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I went up to London yesterday to see pot luck theatre* with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
no1typo. We ended up seeing Hairspray, which I hope to write about at a later date. I've been all writers blocked recently, even when I've had things to write about, and so this journal has been very quiet.
Anyway, to return to this entirely uninteresting tale of Woe, for which Livejournal is famous and I just want to get off my chest...
I should have known what the travel situation would be from early(ish) in my journey, when I drove onto the slip for the M20 (off the A249) and stopped. And stayed stopped for over three quarters of an hour after an accident on the M20 between the junction I was coming on at and the next one, which closed the whole carriageway for most of the time I was stopped, and two lanes were still closed when I finally got past.
It wasn't really the best start, and very nearly made me late for picking upno1typo. After that things went mostly to plan (bar the overcrowding/traffic jams of a bus getting around London at 5pm :)) and we got our tickets, had dinner and wandered to the theatre. It was after the show that it all started to get interesting.
First, as to be expected really at Theatre kicking out time, the traffic was solid for a while and it took us ages to get a bus back to Victoria - a number 38, which advertised Victoria as its destination and then kicked us (and the rest of the passengers) out at Green Park. By this time it was nearly 11pm, we were getting tired and Victoria was a dark and scary walk away across the park (yes, I know it's not far, but it was dark and scary. So we decided that, given we couldn't really be bothered to wait for a bus that may or may not come (and may or may not pick us up when it does come) we got a cab the rest of the way to Victoria.
Where we found a train back to the place we had left the car was indefinitely delayed because of problems at Clapham Junction. After half an hour or so of waiting, we decided to get on a train to East Croydon, because at least then we'd be getting closer to the car and home and we could always get a train from there to Purley. When we got there we found that, again, the closest train for Purley, had it been On Time was still ages away and it was already showing as "delayed" (by this point, I was getting heartily fed up with signs at train stations merely saying "delayed"), which could mean anything for us and our wait.
At which point we completely lost our heads and splurged on a cab for us back to the car and I took mum home and then made a run for it before any more disasters could befall my travel arrangements. I did have clothes etc to stay over if I needed to, but by now I was craving my bed. Which is how I made my next mistake in deciding to go home.
Definitely a mistake. All was fine until I hit the M25 (for reference this is my normal route home from my mum's) at which point it became mostly single lane because of roadworks, and to my utter woe the sliproad to the M26 was closed, meaning that the M26 itself was closed, meaning that I ended up going to the Darenth Interchange and straight on to the M2. The M25 was single lane pretty much from the point I joined to the point I came off at Darenth. Despite the fact that the route I ended up taking is only ~10 miles further than the route I usually take, it took me significantly longer to get home, because for the entire stretch of the M25 (which, I remind you all, dear reader, was single lane) I was at 50mph or less.
Luckily the rest of my drive was ok, but I ended up nearly freezing myself with the aircon to stay awake, so it took me ages to thaw when I got home.
So it took me forever to get home. The show finished at 10pm and I didn't get back until around 2am.
It was a brilliant evening otherwise though :D
*What I call it if you go with the intention of seeing a show, but are not bothered as to which one thus purchase your tickets for far less than you otherwise would from a booth like tkts in Leicester Square. (A list of what they have on sale today.)
no1typo. We ended up seeing Hairspray, which I hope to write about at a later date. I've been all writers blocked recently, even when I've had things to write about, and so this journal has been very quiet.Anyway, to return to this entirely uninteresting tale of Woe, for which Livejournal is famous and I just want to get off my chest...
I should have known what the travel situation would be from early(ish) in my journey, when I drove onto the slip for the M20 (off the A249) and stopped. And stayed stopped for over three quarters of an hour after an accident on the M20 between the junction I was coming on at and the next one, which closed the whole carriageway for most of the time I was stopped, and two lanes were still closed when I finally got past.
It wasn't really the best start, and very nearly made me late for picking up
no1typo. After that things went mostly to plan (bar the overcrowding/traffic jams of a bus getting around London at 5pm :)) and we got our tickets, had dinner and wandered to the theatre. It was after the show that it all started to get interesting.First, as to be expected really at Theatre kicking out time, the traffic was solid for a while and it took us ages to get a bus back to Victoria - a number 38, which advertised Victoria as its destination and then kicked us (and the rest of the passengers) out at Green Park. By this time it was nearly 11pm, we were getting tired and Victoria was a dark and scary walk away across the park (yes, I know it's not far, but it was dark and scary. So we decided that, given we couldn't really be bothered to wait for a bus that may or may not come (and may or may not pick us up when it does come) we got a cab the rest of the way to Victoria.
Where we found a train back to the place we had left the car was indefinitely delayed because of problems at Clapham Junction. After half an hour or so of waiting, we decided to get on a train to East Croydon, because at least then we'd be getting closer to the car and home and we could always get a train from there to Purley. When we got there we found that, again, the closest train for Purley, had it been On Time was still ages away and it was already showing as "delayed" (by this point, I was getting heartily fed up with signs at train stations merely saying "delayed"), which could mean anything for us and our wait.
At which point we completely lost our heads and
Definitely a mistake. All was fine until I hit the M25 (for reference this is my normal route home from my mum's) at which point it became mostly single lane because of roadworks, and to my utter woe the sliproad to the M26 was closed, meaning that the M26 itself was closed, meaning that I ended up going to the Darenth Interchange and straight on to the M2. The M25 was single lane pretty much from the point I joined to the point I came off at Darenth. Despite the fact that the route I ended up taking is only ~10 miles further than the route I usually take, it took me significantly longer to get home, because for the entire stretch of the M25 (which, I remind you all, dear reader, was single lane) I was at 50mph or less.
Luckily the rest of my drive was ok, but I ended up nearly freezing myself with the aircon to stay awake, so it took me ages to thaw when I got home.
So it took me forever to get home. The show finished at 10pm and I didn't get back until around 2am.
It was a brilliant evening otherwise though :D
*What I call it if you go with the intention of seeing a show, but are not bothered as to which one thus purchase your tickets for far less than you otherwise would from a booth like tkts in Leicester Square. (A list of what they have on sale today.)
