snow joke

I dont have much to talk about this week, except for the snow!


It has snowed everyday since Tuesday, mainly little flurries, but the snow hasnt had a chance to melt because the temperature hasnt increased enough during the day.


At least I have seen a few snowmen about, the sweetest one being this that I saw at Chelmsford train station on Friday night ;o).



I was reading in Metro one day in the week an article on people panic buying because of the snow. While reading it I thought people were buying cat litter to use for grit in the snow, I thought it sounded like it may be better to use than salt. So cat litter went on my shopping list for when I did the food shopping this morning.


I mentioned this to James, and he said people were probably buying cat litter, because they needed it for their cats! Does he mean to say that they werent buying it instead of salt to sprinkle onto their paths/driveways?


We have now sprinkled some on the driveway outside our garage and have given the local cats a new place to go to the toilet :o( I just know I will get the blame if they do!


Now that Christmas is well and truly over and done with the Easter products are creeping there way into the supermarkets, every day I have been fighting the temptation to buy mini eggs. And when doing the shopping this morning I was even on the look out for a box of creme eggs. I really cant help myself ;o)

I was right...

I got to Chelmsford station this morning and was greeted with the news that the engineering works had over run!

I even considered putting a £5.00 bet on it at the weekend - I wish I had now although the odds probably would have been really bad ;o).

My journey was delayed by about 25 minutes this morning, so not too bad.

I will just have to see what things are like this afternoon, oh well onwards and upwards!

Its January again

Christmas has now been and gone and its January, and time to be good again eeeuuugggggghhhhhh :o(.

oh well...

I said last week (last year now) that the train journeys would make an interesting post, so see what you think?

On Tuesday morning I got to Chelmsford station and the train (the 7.03) I wanted was running late (why I dont know because it actually starts from Chelmsford!), so I got a later train (only by six minutes).

The train was ever so slow between Manor Park and Stratford, apparently it was because of a mixture of signal problems and congestion at Stratford.

I finally got to Stratford and fought my way to the underground platform, there was a train already in but it was rammed to capacity so I waited for the next train which arrived three minutes later.

The next train arrives and I get on, and finally get to work at 08.55, my journey which only normally takes 45 minutes took nearly 2 hours.

My boss comes in to Liverpool Street too and his journey was just as long and arduous as mine, but he decided to get the C2C to/from Laindon for the rest of the week.

Tuesday afternoon my boss let me leave at 3.30, I got to Liverpool Street and just as I get to the escalator (I was literally about to step onto the escalator) and one of the station workers dives in front of me and pulls a tape barrier across because of platform overcrowding. Apparently there was a broken down train that had to be moved and then another train had to pick up the passengers (or customers as we are called), before it was safe to let us go down to the platforms. There were tannoy announcements saying that there was overcrowding on the Central Line platforms but still people were walking up to see why they couldnt go down the escalator!

I was chatting to the worker as I was waiting, and he comes into Liverpool Street on the overhead trains too.

Thank goodness the delay was only about five minutes, when I got to Stratford and I only had to wait a few minutes for a train to Clacton-on-Sea.

Ooohh Ive just got an e-mail from my Mum who wants me to mention everyone...

...so hi Mum, Mums fiance, Mums cat, sister, sisters fiance, nephew, both brothers and brothers girlfriend (dont think I missed anyone out there), and as an aside there is thick snow in Holland at the moment!

back to the trains, got on the train and it was half empty when it left Stratford and I had two seats for myself ;o), I finally got to Chelmsford just before 5 so the journey wasnt too bad.

On Wednesday morning

I got to Chelmsford and got an earlier train, and just as we are pulling into Shenfield the driver says that the signalman just told him that the train is going to have to terminate because of congestion at Stratford, so we all trudge off of the train and onto the other platform which is luckily on the same platform bank that we were on and waited for the train from Southend Victoria, luckily this came after a couple of minutes, got on the train and slowly got to Stratford (not as slow as Tuesday thank goodness), there was an underground train in and again it was rammed decided to wait for the next train, the next train pulls in practically empty and I actually got a seat (I was astounded ;o)).

Wednesday afternoon I left at 3.30 again and got to Liverpool Street, this time I was able to get onto the underground platform with no problems, got to Stratford there was a train in on another platform but couldnt see where it was going to as the train to Southend on my platform was obscuring my view. The Southend train finally goes and I see that the other train is going to Braintree, I was annoyed as getting it would mean that I would get home a few minutes earlier! By now the train was packed, and I thought I might as well wait for the Clacton train, so wait I did...

...the train again pulled out half empty, I had the three seats to myself as well as the three opposite until we got to Shenfield and a family got on (taking one of my three seats as well as the three opposite me), the Mum was saying how she was going to visit her Mum tomorrow (New Years Eve) and I dont think her hubby wanted to go with her! Again I got to Chelmsford just before 5.

Thursday morning was uneventful as I got to Stratford without having to change trains and got on the underground train that was in.

Thursday afternoon the office shut at 1 (as it was New Years Eve) so I got myself some lunch before getting the underground to Stratford. Got to Stratford found that there was a train going to Norwich luckily it was going to stop at Chelmsford. I sat down started undoing my coat and felt one of my buttons fall off! Because it was an intercity train with a table I couldnt immediately see where the button went. So I waited for no-one else to be walking down the aisle before getting up to see if I could see where it had gone to. I got up and wouldnt you know it some one came to walk past me, so I sat down again to wait for him to go.

Got up again had a brief look on the floor (thought to myself its got to be somewhere) got down on the floor and this womans bag was under the table :o( I still couldnt see my button.

So we are just about to pull up into Chelmsford and the woman whose bag was under the table had got up and I had another glance and still couldnt see my button. I thought to myself oh well thats that gone, and a kindly lady asked me if I was looking for my button (I was trying not to be to obvious too - perhaps being on the floor on my hands and knees was the giveaway) and I said I was and she had it ;o) phew that was a relief.

Have just reminded James (Im being serious now) to sow the button onto my coat as I am really useless at sowing things :o( .

Hopefully the engineering works wont overrun, but Im not banking on it!

Oh forgot to say Happy New Year! ;o)

N-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o theyve run out of Gin-ger-bread latte :o(

I went into Starbucks this morning to have gingerbread latte # 32 and was told that they have no gingerbread syrup left...

...to say I was distraught was an understatement, it was weird, everything started going in s-l-o-w motion, and then I had an OOBE and saw myself lying on the floor sobbing :o( From up above I spotted a half filled tub of toffee nut latte sprinkles (which they had managed to "acquire" from the other store) which soon reunited my body with my soul, I awoke just as James was spoon feeding me a toffee nut latte, whilst gently rubbing eggnog latte into my temples! ;o)

Christmas was good, this was down (in no small part) to buying the stuff for dinner ready prepared (yes I know its cheating), although I did make some Yorkshire pudding but admittedly it was as thick as a brick where I didnt make it in a large enough tin - it was still really nice though ;o)

It was blooming typical...

...I came down with a cold last Sunday, I had the Monday off anyway and ended up having the Tuesday off sick and missed the Christmas lunch, I had a blocked up "dose" and really wouldnt have enjoyed myself. I made it in Wednesday and Thursday was only working until lunchtime anyway.

Christmas Eve was good at work (apart from finishing at lunchtime) as we had mince pies and bucks fizz (I had three glasses ;o)).

Between Christmas and New Year NXEA have their usual Engineering Works terminating all trains at Stratford meaning that I have to get the London Underground around to Liverpool Street. As usual it will be easy enough to get there in the morning, its just the getting home in the evening which is always more tricky! Oh well, if nothing else it will make a good post ;o).

for gorgeous surprises we have given you a less cheap room*

When I booked our afternoon tea James suggested staying somewhere the night (perhaps even the hotel where the afternoon tea was). I thought the price would be well out of our league but had a look anyway. Blow me they had a festive shopping offer knocking around £100.00 off of the price of a room. Knowing this would be our only real chance of staying somewhere so posh at a half decent price after lots of umming and ahhing we decided to go for it.

The receptionist actually took us upto our room (as opposed to the usual "the lift is to the left" I normally get). Our room actually had a hall way (weve never been in a room THAT nice) and the bathroom boasted the deepest bath in London (it was pretty deep). The only downside (but a big one in our opinion) was that there was no tea or coffee making facilities! James even rang down to ask and was told matter of factly that "one can order tea or coffee through room service" I dont think so!

Another thing they didnt do there (or rather their bar didnt) was Guinness but haha I found as some Aspall Cider instead (which was also nice). We even had the whole upstairs part to ourselves, it was like having our own private area ;o)

The afternoon tea was really nice and thankfully the finger sandwiches didnt contain any fingers - I inspected them thoroughly before eating them ;o). They could have been minced up I guess ;o), we were actually offered more sandwiches too before we started on our scones and pastries. We were also offered the extra sandwiches before the other people too (perhaps this was because we looked unrefined enough to cause a scene if werent seen to first) who says that being common is bad? ;o).

Thanks to staying the night there I now know how to walk from Regent Street to Knightsbridge I would have just normally got the underground around. Im turning very cosmopolitan! Is that the right word? who knows!

We were walking down Piccadilly toward Fortnum & Mason, and we saw someone about to cross the road and James said that guy looks remarkably like Danny Wallace, and sure enough it was. He seemed friendly enough and James shook him by the hand and asked him if he had anything in the "pipeline" and he said he was working on a collection of his columns. We will be on the lookout for that ;o).

On Thursday we had snow (or rather we still have snow from Thursday)...

* some dialect may have been over exaggerated for comedic effect **

** ok I admit it the guy spoke really good English ;o).

one day week

This is going to be a good week, because I am only working on Monday ;o)

The only thing we have planned so far is a festive afternoon tea, I even got a phone call today asking if we had any dietary requirements (how cool is that?) perhaps I should have mentioned that were not too keen on having "finger sandwiches" as my mum would say "you dont know where theyve been" ;o)

One of my bosses has been in Australia on business for the past couple of weeks, and he came back on Thursday and said that the toys I had sent out went down really well.

On Monday I sent the last four toys out to Australia, and spent the remainder of the week taking the presents around to our brokers in London, and taking my camera with me to take some photos along the way ;o). I managed to keep my work friends amused with my sense of direction or rather the lack of it...

...one place I asked about someone said "do you know where the Hung Drawn & Quartered is?" I said "yes, I saw that when I got lost trying to find the post office" ;o).

Needless to say I took my phone with me just in case! I only needed to phone once as I couldnt find the office i was looking for and then realised the road continued after the junction, the road then lead onto London Bridge. At least I now know how to get to London Bridge should the need arise ;o).

On Thursday I managed to avoid some train troubles...

...just as I was getting off the train at Chelmsford, an announcement came over that all trains to and from London were now going to be subject to delays. I then got a text message saying that a person had been hit by a train at Ilford, I was so glad I missed that.

39 parcels later

What an eventful week its been...

The week started out really wet (by really wet I mean I was soaked through before I even got into work on Monday morning). My feet were really wet and I was whinging & whining before eventually trudging down to Next to buy some new socks. I was much nicer after putting on some dry socks. I was even walking about (not just sticking to the confines of our office) in just my socks to allow my shoes to dry out ;o)

I have been down to the post office so much this week (10 times - one day going three times), that not only did the staff start recognising, but they were asking exactly what was I posting ;o).

On Fridays we have our fire alarm tested, this Friday the fire alarm went off but didnt stop, so we went down the fire exit and the doors were locked! So we walked through to go out of the main doors. Anyhow we were standing there in the cold waiting to be allowed back in and we heard sirens (someone said that they saw a reflection of a fire engine) so i said "do you think its for us?" and 5 minutes later the fire engine complete with crew pull up outside our building, then a few minutes after that we were allowed back in.

In the meantime my boss went out to get us bacon sandwiches (he offered to get them before the fire alarm even went off). So I went to make us some drinks (it always seems to be me) and saw that the office next to the kitchen (which is currently empty) had the windows wide open (my guess is that someone may have been smoking in there - as it had that smell about it) no wonder we got a fire engine!

Next week I will trudging across London (well the square mile) this time to deliver packages to our brokers. I cant believe how much walking I will be doing ;o)