Summer in the City

[smokingboot]

The iniquities of London Underground this summer are already well documented by caddyman. I cannot emulate his wit in describing the chaos, circumstances which led to me being in a very difficult situation, endless travelling and horrendous exhaustion. My heartfelt thanks go out to _kol and liza_shepherd for their exemplary kindness and hospitality, and my deepest apologies to the very patient colonel_maxim and caddyman for letting them down.

It was good to see squeezypaws, november_girl and liza_shepherd, and our hunting was successful; Q three rather lovely bridesmaid dresses at the perfect price. Now all we need are shoes, guns, and bling and we're ready for the big day.

Certain aspects of my staying in London are being thoroughly marred by the transport absurdities being enforced on the denizens of the city; I don't know, I leave the place for 3 years and come back only to find it an incoherent wreck; Or maybe that's just me. It's not that the work is gruelling, far from it, the work is the easy part and I want more. But the transport is just insane; see, a lot of the Underground tracks are old and desperately need repairing, a lot of them. Now, when could this be done? When is a good time to shut down the city's arteries? Rush hour on weekdays? Clearly not. How about between 11 and 4 on weekdays when no-one is really going far cos everyone's in work? Too easy. Better do it on the weekend, when everyone and his dog are out shopping; this way we get to triple the crowds of exasperated punters on the edge of heat stroke and log-jam the city with cars. I take it the congestion charge does not apply at weekends, or Red Ken may well become the first Mayor of London to end his tenure through assassination.

For the first time ever, my wonderful ridiculous work did not make me smile; Don't ask me how it's happening but we hit record levels of traffic for a monday night; the producer is a very happy guy (he's the one who wore the sumo suit last time) and the Head of Production phoned in to congratulate us all. Still, I couldn't be happy. Exhaustion had turned this stint into a nightmare and I was crying on the way back, not from any great sorrow but from pure physical wipe-out. This must change.

Today I come back to mountains of correspondence; chums who have sent emails, please forgive my delay in answering, I really am inundated, and I feel like hell in a handbag.

Comments

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry for my contribution to your stress and exhaustion.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Don't be daft! Meeting up with you all was one of the best bits of the weekend - and I also ended up with an extra shift putting more money into my hot little hands, so you were definitely a benefic planet shining on the day's horoscope:-)

No, the reasons for my stress were quite elsewhere.

[bytepilot.livejournal.com]

I feel like hell in a handbag
This too shall pass.

Inbetween times, love, hugs and cheesecake.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Blows you a cool ice-lolly tasting kiss on the breeze:-)

[bytepilot.livejournal.com]

Yay for ice lollies, Yay for Kisses, Extra Yay for a breeze!

(snuggle)

we must go eat chocolate and proper sushi.

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

Things were bad enough when I was commuting a few years back-but then I think the whole transport system is a mess and has been badly run for ages. Its horrible in this heat as well. You have my sympathies!
Nice choice of music btw-very appropriate.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I just don't recall it ever having been this bad, honestly. I was thinking of creating a performance art piece called SCREAM for which I would wander asking miserable commuters to let me record their screams of frustration, making a cd of the result and blasting it out over amplifers just opposite our esteemed mayor's residence...

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

To be fair to Red ken, he tried on several occassions to get a sensible setup for the London Transport network, and the underground in particular, but the congestion charge was the only part in his power to go ahead with (which has been partly successful in spite of not really being part of a co-ordinated transport system as he wanted). Its the government fault that the system is a mess with all their bizarre part privatisation schemes and dithering.
The idea of the congestion charge was to increase use of public transport while cutting back on the amount of cars clogging up roads and polluting the city-but of course one needs a working public transport system for it to make full sense, and the government clearly does not think that a priority-nor do they display the remotest level of knowledge of how to go about it-the same goes for the whole public transport system nationally. To make matters worse, re-privatising the national rail network was actually one of their promises the first time they got elected...

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I see what you're saying, and the idea of the congestion charge in principle is sound, but as you say, it cannot work without a properly working public transport system, whether it's in London or across the country. Quite how this detail got lost, I don't know.

[hybridartifacts.livejournal.com]

I think it was a case of Ken trying to push more radical re-thinks through with the charge-if it worked he hoped that it would start more sensible policies on the rest of city transport system-only he forgot how incredible incompetent and dense the government is.

[binidj.livejournal.com]

Back in the days when I was working in the Smoke, I abandoned the Tube fairly early on and adopted the bus instead.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

That sometimes works...and sometimes doesn't *sigh*

[mitchy.livejournal.com]

*settles you down with a cold alcoholic drink (lots of ice!), chocolate and a huggle*

Feel better soon!

Astral daiquiiris/geentees

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

you are an angel:-)