Long queue at Earlswood Station

So I get to the station this morning, thirteen minutes to go, to be honest a bit later than I would have liked thanks to both of us being in a bit of a flap (a busy day to come for reasons too numerous to go into) and Thomas (little blighter!) not wanting to wake up this morning, even though whenever we have plenty of time (Saturday and Sunday for example) he seems to be ready to be up and bouncing at about half past five...I turn and jog down the hill from where Flyingpops and Thomas have waved me off and (sh1tsh1tsh1tsh1t) find myself at the end of a queue of ten people waiting for tickets *face+palm*...

I check the time - eleven minutes to go - the odds are not good, but it's not impossible...the queue, keeping me hopeful, moved fairly quickly - five minutes to go and only three people ahead - three minutes to go, two people...I shuffle uncomfortably, clutching ticket and bank card in hand...

Then *finally* the very last (very old) guy in front of me steps up to the window and (to my horror) in a thick Eastern European accent begins a very long, and almost impossible to understand sentence about something that happened in 1988 (Why??? Why me!) - the train is announced on the tannoy system, I glace at my 'phone - less than one minute remaining...!

The ticket lady answers the conclusion to the old gentleman's question with "Sorry love?" (rather than something useful like "that'll be eleven fifty please") and it is at this precise moment, as the train pulls up on the platform (and I almost explode with frustration) that I remember I had last Monday off as holiday, flick open my ticket (like Kirk from Star Trek opening his communicator) and realise it's still valid today!

Where I was previously standing, a swirling dust cloud and the sound of a banging ticket office door are all that remains...

*Phew*!

Lucky Tower Bridge Day

We used to play this silly little game, Flyingpops and I, on our way into London Bridge each morning...if the zooming/waiting trains rushing in and out of the station aligned themselves absolutely perfectly *just* as our carriage hit the rail bridge over Tower Bridge Road it was, albeit extremely rarely, just possible to catch a glimpse of the uninterrupted view all the way over the Thames through Tower Bridge...

If we were that fortunate we used to exchange cheeky grins and smirk, and that day then became a "Lucky Tower Bridge Day"...like a "find a penny, pick it up and all day you'll have good luck" sort-of-thing... ;)

Of course, with my new journey, I go into London Bridge and then come straight back out again, heading almost exactly back the way I came, and thanks to the fact that the line to Lewisham comes out of platform one, there are, of course, no lines in that direction for trains to interrupt my view...which basically means every day is now a "Lucky Tower Bridge Day" - which sort of feels like cheating...(in fact, it's usually twice, once in the morning and usually in the evening on my way back - as that train comes in on platform 3)...

I always wanted to try and take the shot, but it was just too distant to have worked from the "normal" train (as it's a platform 9 affair), this shot I took with my 'phone as a proof of concept (yeah, sort of worked, sorta)...I'll try and remember to bring my proper camera in and have a go at doing it some justice...would be nice to capture those happy memories as an image...

Did learn one thing though, through doing this, the shop on the corner down there is called the "Cat and Cucumber" (had never noticed before)...which conjures all sorts of strange mental images, none of them particularly appealing... ;)