I'm going to Hell

I have to commute to work, I'm sure I've mentioned this before a few times. I have to take the train, and I pay about £1800, about $3500. For that sort of money I should be getting free meals and a bed on my train. However most of the time I manage to get a seat, and that's good enough for me, as I either read, sleep or play on my DS.

Most of the people I travel with are nice enough, they are courteous and polite, we apologise to one another if we get in each others way, or say thank you if they let us pass. But there's always a few oxygen thieves around who make commuting even more tiresome. Here are the top 5 things that make you an asshole commuter:

1. Standing on the left of the escalator.
2. Stopping suddenly in the middle of the flow of commuters.
3. Not moving into the train so more people can get on.
4. Complaining loudly about nothing.
5. Standing in front of the train doors.

On the way to work these things are barely noticed through my blurry and semi-comatose morning haze. I stumble on to the train and claim a seat, throwing my bag into the overhead storage and sitting down as quickly as I can. I then either slip back into unconsciousness and drool over myself for half an hour, or try and do something active to stir my brain from a porridge-like mess into an effervescent bowl of coke and pop rocks.

By the time it comes to getting home again I'm tired and irritable. The people in my way are no longer ignored, they're infuriating. The ancient crone complaining has a voice like cutlery scraping on glass, instead of the dull muttering of this morning. The final straw is the idiot trying to force his way past me as I'm getting off the train at home, generally he just ends up back on the platform again as everyone exits the train. I fail to see the point of trying to get on the train while people are getting off, it's like a salmon swimming up a waterfall. Sure you'll get there eventually, but then your just going to lay your eggs and die. Wait... what?

Labels: assholes, commuting, DS, stupidity, suckage, york

Yeah, you knew it had to be coming...

While York is a really nice place to live, it's not without it's downsides. It may be a city, but it's pretty small. While this is a plus point, after all, I don't like busy cities, it can be negative at times. It means that there's fewer jobs, and less room in the centre at busy times. Here's my top 5 reasons that I don't like living in York:

1. There's not many jobs in my sector so I have to work in Leeds
2. I hate the buses
3. I hate the trains
4. I hate the tourists
5. It's far away from all my old friends

I went to boarding school in south England, but York is in the north, making it hard to see my old friends. While I now have new friends I think it's a shame to be so far away from the mates I grew up with. We meet up a few times a year and try to keep in touch, but there can be a long time between visits.

The main things I hate about York have to do with travel, and mostly commuting. I'm new to the whole commuting thing, and it's not one of my favourite pastimes. I've done a few posts about this before, mainly whining about the buses and trains, if I worked in York this would be less of a problem.

Finally the tourists... Oh my god the tourists... It would be fine if there weren't so many of them and they weren't so stupid. It's great that your visiting and learning about our history, but could you not take up the whole street when I'm rushing to the bank with a huge hangover, sweating and tired on a freezing Saturday morning? Thanks.

Labels: friends, hangover, suckage, tourists, york

When I was younger we moved around a lot. My Dad was in the military so we moved every 2 years. I've lived in a few different places in England, a few in Germany and even in Cyprus. I really liked moving around a lot, it never got boring, as I always got to see the best bits of wherever we went. As I went to boarding school as well it really made the holidays feel like holidays, as I was always somewhere new.

However as I got older I used to get bored not being at school. While I had school friends, I had few friends at home and hoped we could stay somewhere long enough for me to make some. My Dad's final posting was to York, and he liked the area so much we stayed here. Here's 5 reasons why I like York:

1. I'm not a city person, York is a city, but it's small
2. It's the longest I've ever lived anywhere
3. There's lots of history
4. My family is here
5. I have some very good friends here

As I've been in York for around 10 years now I've gotten to know it better than anywhere I've lived. I have some great friends and I see my family more. I love the history of York, after all it's the city New York wants to be when it grows up. Finally I've stayed somewhere longer than 2 years and it's nice to be able to say I'm from somewhere, whereas before I was just 'from all over' or, as I liked to say, I was omnipresent.

Labels: friends, history, nice, york