Five Hours and Five Days
I'm sitting on board the 6:18 departure from Kings Cross to Leeds. I think this train arrives in Leeds at about 9pmI'm not checking because that will drain the mobile phone battery. All would have been well if the power outlets on the train were working, but they are notnot the first time this has happened to me. I suppose I should disconnect the Nexus 7 from the netbookit's stealing the netbook's charge to fill it's own battery.
Time to get comfortable for the next couple of hours I guess.
This journey marks the first time I have used the netbook for some timeit was a choice between this, and the Google Chromebook, but the ability of this thing to go offline a little more easily than the Chromebook won the day (and it's ability to play a wider range of downloaded movies). I figured if I have to live in a hotel for the week, I may as well bring movies with me this time.
Tomorrow is my birthday. I imagine it will be spent alone in the pizza restaurant across the plaza from the hotel I'm staying at. A “special” dinner for one. While I know I should make more of an effort to break the ice with strangers while away, I also know how it's going to look. I typically get on with women far better than men, and making conversation with any woman in a bar is going to look suspect at best.
Wonderfulthe guy sat directly behind me on the train (we are in the “quiet” carriage) is playing music videos at enough volume that everybody within two or three rows knows he's listening to “What Does the Fox Say?”. I also appear to have no room for my feet because the businessman sat opposite has fallen asleep, sprawled across the floor. Oh, the joys of commuter travel on Sunday nights.
He sat opposite me a few moments after I bagged the table seat on the train, and unfolded his laptop opposite me. No doubt he discovered the lack of power at the same time I did, and has resigned himself to sleeping all the way to Leeds.
I'm typing as quietly as possible to avoid angering or annoying anybody. Easier said than done. My default tactic in life seems to consist of just getting by without being noticedwhich flies in the face of the online world, where people all over the planet know who I am. Odd really. Or notpeople on the internet don't expect anything from me, so I don't mind them knowing where I am, or what I'm doing.
Tomorrow is my birthday. Leaving for the station this afternoon was hard; one of the children was sick, the house is a mess, and my other half essentially becomes a single parent for the next week. Not fun at all. While I took our middle girl to Rugby this morning (my involvement is limited to standing in the freezing cold for two hours, and trying not to intervene in the referee's decisions), the rest of the family made roast dinner and a birthday cake. If I hadn't had to leave for the station, I imagine the evening would have been filled with board games with the childrenI'll have to put that on the list for next weekend.
Right. That's quite enough typing. Time to switch off for a bit. Let's see how long the tablet lasts before it dies.