A snoring women and carnage at Stratford

My return to London after the Christmas festivities kicked off fantastically with the 07:30 train doors not working so we all had to leave the train and get on a later one.

I was lucky to get a seat but it was almost as if someone was playing a prank on me - I swear I've never heard anyone, let alone a women, snoring like a monster. It was outrageously loud and 'it' was right in my face. There was some eye contact with fellow commuters and a couple even relocated away from the noise. I was impressed with my seat tho and proceeded to read my book about the Roman invasion of Britain.

The train stopped at Chelmsford by which time people were standing, there was a minor verbal altercation between a rude thirty something who was unhappy at the speed by which a gent had not moved down the down to enable him to get sufficient standing space. I could hear moaning about the standing conditions but I was one of the lucky seated ones.

On arrival at Stratford (and we've been here before) there were crazy numbers of people on the platform. I must have moved about ten feet in ten minutes. Punishing and I was already 'late'. Eventually I got on the second central line train which passed and found my way to Barbican. The return journey also involved congestion on the platform. Not ideal.

Sleeping rough in the Snow

Six hours ago I was being picked up from Colchester's high street having spent 12 hours in the snow and temperatures of -3. This was undoubtedly one of the most punishing experiences of my life, and my friend Will who was my street sleeping partner shared these sentiments. We rocked up with multiple layers, cardboard and sleeping bags, despite wearing three pairs of socks within minutes I could no longer feel my toes. Our bed for the night was inside the doorway of a British Heart Foundation shop positioned not very far away from the Colchester SOS night bus - which was to form in part some of the evenings entertainment.

In amongst the good things which happened we were offered just under £40 for our efforts (on top of the £1100 already raised in sponsorship), were brought some left over roast dinners, offered biscuits, a portion of chips, a coffee, a tea, some hot chocolate. It was all good natured stuff until the early hours when people started leaving the clubs. From about three onwards it was so loud, so many young ladies screaming and shouting "come on Chelsea you need to stand up", "thats it we are so finished", and a few classics such as "fuck you". We had a couple of strange people questioning the merits of our cause, one drunk (rather worryingly wearing nurses uniform) accused us of not being 'for real' because, in amongst several things, we were only doing it for a night. There were a couple of very young lads whom started off by holding the view that all homeless people were the product of their own self-making and that they 'should have done better at school' - by the end of our discussion they had been won over and went to donate cash to the SOS bus. Then there was a very angry young man with what appeared to be a lovely girlfriend, whom had to apologise for him, who accused me of being a fake because I 'was sleeping'. I did point out that it was gone one in the morning and that I was tired.

We met several homeless people, one of which I'd seen around Colchester many times and often wondered what his story was. Shaun, a heavy drinker and on heroin, had been on the streets for five years and he was looking for 'a break'. A friend came to see us at some mad time close to five AM by which time the police had done a sterling job in driving/organising for everyone to get home. The amount of late-teenage girls wearing backless dresses and high heals was incredible and no doubt like I they will currently be in doors in a world of pain.

Cable Theft Stats

So since April copper robbers have cost Network Rail £2million, with 50 cable thefts in East Anglia. Four of which in the last week alone!

Shame on the idiots.

Cable Theft

I was supposed to be in Ipswich Saturday evening but due to cable theft (third time in 7 days) I didn't make it.

Now c. 7am in the Witham area this morning more cable theft so it can't get to work.

I've got a little work I can do from home and thankfully for the firm I work for and I there was no location/studio shooting for me today.

Shame on the people responsible for this.

0615 colch to lon cancelled

(another) faulty train at manningtree. luckily the 06.18 was only delayed by 4 mins. Punishing for the people from norwich on that early train.

a broken camera, a broken train, a women with child and some shrubs

the day began just after 6am waiting for a train at colchester, having beaten my slovak lodger to the shower. Despite my north face it was freezing but i found a seat on the train, put my hood up and nodded off. Upon waking in liverpool street my face was dripping in sweat- embarrasingly so. I had to be in covent garden via the office just after 8am to be the producer/cameraman on a wrap pr stunt shoot. Id shot nearly all the gv's i needed and we were about to do an interview when i got an error code. I thought it might be a tape issue but it wasnt so i put a call into a former colleague now with an edit suite on covent garden-turns out he had a camera on him so within minutes i was back in the game. Upon wrap i headed back to the markettiers studios to brief the editor, i then had a live webchat, some admin and about fourteen thousand emails to deal with. I had hoped to leave the office uba early but in the end just managed to get on the 18.20 train. I only just made it and had to run with 6 pyracantha shrubs with me. Boarding first class i sat down on the floor just by the standard/first class border. All was good until somewhere around kelvedon where the train came to an abrupt holt. There was a faulty train in the marks tey area bummer there was my leftover microwaved curry out the window. Having not had any lunch i was in pain and shared my plight with a mature lady whom had clocked my distress. We had some banter and found a mutual frustration with browns broken britain. Our attention was soon drawn to the plight of a rather large young lady who appeared to have stomach pains. Turned out she was heavily pregnant and dramatically the senior conductor was asking if there was a nurse or doctor on board. I was feet away from the lady of the moment but thankfully a nurse and a doctor had come to the rescue. The young lady laid down on the floor of first class, i got out of the way and did a little kirstie and phil to join my mature female friend a few seats away from the action. I could hear snippets of the doctor advising the pregnant women- it appeared it could be a trapped nerve but the good news was the baby wasnt coming out. All of this was a welcomed distraction from the fact the train was an hour late, we did an unscheduled stop at kelvedon and an ambulance took the lass to a hospital. One does fear what would happen in a crisis with no first aiders on board, it suprises me were even allowed to stand up/sit on train floors in todays health and safety obsessed britain. The day was almost at a close and thankfully my child birth delivery skills were not required.