by
Fentyke
@ 13/11/2006 - 10:45:26
What a day Friday was. Following a boozey industry awards thingy at the Grovesnor Hse on Thursday night, Friday morning came as a bit of a shock and with one hell of a fat head. I eventually checked out of the Hotel at 9.30am and reluctantly faced the tube from Old St to Angel. It's only one stop but I was expecting to be crammed up against somebodies armpit while another stranger smapled mine. What a releif. It wasn't like that at all and I was able to stand in my own space, nursing my fat head and wondering when the paracetamol were going to kick in.
After a blurry day in the office inturupted only by a full breakfast and a pint of Guiness I set off, for KX at 17.30 to meet De Wife at 17.43 because we were off to see a band called We Are Scientists at Brixton Acadamy. Was her train on time? Was it buggery. It arrived a good 13 mins late which was a good thing because I wasn't on time either and if I hadn't been at the meeting place, she'd just as likely to have set off to the venue without me.
Anyway because I'd had a late and boozey time the night before, I wasn't exactly looking forward to it. Partly because De Wife likes the band more than I do but more importantly becasue we had seated tickets, she wanted standing and I knew she'd mention the fact all night long.
Until about 5 minutes into the gig my predictions were running true to form. We'd already met up with my boss and his misses who had standing tickets so she was jumping up and down with jealousy and bending my ear like a bastard. That was until Alex Turner, lead singer with the Acrtic Monkeys, the Base player and drummer sat in front of us. It was at this point that her moaning turned to gratitude. Despite being old enough to be his mother, she swanned and swooned all over him for the next hour and a half. I'm only thankful that A) He couldn't see her and 
It wasn't imediately obvious she was with me and C) She resisted temptation to interupt his evening and left him alone until the gig was over. It was at this point she nicked my pen, a picture I have in my wallet of my kids and asked him for his autograph. I stood next to him trying to look disinterested while my misses fawned when he looked at me. The next thing I know I've leaned over and instead of appologising for the misses I asked him if it was true he supported Sheffield Wednesday. 'Owls for promotion' was his reply which as a Barnsley fan, I found deeply offensive. So my misses walked out beaming (although I had to endure her sreaming Alex Turner for the entire journey back to P'boro) and I walked out slightly let down that one of my favorite bands were Wednesday fans.
We got back to Kings Cross in good time for the 23.30, sat down with a beer and a coffee and reviewed the evening. Reviewed probably isn't the right description because all she could talk about was Alex bloody Turner and I was only thankful that one of the lads I often see on a morning sat with us and changed the conversation. We arrived back into Tinsel Town bang and time but unbeknown to us, our eventful evening wasn't quite over yet.
Rather thank walk to the main station building we walked over the transport bridge hopeing the rear platform gate would be open. It wasn't but one of the fellas in front of us was obviously a rail employee and he had a Key. Before I continue you have to understand that this gate is regularly left open. Normal open hours are between 5 and 11am and 4 and 8pm to allow commuters easy access to the car and bike park but you often find it open outside these hours too.
So matey boy opened the gate and let his mate through. He started to shut it as we approached so, as I have on many occations, I asked him to hold it open while we went through. He didn't. Instead, without saying a word, he just looked at me and shut the gate. 'Oh thanks mate' I said. 'No problem' was his sarcastic reply and off he walked.
At first I thought he was having a laugh and it took a few minutes to sink in that he wasn't. It was then that I started the foul and abusive language towards him, but who wouldn't. I was so wound up I was all for climbing the fence and giving him a piece of my mind (I'm not one for fisty cuffs so that's the best i could offer) but De Wife talked me out of it. I was confused though. I'd asked him nicely and with a wooden fance between us he just point blank ignored me. I've seen and had loads of people with a key to this gate, hold it open for regular passengers so why did he do this? What was his motivation? There were no ticket checks at the main station and tickets we're checked on the train so it wasn't as if he was protectibg revenue. As far as I can see he's just a plane old fashioned wanker and I hope he's made redundant at the earliest.
I know he's a rail employee because 1, he has a key and 2, I've seen him before. I therefore know I'll see him agian. I'm now lookinng forward to that time so that I can loudly and publicly ask him why he did what he did without an explanation or appology. If any rail people can explain his actions, please do. It won't stop me having a pop at the fella because justified or not, he could have been polite, explained his reason or appologised. Basically he's the kind of rail employee I detest.
Finally I'll just mention this mornings journey. I turned up at 07.10 for my usual 07.20 train. Unfortuantely over running engineering works in York (I think) had caused a 23 min delay so I jumped on the 07.13 FCC service and arrived into KX at 08.18. I had to feel sorry for the poor people who had to stand from St Neots.
