Commuting to London

People on footpaths,
Others on cycles,
Commuters with purpose,
Tourists with none.

Newspaper vendors,
Big issue sellers,
Taxi cab drivers,
Out in the sun.

Pairs of young lovers,
Girls in new heels,
Suited and trainers,
Joining the throng.

Nearly all youngsters,
Very few oldies,
None of then seeing,
What's going on.

Ode to Commuting - Paulw743, July 2010

Today I finished the last day of a week's training course in London. Don't want to bore your with the details of the course, but suffice to say it's a geeky IT thing of which only part will be usable in the office.

The 'exciting' part of the whole experience was the commuting to London. I don't often have to do this, so it's something I'm not used to. Lorraine worked in London for 6 months over the winter so has a better idea of what to do.

However, each morning I was still up at the crack of dawn as normal, but this gave me time to sort out a number of things before Lorraine gave me a lift to the station. Experience has told us that of the two companies servicing Wivelsfield station, Southern offer the nicer trains. Luckily the train I was planning to catch, the 07:26, was being run by Southern so that was OK.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a seat on any of the mornings which was quite shocking considering it was a 12 coach train. It was quite funny seeing people sitting in some of the luggage shelves. Luckily the train only took 45 minutes to get up to London Bridge and only stopped at two stations.

Once we'd stopped at London Bridge, I joined the throng 'rushing' into the City. On the first morning I felt rather unsure of what was going on, however as the week went on I was getting into the whole situation.

On the first morning I totally missed the building I was aiming for. After a short stroll around the streets I managed to come across it. At the end of the day's course, I rushed back to London Bridge station, but having not prepared very well, I went completely the wrong way.

On the second day, I therefore took a chance and headed down on of the side alley's that I knew went in the right direction. Once again I took a wrong turn, right instead of left. This meant I ended up walking down the wrong streets again.

I then decided to check on Multimap and saw the direct route. I've taken that ever since and it's been much eaiser.

Apart from the first morning, I've actually enjoyed the buzz of the commute (once I've arrived at London Bridge). As I've put in the short poem at the top of this post, there are so many things going on. On Thursday morning for example, there was a guy in a suit standing on London Bridge asking if anyone had a position for an IT professional.

In the evenings, I've got back to the station and then joined everyone standing watching the screens to see what platform the train will come to. Once the platform comes up, everyone charges over and stands in little groups next to where the doors will be. Once the empty train arrives, the doors open, and the rush for empty seats begins. Apart from Monday, I've managed to get a seat on every evening train so that hasn't been to bad.

I've got no more London trips planned at the moment, but inevitably this will happen again, so next time I hope I'll be prepared.