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Journey to the Back of Beyond
I just had a ridiculous afternoon of not getting things done.
As often happens, I had to go out to a train station and inspect something. In this case, the train station in question was Tyabb - otherwise known as The Middle Of Nowhere.
To get to Tyabb, I had to take a normal train to the end of the line (1 hour), then take a special middle-of-nowhere train to Tyabb (30 minutes, plus 30 minutes waiting for the train), get out, look at the station roof, wait for a train going back the other way (30 minutes waiting, 30 minutes travel), then take the normal train back to the city (30 minutes waiting, 1 hour travel).
For those of you who aren't into maths, that's a total time of four and a half hours. Assuming everything goes to plan.
Today, everything did not go to plan.
I got to the end of the line, just in time to find out that the middle-of-nowhere train had broken down, and we'd have to wait for a bus instead.
The bus was half an hour late. But it arrived eventually.
One bus ride later, the bus pulled up at a station about halfway along its route and the driver looked at me and said "You're getting off at Tyabb, right?"
"This is Tyabb?"
"Yep. Tyabb. Right here."
...so I got off.
It was not Tyabb.
Instead, I was at Baxter. Also known as The Middle Of Nowhere - but a different bit of Nowhere than the bit I wanted to visit.
The Baxter train station was deserted, and because of the breakdown, there wouldn't be a train visiting it again for several hours. I did some quick calculations and realised that if I waited there, I wouldn't be home until 8pm.
There was a bus-stop, though. I went over to check when the next bus would be coming - and discovered that the next bus would be arriving at 7:30am tomorrow.
*sighs*
So, in the end, I paid $20 for a taxi (that I can't get back because of budget cutbacks in the office), spent nearly six hours travelling to the middle of nowhere and back again, and got absolutely no inspecting done. Hooray!
As often happens, I had to go out to a train station and inspect something. In this case, the train station in question was Tyabb - otherwise known as The Middle Of Nowhere.
To get to Tyabb, I had to take a normal train to the end of the line (1 hour), then take a special middle-of-nowhere train to Tyabb (30 minutes, plus 30 minutes waiting for the train), get out, look at the station roof, wait for a train going back the other way (30 minutes waiting, 30 minutes travel), then take the normal train back to the city (30 minutes waiting, 1 hour travel).
For those of you who aren't into maths, that's a total time of four and a half hours. Assuming everything goes to plan.
Today, everything did not go to plan.
I got to the end of the line, just in time to find out that the middle-of-nowhere train had broken down, and we'd have to wait for a bus instead.
The bus was half an hour late. But it arrived eventually.
One bus ride later, the bus pulled up at a station about halfway along its route and the driver looked at me and said "You're getting off at Tyabb, right?"
"This is Tyabb?"
"Yep. Tyabb. Right here."
...so I got off.
It was not Tyabb.
Instead, I was at Baxter. Also known as The Middle Of Nowhere - but a different bit of Nowhere than the bit I wanted to visit.
The Baxter train station was deserted, and because of the breakdown, there wouldn't be a train visiting it again for several hours. I did some quick calculations and realised that if I waited there, I wouldn't be home until 8pm.
There was a bus-stop, though. I went over to check when the next bus would be coming - and discovered that the next bus would be arriving at 7:30am tomorrow.
*sighs*
So, in the end, I paid $20 for a taxi (that I can't get back because of budget cutbacks in the office), spent nearly six hours travelling to the middle of nowhere and back again, and got absolutely no inspecting done. Hooray!