Phoenix of Hamble
Well-Known Member
Last night I was lucky enough to be invited out to dinner by a supplier at The Ivy, which was a nice enough thing in its own right (food was extraordinarily good!), but the best bit was the after dinner speaker was Will Carnegie, skipper of one of the BT Global Challenge yachts in the 2001/2002 rounding..... Will was an excellent presenter, and had a large set of pictures and video clips to support his story. He had 2 crew members seriously injured during the southern ocean leg, one losing a finger, and one suffering 2 broken legs in 4 places, 3 cracked ribs and a cracked vertebrae...... he told the story brilliantly, with a sense of camaraderie and team spirit emerging... I have nothing but respect for those guys and gals after hearign that story.... very very good indeed.....
BUT then the whole evening was buggered up by the journey home....
I get to the train station after running the last leg from the tube station to the train station to just catch the last fast train at 23h30 for my 45min journey home, to find that the overhead power lines have failed..... damn..... so I then sit and wait for the next train... a slow one at 00h36..... now this train stops everywhere... even places I have never heard of..... eventually I am half way home, after 17 stops, and the train grinds to halt at a small station, and the voice comes over the tannoy.... sorry, you are being transferred to a bus...... so we get off the train.... unsuprisingly the bus isn't there yet, and I wait another 10mins.... a bus arrives, its a bit of an ancient thing... firstly the driver says, I am from Perth, and don't know this area at all, does anyone know where they are going?... so a procession of travellers march to the front as we work our way north via various railway stations.... eventually we are at the stop but one before mine, and I proceed to the front.... the driver is an absolute lunatic.... he is doing 50 in 30 zones in a full bus.... I talk him back onto the motorway, and we head a bit further north with about 15 miles to do up the motorway.... about 5 miles in, an alarm goes off on the coach..... and he starts to pull over... I am secretly quite pleased, as he is weaving all over the motorway, and I am not far off scared!..... the bus has now stopped, and aint going anywhere... so we wait... and we wait... eventually another bus arrives, and we are moved over.... it finally reaches my station, and drops us off.... I go to my car, via the ticket machine (you pay to get out, not in)... to find that the ticket machine is broken completely...... its now 04h00... and at this point I lose it.... I drive up to the barrier press the intercom button and wait... and wait... eventually someone answers (to whom I apologise in the light of a new day)... after screaming foul abuse and curses at this poor fellow, I am let out (without paying), and arrive home at 04h45 this morning....... [no thanks] me... glad that doesn't happen too often...
BUT then the whole evening was buggered up by the journey home....
I get to the train station after running the last leg from the tube station to the train station to just catch the last fast train at 23h30 for my 45min journey home, to find that the overhead power lines have failed..... damn..... so I then sit and wait for the next train... a slow one at 00h36..... now this train stops everywhere... even places I have never heard of..... eventually I am half way home, after 17 stops, and the train grinds to halt at a small station, and the voice comes over the tannoy.... sorry, you are being transferred to a bus...... so we get off the train.... unsuprisingly the bus isn't there yet, and I wait another 10mins.... a bus arrives, its a bit of an ancient thing... firstly the driver says, I am from Perth, and don't know this area at all, does anyone know where they are going?... so a procession of travellers march to the front as we work our way north via various railway stations.... eventually we are at the stop but one before mine, and I proceed to the front.... the driver is an absolute lunatic.... he is doing 50 in 30 zones in a full bus.... I talk him back onto the motorway, and we head a bit further north with about 15 miles to do up the motorway.... about 5 miles in, an alarm goes off on the coach..... and he starts to pull over... I am secretly quite pleased, as he is weaving all over the motorway, and I am not far off scared!..... the bus has now stopped, and aint going anywhere... so we wait... and we wait... eventually another bus arrives, and we are moved over.... it finally reaches my station, and drops us off.... I go to my car, via the ticket machine (you pay to get out, not in)... to find that the ticket machine is broken completely...... its now 04h00... and at this point I lose it.... I drive up to the barrier press the intercom button and wait... and wait... eventually someone answers (to whom I apologise in the light of a new day)... after screaming foul abuse and curses at this poor fellow, I am let out (without paying), and arrive home at 04h45 this morning....... [no thanks] me... glad that doesn't happen too often...
