Thursday, 21. June 2007, 15:46:22
Manchester, Virgin Trains, university, travel
I once again have gone for far too long without posting anything. I got my exam results back (really quickly) and I have passed everything! Now I can spend the rest of the summer without having to think about anything academic. I'm quite looking forward to next year. I'll have somewhere nice to stay, and the courses I have chosen sound like they'll be really interesting ( as a side note, I can't actually remember what my choices were, but I remember thinking at the time that they were interesting).
I haven't particularly enjoyed living in student halls for the past year, so my trip to Manchester yesterday to get everything in my room packed into boxes was very satisfying. It was nice to think that next year, I will have a proper kitchen with a clean oven, and that I won't have to wonder whether the mark on the carpet was a result of drunken ironing, or is something altogether less pleasant. Also, not having TV Licensing threatening to throw dead horses at the flat will be nice.
This post has been a bit rambling so far, but if you know me then the text might make sense. I am pretty sure that the video below will make no sense but I just put it in to try out embedding video from DailyMotion. I took it last night on the train back from Manchester.
Tuesday, 3. October 2006, 10:41:46
politics, travel, trains
Have you ever travelled in the luggage compartment of a train? I have! From Edinburgh to Manchester, I sat in very cramped conditions on the floor of the luggage compartment of a Virgin Voyager service. I was travelling on an unreserved service (no one had seat reservations) and the train was so overcrowded that the only place that I could sit down near my bags was on the hard, uncomfortable flooring in the luggage area. Though it could have been worse, a few people had to make the three and a half hour journey standing up.
I'm going back to Edinburgh in November and I don't have a seat reservation for the service up. I found a ticket for only three pounds, so I won't mind quite so much if I have to sit on the floor, but I will object if I have to stare at the windowless walls of the luggage compartment again. Fortunately, on the way back to Manchester, I have a first class ticket with a seat reservation booked.
The way that tickets are priced in Britain is utterly confusing. It costs £35 for a return ticket from Manchester to Edinburgh in standard class. But if you search quite hard, it is possible to get a ticket for £28 that is standard class on the way to Edinburgh, but first class on the way back to Manchester. I'm convinced that some of the fares are randomly assigned to tickets!
I suppose that I had better get used to such an odd system. On a completely different topic, you may have noticed an addition to the photo at the top of this page. I'm standing in the elections to the Student Council! I have decided that I want to stand in all these sorts of elections, so I can get experience of "politics".
Monday, 28. November 2005, 18:39:55
travel, family
I remembered an incident that happened on a train the other day. In my bid to save the environment by not using planes I was travelling from Galway (Rep. of Ireland) to Edinburgh by train. I happened to be on a very old train which did not have locks on any of the external doors. Anyway, I settle back into my seat with a copy of The Ecologist and relax thinking how comfortable the seat is and what a refreshing breeze there is. Suddenly the passengers in the seats in front of me start shouting "Did he jump, did he jump. Should we pull the emergency cord?". It turns out someone jumped from the train as it was travelling at full speed. After five minutes of debate, someone pulled the emergency cord (to activate the emergency brake) and after another five minutes, the train stopped. I never did find out if the person who jumped lived or not.
At least my journey wasn't made more eventful by the ferry. The crews of two Irish Ferries ships due to have sailed from Holyhead and Pembroke to Dublin had taken the bridges and engine rooms and refused to set sail. The company is trying to replace them with cheap workers from Eastern Europe (no offence intended), and it brought a number of them aboard with heavy security to see the ships in action. I was travelling with Stena Line from Belfast to Stranraer.
In the unlikely event that something eventful happens to me any time soon, I might write another post.
WIDGETIZE