Stairs

Through no fault of my own, I have become a frequent stair climber. Mind you, I don't walk around looking for stairs to climb, nor do I climb the equivalent of the Empire State Building everyday. I just find myself constantly confronted with short flights of steps that stand in between myself and my destination. Perhaps the easiest thing to do is simply go through a typical day. Let's say, hmm, today (with some forecasting over what is yet to come). And for clarity, I will be expressing floor levels in American terms, not English terms. So the first floor is you know, the first one, not the one above ground level.

In similar terms, I have also found myself in a position where I am constantly pressing cards against readers to gain access to different places.

I started out this morning on the 2nd floor. Leaving the house, I went down one small flight of stairs. Arriving at the train station, scanned my oyster card, and I climbed one flight of steps to get to the platform. However, the magical powers that be meant that when I arrived at Paddington, I had to climb another flight of stairs to get to street level. Sneaky, I know. Scanned oyster card again to get out. Climbed half a flight of stairs to reach the street.

Arriving at my place of work, scanned work ID card to get through initial barriers. Walked up two flights of stairs to third floor office, scanned ID card again to get through the door. Forward to lunch time, I walked down two flights of stairs, scanned work ID to get out of the building. Crossed the street to the station, walked down one flight of stairs to the level of the taxi rank (for some reason much lower than street level). Acquired Diet Coke, then went back up short flight of steps, scanned work ID, up two flights, scanned again. That brings us up to present. Now we must speculate.

Eventually I'm going to want to leave the office. This will involve walking down two flights, scanning my work ID, walking to the tube, down half a flight, scan oyster card, down big flight to the train station. I'm signed up for spin class tonight, so I'll get off at Fulham Broadway, walk up one flight, scan oyster again. I'll then casually coast up to the third floor via escalators (these don't count as stairs, for obvious mechanical reasons). I'll then scan my gym card to gain access to the facilities. After changing I will climb one flight of stairs to the main workout area, where the spin room is located. After much energy is expired, I'll climb back down the steps, coast down a few escalators, walk home, where I will hopefully climb my last flight of stairs for the day.

Truth be told, that's not really a lot of stair climbing, but you have to agree that it's frequent. And sometimes I want to see the little chart big brother surely has that keeps track of all of my movements. Of course they might think I spend all of my time at the gym as we don't have to scan to get out...