Dramatic Train Journey. Part 2.

This blog may switch from past to present tense as I am half writing it whilst on my train journey, so please bare with me!

After a lovely day with my Mum and Duncs, visiting a falconry centre, eating a hotdog, visiting my friends Mark and Vanessa, and finally dinner, Mum and Duncs were driving me to the train station so I could begin my journey back home to Lincoln.

I told Mum and Duncs that my train would leave the station 5 minutes earlier then it would just to make sure I got there on time. After my farewells at the Banbury train station, I only had a short wait until I would catch my train to Birmingham, and then change there for a train to Nottingham.

Surprise, surprise, I get on a majority quiet train, and coach, to find that my booked seat is sat on already, and not by me. Even though there is a sign above it stating that it is reserved. Every time I book a train journey, my seat always seems to get sat in, even though it is clearly reserved! Dead annoying! Then it is a 50/50 percent chance that when I ask the intruder to vacate my seat, they either do so politely and apologetically, or rudely make a big fuss of it all.

Like my trip down to Banbury. Was fine in terms of people sitting in my seat. The lady was polite so I didn't make her move. I sat next to her instead. No big deal. She was getting off the train after me anyway so it worked out best for the both of us.

So yeah, given the train was almost empty, I was expecting this chap to not cause too much fuss. He looked the type of gentleman that would abide by a certain set of standard customs with grace and respect. So I said to him "Hi there. You are in my seat. But don't worry, I'll sit in the other booth as it is quiet." To which he replied rather sarcastically "I'll move now, just in case it 'gets' busy, I don't want to have to move later." He said this in a doubtful, grumpy manner with an awful attitude I did not care for. I couldn't help feel bloody pump furiously to my face, making my cheeks flush. I was annoyed. How dare he give me that kind of attitude. It was my right to that seat, seeing as I had booked it over a month ago. Like I have ranted before, if you want a particular seat, book it. Like you are supposed to. Don't leave it to chance. I don't moan when I don't book and can't get a decent seat. I take what seats I can get, and quite often on these occasions, I don't get a seat at all.

I'll be travelling to Edinburgh and London soon via train, I better not get these same types of problems! Cuz it is really going to wind me up beyond measure!

I'm beginning to really dislike trains. I mean really dislike them. When I got to Birmingham, I nipped to W H Smiths to get myself a couple of drinks and chocolate bars for the long 4 hour journey. My Grandma had given me a tenner on Saturday when I went for dinner at my cousins Becca's. When I fished in my bag for the tenner, I couldn't find it any where. Swallowing my rage I told the guy at the counter to serve other people whilst I checked all my bags for it. Nope. Nothing. So I had to reduce the drink and chocolate amount to one each as that was all I could afford on my card. Thoroughly embarrassed by the ordeal, I hurried away to wait on my platform.

The train to Nottingham is quiet. But yet AGAIN, there is someone sat in my seat. But in all fairness, no-one has marked it as reserved, and I can't be bothered to move her, so I sit opposite her. Which is a mistake. She keeps coughing. Loudly and really annoyingly. Really looking forward to this journey being over!

Girl coughing loudly, frequently and without covering her mouth, so spreading germs too! Great!

So the final part of my train journey really improved! A lovely old man, 79, boarded the train with his handsome golden lab, 9, called Chubb. Very obedient good dog. I spoke to him and told him he has a beautiful dog, and that I have a golden lab myself, that lives at home with my mother back in Oxfordshire, and we engaged into a conversation about our pets and what they mean to us.

The picture attached to this blog is of Chubb, the 9 year old golden lab. Cute isn't he? My golden lab, a female called Tarka is now 14 an a half years. A very good age for a Labrador dog. You can tell she is old. Most of her hearing is gone, her back legs aren't what they used to be, but she is still very well spirited and still trots along happily and a good walk with her 'sister', Ruby.

It was such a nice change to have a friendly fellow engage in conversation with you. It's not often you get strangers willing to talk to you. People seem to fear too much strangers nowadays, I do understand sometimes for good reason! There are wackos out there, but that is only a small minority. I've noticed this in cities and towns mostly, that people are more reserved. As you know, I grew up in a remote little village. Everybody knows everybody. A new neighbour moves in, everyone rushes to greet and welcome you to the community. It's a shame society now shys away from communicating much with one another. I hope this changes sooner rather than later. We are social beings after all.

Dramatic Train Journey. Part 1

So I am currently travelling down to the Oxo-shire to visit family and for my Mother's birthday. Her birthday is on Monday, but she works weekdays, do visiting the weekend before was the only option.

This morning, my journey began from Lincoln Central train station which would then take me to Sheffield, and then from Sheffield to Banbury, where I would walk to my Dad's house and wait for my Mum or her partner Duncs to pick me up and take me back to Shenington, the village I grew up in before I moved to Lincoln.

The journey from Lincoln Central to Sheffield was basically, I eventful. I was quite content having my nose stuck in the book "The Hunger Games". Yes, that book by Suzanne Collins that a bunch of whinging trolls on the Internet claim to be a direct copy of the graphic novel "Battle Royale". I can't actually judge this myself as I've read neither the graphic novel or seen the film, compared to having seen the film of the "Hunger Games" months ago and now just reading the book. But I digress.

As soon as I step off the train and onto the platform of the Sheffield train station, my instant instinct is to headroom Burger King for some much needed food. I had snacked on some cheese triangles on the way, but I needed something with a little more substance. I checked which platform I needed to be at for the Reading train that would drop me of at Banbury on my way to the fast food shop.

With burger and fries in tow, I retreated to platform 6, where I parked myself on one of the many benches and snacked on my lunch greedily. It was delicious as always, and a little more so after having just haggled a 20% discount when they wouldn't take my vouchers.

The train soon arrived at the platform and I headed straight or coach 'f' and located my seat. As usual, someone was sat in it. But it was no big deal as the seat next to her was available. I asked her where she was getting off, and she explained to me it was the stop after mine, so I told her not to move, as I got off sooner. All was fine.

The train was fairly busy, and this other young, really skinny woman with a baby in tow had sat in several peoples reserved seats. She then struggled to find a seat for herself and her baby, who was in a car carrier. Eventually, she felt she had to air her opinion on the matter. "People just have no consideration these days. No-one will give up their seat for me and my baby. I had the exact same problem when I was heavily pregnant. It's ridiculous."

She made me mad. I held my tongue though. I thought, no, I won't say anything back to her. I'll save it for my blog, and possibly a YouTube video. So my exact thoughts are these. Cheeky cow. She never asked ANYONE on the train to give up their seats. Secondly, if she wanted to guarantee a seat for herself and her baby, she should have booked seats. Like everyone else has to. Just because you have a baby, and couldn't keep your twiglit legs shut, doesn't give you any more superiority to seats on trains. This might be different on a bus. But not a train. I booked and planned my journey over a month ago. Why should I move and be inconvenienced because your flutter brain didn't think to take 5 minutes on a computer to book your tickets?btell me the whole train load of people are inconsiderate? Take a look at your own reflection silly cow.

I'm not being harsh here. It's not the whole story. She did manage to point out in her glorified speech that there were seven spare, unreserved seats available. But singular. So she could have seated her baby if she wanted to, it just meant she would have to stand with the baby, or, stop being a lazy bitch, and take the baby out of the seat carrier and held the baby and tuck the seat carrier away like any other sensible person would do. It's not rocket science. She seemed like the type that probably didn't have any GCSEs though - ok, that was harsh of me. But c'mon!

Her stop was one before mine, and it transpired in the last 10 minutes of her departure off the train, she was intact with her partner, who was in a seat, with a seat spare next to him. So what was stopping HIM giving up his seat, sitting next to someone else, and allowing her to sit in those two free seats with the baby carrier and all?

Really, peoples ignorance and stupidity amaze me.

She left the train still rambling, loudly, on her phone this time, about the train full of people's disrespect for not giving up their seats for her. So I whispered under bated breath, loud enough for those sitting around me to hear, but not loud enough for her to hear "Should have booked a seat then love, just like everyone else has to."

And that be the end of my rant. So apart from a couple of minor dramatic incidents, I got to Banbury no problem. Walked to my Dad's until Mum's partner, Duncs, picked me up and took me to the beautiful village of Shenington. Where I grew up.

Madness in the Meadows

Less then two weeks until I am off to Edinburgh! My train is booked, my hostel is booked! I'm so excited! This will be my first time ever visiting Scotland. Also, my first holiday alone too. As in, no family or friends accompanying me! The people I will meet are people that I've only known via Facebook. It's a lot less dangerous then it sounds. Honest.

So 'Madness in the Meadows' is pretty much the same as 'Summer in the City' But in Edinburgh not London. It will be my first ever YouTube gathering so I am very excited about that too! Finally meeting people with the same interests as me! As in videoing yourself talking to no-one and plastering it all over the Internet.

Yes... I am alive... Again

It's that time again, where I make the promise that after months of not posting, I will make more of an effort to keep this blog updated. One day, I will make good on this promise. Whether this will be now, or in the future, who knows.

Good news is, I've been making good on uploading regular vlogs on my youtube channel, if you aren't subscribed already, or not seen it before, you may find it by clicking here.

One of my latest vlogs has been one of my most funniest to film. The "Marshmallow Challenge" aka "Fluffy Bunny"

Myself, and my friend Karma attempt the challenge after viewing Carrie Fletcher's attempt on her channel "ItsWayPastMyBedTime". If you like seeing people fail at challenges, you'll like this video.

So, what is going on in life? The usual I suppose - working in a job on minimum wage with no sign of progression, relentlessly trying to better my future, but failing epically as always. Ah well, still time for the luck to change I suppose - anyone got a rabbits foot they'd like to gift me?

Some good news though, new ideas on the horizon, which hopefully will blossom into something amazing - we'll see, but more on that as it develops.

In other news, my laptop died :( And as I am on minimum wage, there is no chance I will be able to afford one anytime soon. LUCKILY, I have one very awesome and new house mate, who is loaning me hers for the time being, so I am able to get on with my usual projects that demands more then an hours session on a library computer.

Things I am looking forward to this year - 'Summer in the City' - a well established summer vlog gathering. It will be my second gathering ever, shortly after my first YouTube gathering ever, which is the Edinburgh gathering in the first weekend of August. I am so excited for so many reasons! I really can't wait to meet loads of new people and make new friends that share my 'weird' interest in the internet and the vlogging and blogging world. August really can't come quick enough!

This weeks challenge - at work, I start of a bit of an addictive game - to try and name all the European countries without looking them up (there is just over 50 countries - it is quite hard!). On my first attempt, I only got about 22, however, I wasn't really trying. On my second attempt tonight, I got around 34, so pretty happy with that attempt. A challenge I set myself though, is to learn and memorize all the European countries by the end of the week and be able to list them all off by heat - wish me luck! I should be uploading a vlog about it, so look out for it!

For now though blogspot, goodnight!

A bad morning

Yesterday was my cousin's hen do. A very special occasion, and something I had been looking forward to for months, and it was really, really great. We all went go-karting in the day, then went out to a Greek restaurant in the evening which was followed by Greek dancing, then it was to Oceana's for some drinking and cheesy dancing. A brilliant day, even for Birmingham! It made up for what could only be described as a nightmare morning that occurred before the events that took place that day.

It all started when I got to the train station at Lincoln, so I could depart from there to Nottingham, then from Nottingham to Birmingham New Street.

Well, technically, the trouble started before I left the train station. I knew I was going to encounter a problem, and I was hoping for it to be easily resolved. This was proved wrong quite quickly. For future notice, and my advise to young persons under the age of 25 and are likely to have some use of travelling via trains, if you are going to get a railcard, buy online, not at the station. Why? Because when you buy from the station, you have to have two pieces of cards that make the railcard. One with the photo I.D, then one that is the actual valid as the discount card. Lose the discount card part, expect to pay the full price for a new discount card.

So basically, it's just another way for them to make money out of you. Daylight robbery. At least the railcard off the internet sends you just the one card you need, and if you loose it, it's really easy to go online and organize a replacement, which is also cheaper then having to fork out for a new one like you do when you are at an actual train station.

I paid £25 for an open train ticket from Lincoln to Birmingham New Street, that's the price with a young person's discount. I went to the train station to see if my railcard could be sorted out reasonably. My only option was having to buy ANOTHER train ticket for the same price WITHOUT refund on my previous ticket for £34. So it would have cost me over £50 for a train ticket to Birmingham, somewhere that I was only going to be there for a day. The other choice, buy another railcard for £28. Both choices were way out of order, but there was no way I could miss my cousin's hen do, and rail companies must love making money on people's crises. I took the second option. It probably was actually a good thing, as it was due for renewal the following month anyway, it was just one more expense I could have done without at the time. Pay day was less then a week away, I was broke and the money I had was saved for what needed to go on for the hen do.

That brings me to the second part of the nightmare morning. I got into Birmingham, the first thing I needed to do was to make a phone call to my parents to ask them to loan me money to cover the expense of paying for a new railcard. I couldn't phone my parents because I was blocked from making any sort of communication on my phone, as the bill was over due. I thought I was good for that til pay day, which was only a few days away.

Not only was I stuck for calling my parents, I was also stuck for calling my cousin's hen do organizer and bridesmaid for details of where the hotel was and where to meet for breakfast. So I ran around like a headless chicken looking for an orange shop, a natwest and somewhere with free wifi. Found an orange shop and had to negotiate and negotiate for them to put my phone back online, which cost me £10, but at least it meant I could get hold of help! So I called, got sorted and then was running around trying to find a Holiday Inn, which seemed impossible, especially as everyone walking or hanging around Birmingham that I asked for directions seemed as clueless as me! Can't believe I couldn't find one person that could give me directions.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I've been getting gradually ill since my holiday in Yorkshire the other week, Friday being the worst so far, and then Saturday was just as bad, so being ill and having a crappy morning was not improving things.

Anyway, eventually I got to the hotel, and in a state of relief after checking in, and getting a phone call telling me where to be, but being slightly awkward to describe where to go, even though it was less then a minute away, but my scrambled and stressy brain at the time just couldn't process it, I burst into tears. They were tears of relief, as a girl named Fiona, my cousin's friend, bridesmaid and the hen organizer met me from the hotel and took me to the whetherspoons where everyone was meeting for breakfast.

After that, everything went perfectly, as mentioned at the beginning of this ranty post somewhere.

Well, it's Sunday now. I'm still ill, lost majority of my voice, got stuck in Nottingham for three hours, as trains to Lincoln from Nottingham on a Sunday is atrocious.

But now I'm home. It's half 11 at night, still ill, and I've got work tomorrow. Well, at least it's not til early afternoon, hopefully some luck will come my way, and I'll start to get better over night in my sleep!

Tarka, over and out!

My Thoughts on the England Riots

I know this is a few days late, but I was away in Yorkshire on a family holiday. So...

I am appalled by the behaviour of our British citizens that are responsible for the riots that have spread across Britain. Britain should be a country that its citizens are proud of, and the excuses of individual characters whether involved in the rioting or not, are despicable. There is absolutely no excuse for the behaviour of those involved in the looting. If the rumours are true, that the looting is in protest against government action, then these people shouldn’t be acting violently towards their neighbours. The people who work hard to run their businesses, the people who provide the community with everyday services, the people who are struggling themselves to make a living are the people getting hurt, innocent people. It is despicable. I hope the families of those involved in the rioting and looting are ashamed of them, and don’t hesitate to report them to the police if they know that members of their families are involved. This also goes for those who “understand”, meaning, agree with those involved with the violence, theft and arson that has contributed to the destruction in the mayhem and chaos of the riots and looting.

I am also disappointed with the media in their portrayal of those responsible for the riots. “Youths”, “teenagers” and “children” are the most common words that have been used to describe the majority of those that have been involved with the riots. This is an unfair stereotype, and a predictable one at that. While I can admit I have an unfair bias of my distain for chavs in hoodies, it is clear from the CCTV footage shown on the news rather than just the photographs in the newspapers that it isn’t just the “youths” involved, it’s adults too. I ask the media to be more forthright with this reality. This is a common occurrence with the media, and society’s opinion on the youth of today.

This doesn’t mean I deny that no youths are involved, I know there is a small minority responsible, but the way the media have been representing this notion makes it seem that all the youth of today act this way. Now, it wasn’t long ago that I was in that “youth” group. I’m 22 now, and while majority of my family would consider myself and my cousins of the same age, to cousins that are up to 25 the children in the family, I am an adult. It wasn’t long ago, however, that I was in my youth, and in that time, I still had the same stereotype follow me and my friends. In my home town, the shopping centre I used to visit, I would have security approach me to tell me to put my hood down, if by chance I had it up. This was in my college days. Now, I bet if it were a thirty year old with his hood on his hoodie on, no-one would bat an eyelid. It’s not like there are just hoods on hoodies either, raincoats, and other clothing garments have them too. I bet no-one who wears a hat is asked to remove it.

I can admit the thugs involved in the riots and lootings are giving hoodie wearing folk a bad name, but I implore people to not take this as a thought of assuming all people wearing hoodies might mug, rob or attack you. I’ve seen a response from the general public that this is a common opinion.

The problem with the troubled youngsters AND adults is that these particular have either not had a proper upbringing, which cannot, in all cases, be blamed on parenting. While I think in some cases, this can be true, particularly in witnessing poor parenting skills in the general public.

What really needs to be addressed is the lack of power in schools and general public services. Teachers and the police don’t have enough power these days to dish out the force and punishment that is required to shape our society into a civilized community. As a nation, we are too soft. The government urgently need to review and rectify a suitable solution to this ever growing problem.

You're So Vein