Plague victim

UPDATE: Hats off to TfL this afternoon/evening.  My tube arrived at Waterloo a whole minute early, so there was no problem catching my connecting train to Surbiton (we're experimenting with traffic and where to park the car for the toddler drop-off/pick-up routine, and if you're still reading after learning that, I admire your ability to absorb thoroughly dull information without losing the will to live, let alone read on), which was bang on time.  No score draw this evening.


My daughter caught the Plague at nursery last week, and gave it to me this weekend, so that I had to take yesterday off with my lurgy (hence no update, for which apologies).  I love the way she always times these things so she recovers just in time for the weekend, the exact time I begin to suffer, and the exact time she insists I spend every waking hour (and she knows it's a weekend, so gets up even earlier) playing with her.  I was not good company.

On to this morning: my train from Hersham arrived seven minutes late while I and my fellow commuters waited in sub-freezing conditions, but this delay occurred before entering TfL's jurisdiction, so it doesn't count.  And we even made up a minute by the time we'd reached Waterloo.  Add, however, a two-minute delay on the connecting tube to Edgware Road and we get a grand total of two minutes and £5.

Finally, if you have the stomach for it, there's a long article in the BBC about the effect on fare prices of rail privatisation in this country.  In a fit of impartiality, author Tom de Castella has gone out of his way to make the conclusion confusing (are they up or down?), but if you have the inclination and will to live after the first few paragraphs, I daresay you could puzzle it out.  Any of my readers perchance remember the good old (or were they bad old) days and feel like commenting?

PLUS: TfL tries for a piece of the X-Factor action, instead of spending time and money on doing their jobs.