing a fairly narrow skirt. Also, it is very dangerous to jump down on the track.

However a guy noticed what happened and without hesitation got down on the track and got the iPod! I thought he’d struggle to make it up again, but he managed to pull his own weight and get up just fine. A few weary commuters smiled. I thanked him profoundly. This was the nicest thing that happened to me all day.

Next time somebody does something that nice for me I will say ‘God bless’ as well, and give them my nicest smile. Just to see what they will say,

’Waterloo and City’ Tube Line

Next I need to get on the one-stop Waterloo and City line and travel to Bank Station. The queue to get on the train starts under ground, about 100metres away from the platform. It’s more crowded than this!There is one train every three minutes or so. You just queue until you get to the platform which usually takes 5 minutes or so. Then you squeeze onto the train. “Sardine jar” doesn’t sufficiently cover the experience.

At Bank I walk the long escalator walkway and get up at Threadneedle Street. From there I walk to work, stopping at Pret-a-Manger to buy breakfast.

Laptop Problems + Unconventional Solution

I am a project manager, so I get on with the things that I have to do, skiving off a ‘Project Manager’s Forum which I am supposed to attend. However if I do attend it, I will fall behind on my day-to-day tasks. Later a senior person commented on my absence.

At 11:00 my laptop starts acting up. It already crashed once during the morning, but now the mouse and keyboard stop working.

I disconnect the laptop from the docking station and start trying to troubleshoot it. I don’t have the time or patience to do it properly though. I call up the IT Helpdesk which is based in India. I tell them that I am unable to work and that they need to send over a local guy immediately.

15 minutes later; no support guy and no sign that anybody cares that I am unable to work…

I continue my troubleshooting and isolate the problem to the laptop’s docking station.
I start walking the huge office to find a member of the local desktop support team as I realize I need a new docking station. No joy. I see a few empty desks and am told that that’s where the support guys normally sit. However, they’d not been seen that day.

I start getting desperate. I am on a tight schedule and am starting to fall behind. The amount of paperwork I have to produce by next Wednesday is overwhelming.

One of the support guys has a docking station on his desk, and I decide to take it and check if it fixes my problem. I take the power cord and the docking station and go back later to replace it with my own. Nobody nearby seems to care that I essentially stole this guys’ docking station and power supply.

The new docking station, kind of works, but is wobbly. If you touch or move anything, it looses it’s connection to the power supply and switches to battery. The mouse and keyboard also stop working from time to time.
The Gherkin has a pub at the ground floor
I get on with work. Some of the things I have to do are very boring, confusing etc. Today I am mainly trying to sort out the ‘quality requirements’ on the project. Blah, blah, blah!

6:00 p.m.

An hour after I can officially leave, my boss suggests a drink to a collegue and myself. I accept out of politeness. We go to the bar in the ‘Gherkin’ which is filled with bankers. We sit down in the corner and talk. We actually have quite a nice time.

8:30 p.m.

I get home and feel soooooo tired! But I’ve got plenty to do at home. I was too tired to go shopping for groceries.