Adventures in Transport

I haven't done a blog in a while, which essentially means that while I have plenty of things to talk about, none of them are really related to one another. My apologies for the complete discord between the paragraphs below.

Last weekend was of course a 4-day holiday weekend in the UK. I personally found this a little odd, but wasn't about to complain. On Friday, I was able to at least momentarily convince Mark that museums were fun and dragged him to Tate Britain (the non-modern enterprise in 'Pimlico', south of Big Ben). After poking around at 'British' art (aka, either by a British artist or a portrait of a British person), we emerged into the late afternoon lovely London afternoon. We ducked into a nearby pub for a brief refueling, and right as we were about to leave, the heavens seemingly brought forth their fury, it started pouring down with rain, and there was thunder and lightening to boot. It was then decided that a second drink and a snack were warranted.

On Saturday, we shipped out for the south coast. In our attempts at transport planning clever-ness, we took the tube two stops to West Brompton, where we were going to hop on a London 'Overground' train to Clapham Junction, where we would catch the train one stop after it left Waterloo. Alas, this is indeed what happened, but in the process, while waiting for the train at West Brompton, it snowed. SNOWED people. In the evening time, for no particular reason, we went to dinner in Southampton at an Indian restaurant (for parental clarity: not the purple one, but another one on that same street). This is involved taking the slightly scenic route from the freeway, driving through campus. It was pretty much the same, only dark and abandoned because it was a) dark and b) Easter break. The food was very good, the chicken was as tender as could be.

On Monday it snowed again.

This is only a two day work-week for me, given the Monday holiday and tomorrow's early AM departure for Switzerland. As it's a holiday week, I also assumed the trains would be somewhat empty and commuting times would be easy. But no. Yesterday morning, walking towards the train station, parallel to the platform, I heard the announcer relay the news that the District Line was suspended AGAIN between Earl's Court and Edgware Road. I just kept walking until I got to Fulham, catching the bus in. This morning, once inside the station, I learned that there were severe delays on the District Line, and it was suspended between High St Kensington and Edgware Road. Me: BOOOOOO WHY ME WHY TWO DAYS IN A ROW BOOOO I WANT TO GO BACK TO BED BOOOO. I was already in the station so not completely decided about what I should do. As luck would have it, the first train that came was to full to get onto, and the second train was one of the lucky few actually destined for High St Kensington, so I managed to squish on in a determined 'I don't need personal space' manner. I then walked from High St Ken (about 10-15 minute walk). Note to self: I really should find a bus that goes from Notting Hill to Earl's Court. If there are severe delays tomorrow morning when I'm trying to catch the 5:50 am train so I can get to Heathrow I will not be, as the Anglos say, a happy bunny.