A Day in (My) Life

 How did we get so lucky? I mean, as you’ve read for the last almost three years, all we do is go on vacation.

Wait. No. Really? I do go to work too. 

Work.  You know, that thing that sent us over here & allowed us to live this fabulous adventure.

I thought maybe you’d like to hear about what I do when I’m not on vacation.  You know… the mundane.

We live in a great location.  It’s about a 10 minute walk from our house to the nearest train station, Norwood Junction. From Norwood it’s supposed to be a 12 minute train ride into London Bridge Station then another 5-10 minute walk to my office.  Adam walks me to the train station most days. And with my Oyster Card in hand, it’s supposed to be a fairly easy commute.

You might notice that I used the phrase “supposed to” twice in that last paragraph.

There are two options that most commuters use to get into London Bridge; the 7:35 and the 7:43 trains. In the nearly year that I’ve been taking this route, the 7:35 – never on time; usually around 7:45 and the 7:43, don’t even think about it arriving before 8am.  On particularly exciting days, the 7:43 arrives before the 7:35 and for some reason that bothers many of my fellow commuters.  Personally, I just like being able to fit on the inside of the train.

You think I’m joking.

Yeah, occasionally I try to get on the 7:35 only to encounter this situation and have to wait it out for the 7:43.  And sometimes I worm my way in and stand in someone’s armpit.  Joy.

Once arriving at London Bridge the short walk is often really nice.  You get a great view of the city waking up for the day.

This is in the top 5 reasons of why I love working here.  How do you not fall in love with walking to work with that view?

Then of course, there are days where it rains.  No, really, it rains in the UK. Then my walk looks a bit more like this.

Umbrellas are an added fun target in trying to walk with a couple thousand of your closest friends.  The thought of Dory bouncing on the jellyfish is pretty constant in my life.  Games? I love games!

Once in the office, I do the work, I drink the tea, I save the financial markets. You know, all the things.

Then it’s time to commute home.  It’s a mystery as to what platform my train will leave from EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  So with my couple thousand close friends, I stand and stare at the big board to wait for the magic number to appear then we all make a mad dash for the platform before the train departs.

I know I will miss many things when we leave the UK.  Surprisingly enough, even with the chaos of the daily commute, this is definitely one of them.