Thursday, August 2, 2007

Not my day...

What an exciting day it was today! One, I discovered the MILO Bar...very sweet, but oh so tasty. Two, I had training and left work earlier than usual. Technically I was entitled to leave early coz I arrived at the office early, but apparently the Company didn't think so and I was trapped in one of the office lifts (for my American-English proficient friends: lift = elevator) for close to an hour. Apparently, I was the 4th or 5th person to be trapped in one of the North Tower lifts today. I guess the big meeting room where the training was held is pretty soundproof, coz I didn't hear the emergency bell ring at all throughout the day. Well, good thing it was the end of the work day and I was heading home. That meant that I had my phone and my trusty Mary Poppins bag with me. Thanks go to my good friend on level 2 who kept me company on the phone while I completed my Sudoku waiting for the technician to come and fix the lift.^^ I really think an "OUT OF ORDER" sign should be posted on the North Tower lifts. This would make it 3 out of 4 days that the lifts have failed this week. What good is it if the technician "fixes" it and then it breaks down in another hour or so? I must remember to use the South Tower lifts tomorrow.

After being freed, I power-walked to the station and arrived in time to catch the 6:14 all-stations-to-Hornsby train. Except that it turned out not to be the 6:14 train, but the delayed 6:07 express train which does not stop at my destination. Either that, or it was the 6:14 running late so they decided to skip a few stations. Since no one on the train was freaking out, my guess is it's the former.

The station I get on at has a manually adjusted board that indicates the time of the next train and the stations it will stop at. However, the station master starts closing up at like 5:30 and instead of changing the boards, he puts up an A4 notice that says "Trains to Hornsby depart every 10 mintues". Well what use is that for the people who don't go all the way to Hornsby, or the poeple who don't get off at the major stations? On the train, anouncements are also few and far between. Depending on the train conductor and what mood s/he is in, they will (or not) announce what the next stop will be. Well, not today. I only realised when the train went right past my station. Thankfully on my train line, even the express trains aren't all that much faster (they only skip 3-4 stations) so the next stop wasn't too far away.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given how many times this has happened. And I forked out $460+ for a 5-and-a-half month train pass. Now the rail company wants to raise fares once again. If they continue to provide this standard of service, I think not!

No comments: