A day in the life of public transport

The other day I was going to head in to "the evil place" early to make up some written work because the little bastards couldn't handle difficult concepts such as dodgeball. They won't follow the rules of any game, so I thought I might try giving them written work and see how they handled that. More on that place in a few days.

Back to the topic at hand. I sometimes take the bus that picks up right outside our flat and I sometimes take the train. It depends on how many good podcasts I have ready. The problem with the bus is you just sit out by a post on the street and hope the bus eventually comes. It is supposed to come every 15 minutes but that is flexible by 30 minutes or so. The other morning when I came out I see the bus flying past. Now I have chased it down before but was not willing to do it on that day. So, off to the train station. When I try to get in to the train station my ticket will not work. So, I have to fill out a form to get reimbursed.

Still OK for time, but no chance of being early enough to put together lessons. I get downstairs and pop on a train to Flinders station (the main station). When I arrive I see the train I need to take roll away on the concourse across from where I am standing. So, after an 18 minute wait, I jump on that train. Then for no apparent reason, it just stops inexplicably in between two stations and stays there for 10-15 minutes. Eventually, it pulls away but I am starting to come to the realization I may be late. Then just to throw the icing on the cake at the next station we pick up a lovely old couple with those scooter things. They were regular speedsters getting on compared to the excruciatingly slow speed at which they backed off... at the very next stop (which was just one stop from mine!) It was like the Austin Powers back up.

So what could have been a 20 minute drive or an, at best, 45 minute bus ride turned into a 2 hour ordeal. And I was 10 minutes late.

I almost forgot this part...

Finally the clincher; I caught a ride over to Stuey's place after work to pick up his bike (he had it while we were in Port Douglas). Since there are no trains over to St. Kilda I thought I'd just jump on the tram back to the city. I got on and validate my ticket, we roll to the next stop, and a tram cop jumps on. She checks my ticket, then proceeds to tell me I can not have a bike on trams and I would need to hop off at the next station. Here it is night time, raining slightly, I am obviously from out of town (accent), and this chick tells me to hop off and find my way!

At least mass transport is cheap, good for the environment, and I get plenty of reading in. No worries, 2 1/2 months until rolling "the bad ride"!