begging

a young man (ic1) approched me in colchester at the train station in the dark last week asking for "any change" i was polite back and said "sorry mate". I walked on and flagged a patrol car to advise on the man in question, job done. A stark contrast to this evening when leaving highbury islington station at 9pm. A man (young ic3) asked me if i had 50p while i was topping up my oyster. I simply said no and he said "what do u mean no you fucker" / i opted to ignore him. Madness.

expensive wine and signal problems

£4.75 for a tiny wine is harsh so a can of adnams is the answer. The 7pm train was delayed by 14 mins. The tone of the inspectors voice was mildly offensive in advising us that there were signal problems. So when he came to inspect my ticket,as i stood in the isle, i asked what he meant by signal problems. His response was a little vague 'just signal problems' but since as i was blocking his path i pressed the matter 'but what does that actually mean' i asked. He reluctantly advised that it could be a 'broken cable' - it was worth pushing why should we just accept this crap.

a rare weekend trip to london

i left colchester around 6pm on saturday to travel to tooting. It was fantastic journey, a couple of adnams and a whole table to myself. After the social event i got a taxi to liverpool st. Sadly for me i missed the train by 5 minutes. It wasnt just any old train. It was the last train home. And with no cash, no debit card and a battery dead phone my options werent plentiful. In the end i mixed it up between macd's, random walking and a snooze in an alley way. Far from ideal and to top it off it took me a tube, two buses and a train to get bk to colch - sunday wasnt so productive.

problems at chelmsford

last night mrs eaton-to be called at 6 15pm to advise there were problems so a beer or two arond liverpool street would be in order. En route to finding the eatons i bumped into lucy ward and her older bro "fucxing trains" we agreed. Matt eaton introduced me to a new grolsch wheat beer and we proceeded to discuss a vision for a high speed rail line for east anglia. With some trempranillo based drink we managed to get on the 9.08pm train back so i managed to see my ma for all of 20 minutes before she had to go "fucxing trains"

burger king envy

a long day shooting followed by a staff (charity) social. I hadnt had food but was so hungry so come the end of the night there were only two options. On the basis that 'ive been there before' i decided mac d's was the place. Whilst inexpensive on the investment front the speed wasnt ideal. Despite going for the plain burger option i was forced into a u turn. It had been atleast 10 minutes too long so i suggested to the main man that a standard burger would be acceptable in the interest of time. I walked quite fast and upon seeing the clock relaxed a little until i got on the train. With a few minutes to spare i boarded and was planning a table for one. That was until i saw a seat next to a man seriously enjoying his burger king. I knew with this guy i would be able to munch away- it was a good deal until i realised he had a burger king and i had a mac donalds. We had a natter and occupied our journey to chelmsford by trying to guess each others names. He was william i was darius neither of us guessed correctly.

an hour late

good job i had the new muse album to listen to/not looking forward to next week mind

The most exciting monday morning ever

oh my...... I had a sneaky idea there would be a couple of packages for me at work today and this was the reason for an unusual monday morning excitement. I actually got up at 5:30 a good hour before I needed to but I had just discovered some exclusive video footage from 2000 which I wanted to cut and release so I had to smash it....

This morning's trains were about ten mins late due to signal problems somewhere nr norwich.......

I managed to secure my new found spot just next to the canteen where they store excess paper bags.... although there is a place to sit in there I felt that would be stepping over the line so I stuck with standing and reading the 'week'.

My first package at work, and the first hit of excitement of the day was the new Muse 7 inch and CDs, then a couple of hours later our lovely receptionist emailed me saying there was another package. I knew what it was and it was one of those moments..... Reminiscent of the time I opened up Kid A and phoned Martin Robinson to discuss the inner sleeve art. What a monstrous collection of memorabilia. I had two vinyls a DVD and a pre loaded Muse branded USB stick with the album pre loaded with mp3 files. Awesome.

Upon returning to Colchester I blasted the vinyl.... wooooo

First Class Only

This morning's train was 10 minutes late so this always means its even more overcrowded. I boarded on the border line between First Class and standard only to be immediately greeted by "do you have a first class ticket"......... the clear implication being I wasn't allowed to stand/sit outside the disabled toilet on the border line. I was further advised that I would need to stand the 'other side' of the bar....

This wasn't going to be a good look given how packed the bar area was so I casually moved and noticed an opening - it was a random storage area but no one had claimed it so it served the purpose....



I had some banter with the friendly lady working in the cafe-bar who explained that the Assistant Ticket Inspector was under orders to stop standard people going into the First Class arena - fair played he was just doing his job but some discretion might have been useful given that the train was late....

Anyhow to London I went...

after shooting a curry video podcast in the north I decided to have a curry on Brick Lane.

Got on the 9:48pm train home and sat opposite a nice south Colchester man - Jeff. A man of the forces, we talked for the whole way home - he thought I was a journo. I assumed he worked in Finance......

We both shared an outlook and desire for a good life.... we had some giggles. I return home to find the chickens still sleeping out under the stars.... good for them....

Muse on the red button wow - awesome....

Timing is Everything

Working in the media game you now and again inherit a souvenier or two. On Friday I'd been producing a webcast with Vicky Letch intervewing Ken Hom and the PRs not wishing to carrying their products back to base offered me a Wok. The other bonus was I inherited a small collection of vegetables, a nice result. Following a few Hoegaardens to congratulate Anthony Argyhrou on reaching his 25th birthday I got a taxi to Liverpool St. The journey was unusually long and cost 50% more than normal - I think I was done over but I'm not 100%.

After resisting a burger king moment - tho I did walk up to the neon with intent but managed to visualise a curry back in colchester in front of the Tudors with Whitman and Lucy so to the train I went....

I'd nodded to sleep on the 20:48 to Clacton on Friday but incredibly I woke up just in time to get off at Colchester. Now this should have been a straight forward exit however I was flustered and carrying my brief case, a bag of coffee and a box full of food and a Ken Hom Wok, disaster struck....... the beeping sound of the doors about to close began. I had seconds to move and in doing so the box featuring ginger, garlic, peppers, carrots and a Ken Hom Wok, in bits, collapsed on me.

I instantly hit the deck and gathered the key bits I could - amazingly two other blokes did the same and before I knew it I was on the platform with my wok in bits and some bruised vegetables. All was well I was home at a reasonable hour ready for curry and the Tudors before a night's sleep in advance of a journey to Devon to see Muse.