Monday 3 March 2008

Back to work at last

After two and a half weeks stuck in bed I finally got back to work today. The delight of Monday morning commuting is not something that I have missed, however.

As I left the end of the street I managed to miss two 486s and a 422. Not a promising start. I then had to schlep up towards the Cemetery Lane bus stop. The roadworks are still performing their 'rolling roadblock' along Littleheath and have now started down towards the dip before the Barracks crossroad. This means that my normal bus stop (with it's attendant live travel information) has been relocated - presumably to the other side of the roadworks. Far too far. So, up towards the Village then. Problem is that bus stop has also been re-located.

The accident on New Years Day (that's right over two months ago now) for some reason means that the bus stop must remain out of use. Presumably because it has been utilised as one of those roadside shrines. I think that this recent habit of laying floral tributes by the road is generally an eyesore (as in the case of this one the flowers are long since dead and the soft toys bedraggled by the weather) and even worse dangerous. They are distracting to other road users - and the fact that they are marking the site of an accident clearly demonstrates that the stretch of road in question is not safe.

I walked past the shrine to the temporarily re-located bus stop. The annoying thing about all this is that both bus stops have been re-located away fro each other in opposite directions, and there is now no bus stop with anywhere to sit. Not good for me and the Stick. I've written to London Buses to ask when they are going to bring back the Cemetery Lane bus stop!

Eventually a bus going to North Greenwich did arrive; over-subscribed as usual. A charming lady kindly offered me and the Stick her seat. Kind, yet very unusual. Generally people pretend that the stick and I are invisible. The Jubilee Line confounded me by running with no difficulty at all (and again a kind gentleman gave me and the Stick a seat).

I arrived at the office to discover that there are builders working in our building (oh no, not again)! They immediately have a black mark against their name for leaving the front door propped open meaning that anyone can walk in and out without the security code. They continued through the morning to accrue black marks by drilling and hammering and generally making a racket (even though I'm pretty certain there are to be agreements about the hours during which noisy working is allowed).

So halfway through the day... I could do with a little sleep now, I wonder if my boss would consider a sofa bed in the Board Room?!