Tag Archives: rail

Amol Rajan: rubbish railway worker

Posted on December 31, 2024 by Dreamaticus

Amol Rajan had given up in journalism for a job selling train tickets at London King’s Cross. When he failed to find me a split ticket for the route London-Newcastle-Edinburgh, I recommended that he return to his old role. He … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Amol, Amol Rajan, Edinburgh, journalism, journalist, London, Newcastle, rail, railway, Rajan, split, ticket, train, Waverley, worker | Leave a comment

A shoddy Edinburgh welcome at Portobello Town Hall (Rousse)

Posted on January 20, 2024 by Dreamaticus

All business travellers to Edinburgh were routed into the city via Portobello Town Hall. Strips of dirty blue plastic poorly fixed to the hall’s internal steps announced ‘Welcome to Edinburgh’ hundreds of times in a tiny font. Once in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bridge, cake, Edinburgh, Forth, hall, plastic, Portobello, rail, South Queensferry, town, tunnel, welcome | Leave a comment

A failed rail journey to Northfield (Rousse)

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Dreamaticus

The young woman and I left the Chil gig and walked to the small railway station. Our journey home should have been straightforward, but we missed one train because we weren’t paying attention to the platform announcements, another because we … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged BBC, centre, Chil, engineer, gig, media, Oxford, rail, railway, Small Heath, station, train | Leave a comment

Horsepower (Rousse)

Posted on May 13, 2018 by Dreamaticus

I clung onto the roof of the train carriage until I could bear the cold no longer, then embarked on the dangerous descent. It was difficult to drop to the road while the train was travelling at speed. Who knew … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged carriage, cold, descent, horse, horsepower, rail, road, roof, speed, train | Leave a comment

Kidnap victims escape captor by first class rail (Rousse)

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Dreamaticus

BR and I were being held hostage by a crazy gunman who thought it hysterical to ‘tease’ us by holding a gun to our heads. Even funnier, in his warped mind, was to hand the deadly weapon over to each … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged captor, class, crazy, deadly, escape, first, gun, gunman, head, hostage, kidnap, London, rail, tease, train, trigger, victim, voucher, weapon | Leave a comment

Unethical practices of rail companies (Rousse)

Posted on November 23, 2017 by Dreamaticus

The three women in the train carriage were all plain-clothed police officers. I knew this because I had been allocated the role of PhD supervisor for one of them. The woman in question, however, was unaware of this because she … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged announcement, business, card, carriage, companies, company, doctoral, ethics, force, identity, meeting, officer, PhD, police, public address, rail, study, supervision, supervisor, train, women | Leave a comment

Rail passengers told go ‘Sod off’ (Rousse)

Posted on August 12, 2017 by Dreamaticus

We needed to get from Hexham to Newcastle by train to spend the night with LM. When I tried to check the train times on the station’s app it responded with an error message: ‘Trains after 4pm from Hexham to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged error, Hexham, message, Newcastle, passenger, rail, service, sod off | Leave a comment

The chance of a year in France and Marmite tinfoil in a Little Chef (Rousse)

Posted on April 17, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I sat through the sandy-haired lecturer’s explanation of how to apply for a year abroad in France then took the ‘handout’ at the end. This took the form of three tiny orange cards, rather like rail tickets. There was little … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged car, card, chance, city, cover, duvet, explanation, foil, France, handout, lecturer, Little Chef, Marmite, Orange, park, rail, sandy, sheet, ticket, tin, tinfoil, TPR, year | Leave a comment

Naked housework, phone swapping, and Doctor Who accessories (Rousse)

Posted on August 15, 2016 by Dreamaticus

Naked, I tidied up my London flat. I moved slices of white bread from the first floor sitting room windowsill to the kitchen where they belonged. When I returned downstairs a fat woman brandishing a gun confronted me in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Aborigine, accessory, Andy Pandy, apple, assistant, bar, boo, bracelet, brandish, bread, breakfast, change, coincidence, conference, conference paper, cover, curtains, deck, delegates, Doctor Who, downstairs, Dr Who, drag, dressing, event, exchange, expensive, face, fat, fear, flat, foundation, gown, grey, gun, hall, housework, introduce, kitchen, librarian, life, London, make-up, man, medical, metallic, mobile, naked, open, phone, pink, presentation, programme, protect, rail, risk, room, seat, seating, session, sitting, slice, slides, slim, sparkle, stats, suit, swap, text, tidy, timing, tummy, undressed, unhappy, upstairs, venue, visual aids, white, windowsill, woman, worry | Leave a comment

Renovating the renovations (Rousse)

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Dreamaticus

My mother-in-law and brother-in-law AG had spend the night side-by-side in single beds in my old bedroom in Birmingham. I asked them how they had slept. All had been fine, but they suggested that we redecorate the room. It actually … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bed, bedroom, Birmingham, brother-in-law, coving, decorator, finish, mother-in-law, night, noise, picture, plastic, rail, redecorate, reduction, renovate, renovations, sleep, structure | Leave a comment