Rail replacement services

Words to strike fear into anyone who has ever had the misfortune of having to travel using the trains in this country. Can anyone please explain to me how the country that built the largest empire in the world cannot run a public transport service?

I went to Bristol for the weekend to celebrate Bex's birthday and on Friday, the train to take me to Didcot where I had to change was late, although advertised as on-time. So I missed the train I was meant to catch and had to wait for a later one. Today was beautiful, I waited 40 minutes at Bristol for a train to Reading, then when I got in, there were no trains to Oxford as the line was closed, so waited for the next train to Didcot (20 minutes later) and then waited for another bus from Didcot to get back to Oxford.

So all in all, a trip that should normally take, oh, about 2 hours, has taken me 3.5 hours.

So, I haven't blogged in a while.

I have been busy, there's been a lot of things going on, I started demonstrating at some practicals last week and it's been fun. It's great to stand around and get paid to talk intelligent bullshit. I might come to appreciate the finer points of educating and moulding the young minds of future generations.

That, or I'm just really glad to be getting paid £10 an hour to stand around.

I had Andres and Akua for dinner last Sunday, it was great. Was nice to catch up with them after they got back from their incredible round-trip! They are world travellers. But then again, I got reminded about how small Oxford really is. Both my housemates had already met them before at various other occasions. And incredibly, I even managed to cook a relatively nice dinner with a hangover from hell. I blame Gavin and his girl Sarah for getting me into that state. She was in Oxford and as she doesn't come around much, we went out for a legendary St Cross bop. They are normally quite bad and the most fun to be had at them is getting absolutely drunk. Having £1 alco-pops probably triggered our drinking spress. Ah well. Somehow, we also ended up at Mood after the end of the party. I didn't even think I was that drunk as I managed to cycle home. So, having a hangover the next day was shocking. Bah.

And the next week, I met up with Yvonne who now lives in Lviv, Ukraine. She was in London for some exams. We spent part of Tuesday afternoon drinking coffee and going shopping. Fun fun fun. And now I get to plan a trip to go to the Ukraine sometime in spring. I am excited about that thought!

The next day, I went with Annie for a screening of Walk the Line, an autobiopic of the life of the legend that was Johnny Cash. It was good. Reese Witherspoon was exceptional and Jaoquin Phoenix is pretty damn good looking.

Which brings me to this weekend. Spent Friday night in Bex's new place. It was really good to see her again! And then on Saturday we went to a housewarming party of her friend, Graham, in Cardiff. And then went to paint the town red. It was pretty good.

I have another busy week planned, it kind of sucks when Thursday and Friday are pretty much dead in the water for me to do work because of the teaching. I have to organise all my data for this poster, can't leave it for the last minute but I haven't even done half of the work needed for me to present. Stress.

Sleepy as well. I slept on a floor last night. I must be getting to old to sleep on floors.

Later my lovelies!