Me + Travel = Apocalyptic Doom

     Soon, I am going to have to come up with newer, safer modes of transport. Yes, this is a follow on from my last blog. On a side note, I think it's funny that "apocalypse" throws up "nuclear" pictures when you jam it into Google imaged. On another side note, I need to get better quality earrings that don't go green. On another, another side note, I don't have the money do to that, so I should just shut the hell up. Right ...

     On my latest attempt to get home, I was thrown into the longest bus ride ever. If you can call it a bus ride, ya know, since the bus was stationary. And before that, there was my first train ride without adult supervision! That went swimmingly, as you can probably recall. And in between these two disasters. Well, there was the trip to London I made and the fantastic journey back to Coventry after my visit home. You know these won't end well either.

     In fact, my roommate has declared that she, "Will never, ever travel with me, as things seem to spontaneously go wrong whenever I decide to go somewhere." I love her faith in me, and the fact that she is now associating my presence with the crappy journeys, as if it's somehow my fault. But then again, I can't blame her. I actually agree that the mini London issue was probably my fault.

     London is a scary place for an eighteen year old Dead By Sunrise fan -

     I heard that you know, that comment about me dragging Dead By Sunrise into this, but they were the whole reason I was going to London. That's a story for another time, but a story I will tell, nonetheless. It deserves telling!

     - and I've always hated traveling in London. It sucks. Okay, okay. It's more than that. I'm actually pretty freaked by travel in London. Me and my family used to go at least once every summer, for a day trip, and the travel was the worst part. I was afraid that our rushing for the tube would end with me being trapped on the other side of the door, staring at my family as they disappeared into the black tunnel. Since I've already been left on a platform while someone I care about disappears into the distance, I have nothing to worry about.

     Tangent over, I was nervous. I had to get a taxi to the station, get a train into London, get the tube to High Street Kensington, and then find the building I was supposed to be going to. I was sure that I was going to screw things up. I did. I ended up on the wrong underground line. How? I have no bloody idea, since I was meant to be getting on Circle, and had all the time in the world. I guess I panicked and jumped on the wrong train. 

     It's a good thing I spotted my error, otherwise I would have been screwed. I figured it out when they announced the next stop was in a direction I was not meant to be heading in. I saved myself, getting on a different tube that would get me to Kensington, but it left me scarred. I did, eventually, feel grown-up that I managed to weave my way through London unaided, but it was still scary. And it will probably be scary forever, due to my irrational fear of London.

     My next screwed up journey was a lot simpler, and a lot less my fault. Unless you count the stupid conversation I had mentally in my head. If you're superstitious then yeah, this screw up was probably my fault too. I had come home, which had been easy enough, and it was my first weekend back from university. I was doing well at university, but being home reminded me of what I was missing out on, so I began to doubt whether I wanted to go back or not.

     I was conflicted. I wanted to go back, but I didn't at the same time. I wanted to stay at home, but I didn't at the same time. I didn't know where I wanted to be. It turned out that conflicted was the worst possible thing that I could have been. Why? Because I ended up in Rugby.     

     Okay, I'll go back a few steps. I was getting a train back to Coventry, a train that left from Milton Keynes Central. This is the same station that I sat at for an hour when I was abandoned on its sixth platform. Me and this station have history. We go back. Way back. And it seems that our unresolved issues are stirring more issues between us. Anyway, I was getting a 19:11 train to Coventry. All I had to do was get on the train and everything after that was a done deal.

     I got on. I sat down. I waved to my Dad on the platform. We pulled away. And then the tanoy system crackled to life, and a woman's voice echoed down upon us.

Announcer: "This train will not be going to Coventry, Birmingham International or Birmingham New Street due to there being a person on the train line."

     WHAT!

     That was the first elegant thought to my head. The second being, "Why'd someone have to go and commit suicide when I was getting the train home?" Sympathetic I know, but a lot more clued up then the girls sitting opposite me.

Girl 1: "There's someone on the line? What are they doing on the line? And why do we have to be diverted?"

Girl 2: "They probably need to get the person off the line."

     I smiled at their naivety, knowing that it was going to take a long time for them to get the person off the line. Then panic kicked in. Hang on a minute. If I wasn't going to Coventry, where was I going?

     Rugby, it would seem.

     Slap bang in between home and university. This is where superstition fits in. If you are superstitious, you'll probably think my earlier indecisiveness and confliction lead to me being in between the two places. It was Fate's way of laughing at me.

Fate: "HA, you couldn't make your mind up and now you're stuck in the middle of nowhere. Stuff that in your pipe and smoke it."

     Well, that was the last time I was going to be conflicted about a journey. Just to be on the safe side. And yeah, I know, Rugby isn't in the middle of nowhere, but it might have been for all the good that it did me that fine night.

     On a morbid side note, the male announcer at Rugby was a lot less sympathetic than the woman on the train, and he clearly doesn't like to beat around the bush. Why'd I say that? I think he's announcement gave that away.

Announcer: "There are no trains traveling between Rugby and Coventry due to there being a person under a train. We will do everything in our power to ensure that the lines are cleared quickly and efficiently so you can be on your way. Thank you."

     Thank you indeed.