Give Me A Break

Yesterday (Thursday), I finished a consecutive 3 day stint at the CS. I wasn't sorry to finish this week. It's been exhausting, as some (well, one in particular) of the interns have been quite difficult to manage and I am happy to take a step back and get a break from it all.

LB came to the shop yesterday, as I needed to put her on a train at Kings Cross, to travel up to Yorkshire, where we will be meeting up with her again on Saturday afternoon. She caught the bus into town and I went out to meet her at the bus stop.  I was in charge of the shop, as the manager was at a meeting.  It took only 10 minutes or so to collect her and get back to the shop. I carried on working for half an hour whilst she waited in the office, and then in my lunch hour, we headed by tube to the railway station for her to catch her train.

When I got back and tapped out of the tube station, my balance on my card had gone down from approx. £20 to £10, which is very steep when the maximum for one day's travel in Zones 1 and 2 is £6.60. Today, I called TFL and it transpires that the system got confused when I spent only a short time at Kings Cross and charged me for two unfinished journeys, even though I did finish both journeys, as I had to tap out to get through the tube station barriers and into the railway station.

Anyway, the crux of it is, that TFL now owe me £7.20, but I have to travel by train or tube again to get it back.  I explained that I use the bus and don't use the train/tube currently, but the only other alternative is to register online, giving my bank details, so that they can give me a refund.  I don't want to do this, however, as I don't feel I should need to.  I'm happy topping up with cash or a card at the station and don't want them to have my details online.  It's just more risk to me. As a consequence, they are holding my money until I travel by train again, then I have to ring them the day before and get them to action the refund when I use the card to travel by train. I told them it was completely ridiculous, but they don't seem to get it and are holding my money hostage. Talk about frustrating.  It just seems like a scam to me, to get you to register online.

I think you can tell that I need a break from London.  I'm feeling stressed by things here.  It will be bliss not to have to negotiate such complicated systems and people for a while. To me life is simple, go to work, do some actual work, come home and spend time with those I love - but others seem intent on making it much more complicated.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Today, I'm trying to tie up loose ends.  I've collected a parcel that LB needs when we get back from Yorkshire.  The very next day she is heading off away for a few days with some friends.

I'm in the process of defrosting the freezer and will then be blanching vegetables from the garden and allotment, ready to freeze once it is running again.

I'm also catching up on ironing, so that I can pack for our week away. I've sorted out which books I'm taking - all five of them. It's quite a rural location that we're going to, so there should be plenty of time for reading and chilling. I just need to check out the classes at the local gym and sign up for a few online for while we're there. I can't wait to load up the car tomorrow and just go.