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Somehow - and I don’t think anyone knows how - London Underground managed to derail two of its tube trains over the weekend. Two! One is bad enough. So of course there was a knock-on through much of the network this morning and it took a dog’s age to get out of Tottenham Court Road.

There was an eerie silence as several hundred of us stood wedged in the coridoors taking those stupid half steps you take when you’re shuffling yourself forward, trying not to stand on the person in front. One escalator out of service, and the Central and Northern Lines turfing off there… all told it took about ten minutes to get from the train to the street.

After that the day could only get better. And it did. Met Kathryn, Ems, Maddy and Leo in the Green Man for lunch. Leo brought the birthday present he’d bought me and carted all the way from Cheltenham to Paris and back having left it in his room in the hotel last weekend. I think that has to make this year the record for longest stringing-out of a single birthday

It was great to see them, and it felt so much like we were just taking a break, still working together. At the same time, though, there was something different. Perhaps the fact that we could only chat about the most recent office gossip if they specifically told me about it, or the fact that no matter how familiar it all felt we’d be going off to separate offices at the end of it all.

Times move on, though, and things change, and perhaps soon these meetings will not feel so familiar. It would be a shame if that was what happened.

To be honest, though, I’ve not had time to think about that since starting the new job. I’ve worked late every night, and have spent my days learning names and numbers and ways of working that differ just slightly from what I’m used to. At the end of it I come home and veg in front of the telly - something I never do - or go to the gym to clear my mind.

It was strangely empty there tonight. Calming down before the Christmas rush, perhaps.

I ran too far again, and my legs already ache. Tomorrow I will hobble.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2003 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.