They will all die

I ducked out at lunch time to try and find a copy of Assassin's Creed III to play tonight once my daughter is asleep, since my wife is away on business again.  Assassin's Creed is an amazing series of games, and I'll deck anyone who says otherwise.

But that's besides the point.  Owing to the lack of decent games/DVD stores near Paddington, I had to mosey on down to the Whiteleys Centre in Bayswater for my nearest HMV.  Though it's only about a 20 minute walk from here, I thought to hop on the tube, as the station is basically on the way and that, in theory at least, would leave me a few more minutes' lunch break to carry on reading The Hydrogen Sonata, Iain M. Banks' latest offering (pretty good so far, but then I'm only halfway in so I'm more amused by the Culture ship names than by the plot, which so far is still keeping me guessing why all the main characters are in such a tizzy).

Not to be: three minutes' delay on the tube there, nine minutes delay on the tube back.  Both times, spent simply waiting on the platform for the tube to arrive or leave, while being smugly informed by periodic announcements that - despite all evidence to the contrary - all lines were operating a good service.  That's £30 so far.

The trip home netted me another three minutes' final delay (£7.50), three on the Bakerloo Line to Waterloo (some kind of inaudible excuse offered) and three on the connecting train to Hampton Court (no excuse offered, despite the conductress announcing the scheduled arrival time that we missed several times).