Monday blues...not

The reader might not be familiar with my 'new' daily weekday routine: get up, bus 14/211/414 from round the corner down to Fulham Broadway Station (6 stops), then a District Line train to Wimbledon (another 6 stops) and then a South West train to Guildford (10 stops) and a short walk from the station to the campus.  'New' simply because this has been going on for 2 months now, but in the absence of any previous posts outlining this procedure, it is still new!

In any case, missing any of the first 2 parts of the commute would inevitably lead to delays to the final time of arrival at the office, which is not pleasant, especially when you have a meeting to attend.  And the Monday factor does not help.  But today, it was a different story.

As soon as I was walking towards the bus stop, a bus drove past me and hey presto I was at Fulham Broadway only 4 minutes later - no lights and almost no stops.  Down the stairs at the station, and the dot matrix board turned from "Wimbledon - 1min" to "Stand back, train approaching".  I was at Wimbledon 15 minutes later after having skimmed through the "Metro", including seeing a biggish Starbucks ad which entitled the reader to a free latte upon stating a 'magic' word upon order.  Superb.  The next Guildford train was due in 6 minutes, just enough time to get a return ticket and the free latte from the Starbucks booth on the platform, I thought.

The turnstiles were open, saving a few precious seconds and the ticket machine was free.  The weather was 'warm' enough not to need gloves, which meant handling the touch-screen was hassle-free and 2 minutes later I was on the platform.  There was a significant queue at the coffee shop and by the time I had placed my order, I could see the train slowly approaching.  As soon as the barista put the lid on, the passengers had finished boarding the train and I was the last on before the doors closed!  Quite a good start to the day...and week!

9 hours later, I was on my way back home, expecting to read all about Maggie's demise on the front page of the "Evening Standard", only to find that the leading headline was on the death of another woman - an unfortunate cyclist crushed to her death in the morning rush hour.  For 2 seconds I was amazed that the ES had failed to mention anything at all about the Iron Lady's passing away, but then I realised that the paper must have long been in press by the time the news was out just before 13:00...