FIRST DAY BACK! - Term 2

Yesterday April 28th
Parramatta to Central morning train.

It was drizzling.
Correction: it was raining.
Guess what. Trains always delay when it's raining. And yesterday was no different.
My mum decided to send Akira and I to the station that morning and we arrived at Parramatta station a few minutes early, giving us time to cruise through the ticket barrier and wait on the platform.....boring.
But like I said, as it was a rainy day, trains get delayed. Soon enough, I heard on another platform: "The train on platform ? will be delayed by 20 minutes." A lot of people were groaning and getting rather annoyed. Our Sydney Terminal train was yet to come, and the Gordon train before it was delayed. Because of this, we caught the Gordon train which still went to Central.

The disadvantage: it was a sardines train.
Most of the trip, I had to train-surf: a term used to describe the action of riding in a train carriage standing without the assistance of a handrail or a wall or anything to lean, grasp or hold. It wasn't that bad because it was a tin can train and the older the train, the less swaying it seems to do - Akira's theory.
It arrived at Central pretty much at the same time our normal Sydney Terminal train does, so we disregarded the train delays. : ) what luck hmm?

Wet.
But no one at Central. Normally, on wet days, the bus stop is packed with our students but it wasn't. Amusing.

Afternoon
Central to Parramatta

On Thursdays I catch the Penrith because Akira has piano lessons so she catches the Epping train. I wasn't bothered to catch the Penrith yesterday, as packed as it was and I wished to continue the conversation I was having with the platform 18 people. I caught the Epping with her. The interesting news in the mX was about how there had been a competition in London for Prince William and Kate Middleton look-alikes since the newest crazed is the Royal Wedding [today].

I disembarked at Strathfield.
The Epping train was delayed by police officers. I saw them as I put my bag down to stand next to a pole on the platform. They went to the last carriage of the train and did something. I couldn't see from my position and I didn't find it proper to go over and look. Nor was I bothered. But that was interesting! : )
Managing to get worried by the delay that my Emu Plains connection would get delayed by this, i was fidgeting, but to nothing in the end because the train left with the Emu Plains 2 minutes due.

I got onto the train, managing to meet up with a bunch of girls from my school. How coincidential. Unfortunately, I wasn't so well acquainted with them so I kept to myself in the corner and stared out the door, listening to my iPod. Time flies slowly when you're in these situations. It's also a bit awkward.

Finally, Parramatta. Mission accomplished.

That was my train trip in vague detail. First day of school. Term 2.
Complete.

Additional Section - Day 2 Term 2
April 29th - Date of the Royal Wedding, Prince William and Catherine Middleton
Central to Parramatta

Akira and I ascended to Sydney Terminal with the intention of catching our normal Quakers Hill fast train. We grabbed the mX with a big photo of Kate Middleton on the front with some catchy title: "Hair Comes The Bride".
The Bad News: THERE WAS NO QUAKERS HILL TODAY. *Thunder. Rain Pours*

Hence. We caught the Penrith. I think it was getting me back for not catching it yesterday. But we caught it with Vicki.E and Rhonda and had an interesting talk.......on the sardine train. After a while, the air began to feel really warm and stuffy and my head started to feel heavy. Euhh...someone install air filters and air conditioning please. I had no space to remove my jumper.

Vicki.E: Please stop at Burwood! I need air!

When we finally arrived at Burwood, the train doors casually slid open but.....THE AIR! :D it was so cold and refreshing to us! It's like on a hot summer day and then suddenly a cold fridgey wind blows over you. Breathes. In light of people moving around in the carriage, I took my jumper off. : )

Then the train doors closed, and the air slowly died again. Who designed these trains with no air? CityRail.....

I think I started sweating a little bit at some point. It was a cold day today, I wasn't wearing my jumper....but inside this train, I was sweating. Great.

Today's Advice/Moral: Do not catch sardine trains for long distance if it is avoidable. : )

My first two train-catching days of Term 2 high school. Success? or Disaster? i'd be content to say......BOTHERSOME.
Just wait till I go to University...no more trains!!!!! D:< i'm going to live on campus! : )

a train..

i'm catching public transport. i'm a catcher of public transport. public transport i catch. i'm a commuter.

nothing interesting. my latest trips have been a return trip to Burwood and the next day, a return trip to Town Hall. both times i made the journey with Akira and her brother David, though for different reasons each day. i guess it makes no difference really.

i realised, that trains really are a bit boring after a while. if you have nothing to do.

the mX didn't enlighten me either. i swear the mX gets purposely boring during school holidays. i normally read the yellow column where someone writes about something, but the one i read was about Kanye West's concert; i didn't even make it to the third line of the column. Totally Uninteresting.

Returning from Town Hall, we were eating HSCC [Honey Soy Chicken Chips] sitting around in the main part of the carriage. David dropped one and i shoved it under the brushy bit of the doors next to me under the theory that when the doors next opened, then the chip would get brushed out onto the train tracks.
Unfortunately, the doors didn't open on that side before we got to Parramatta and we never got to see if my hypothesis was correct.

ah well.

back to school soon :/ i really can't wait because i'm about to die of a boredom disease induced by holiday symptoms.

for all you regular commoners -i mean- communists -i mean- computers -now really..- commuters out there, have a nice trip. : )

Pull It Yourself: Part 2

April 8th - Last Day of School Term 1
Train - Sydney Terminal

Train ride. Normal.
Conversation. Normal.
Baggage. Light.

Say i'm weird, but i really wanted to open the door onto the train tracks* again. Unfortunately when we actually arrived at Sydney Terminal, i [purposely] yanked the door...to no avail.

Hence, my new hypotheses:

1. That they do not unlock all the doors...just the platform-facing ones.
2. CityRail has been reading my blog and has made adjustments in their mechanisms since i last accidentally nudged the door >:D

Oh well. School's over, but i've got a few missions up my sleeve for the holidays.
Stay safe everyone! : )

Holidays! Let's Fly!

* in my last post, Part 1 of this investigation, [Read Here], i said "rails"...because my brain was a bit goldfishing and i couldn't think of the word. Recently, i figured the appropriate term would be "train tracks"

Little Corner

April 6th - After Fencing

Since as usual, i had caught the peak hour time to catch a train... the sardines piled in on me, an owl squished into a goldfish can.

Location: corner of the train doors and stairs leading down

I understood the situation that befalls many people catching a fish train. I used to be the same. When the train would stop at a station, you were faced with two choices:

1. Shuffle into someone else and make space for the people forcefully joining the pack
2. Get out of the train with the dropping off passengers, then return with the school of fish.

If you were lucky, maybe you could find a corner or a seat where you were given sanctuary from this troubling decision. Hence the third option:

    3.   Be: on a seat, in a corner

After my secret investigation, i discovered the best place for a standing commuter to be: in the tiny gap behind the downstairs railing and the train doors. Leaning on the pole that turns slightly as the doors push out, you'll find that you only get weird looks from the passengers coming up from the stairs.

Solution: Hold mX in front of face.

Any problems, i will send my secret agent squad to investigate! :D

Pull It Yourself

Morning Train: Parramatta to Sydney Terminal

This morning I caught my normal train; yes, boring as normal is. Akira and I, because we catch the train together both ways, were just talking and stuff about random things as per usual.

As the train terminated at Sydney Terminal, I accidentally kicked the door that opens out to the rails. We had taken one of those weird trains - not that i know what it's called, it's like a countrylink - and you had to slide the doors open manually yourself to get out at the station. I had noticed that the handle was a bit dodgy...

I kicked the door. The door slid open. I turned around.....and found myself facing out onto the rails. Insecurity. Kinda cool.

Akira: o.o cool!

I tried to close the door, but it kind of...died...and bashed into the other door and rebounded open again. Action and Reaction :/ Physics.

Shouldn't CityRail kind of like.....improve its controlled locking system so that it unlocks only the station-side doors, and not all the doors? Imagine if I'd fallen onto the rails :/ that'd be kinda freaky - and annoying. Nothing happened though, I left the door be and walked out onto the station. :)

Beware of doors.

daylight savings...

This morning at 3am, the clocks switched back an hour. i reckon i was asleep by then...or at least i think i was. it's hard to keep track of time when your iPod's on the floor somewhere and your watch is on the far table.

Anyway, i figured, the train networks are propbably going to be as messed up as the rest of the Daylight-Savings population. last time in September, in the early morning at 2am, i suddenly didn't know if it was 1am, 2am or 3am because i had three separate clocks telling me i'm stuffed, and that i was going to lose a heap of sleep anyway...oh well, i could sleep on the plane if i wanted to.

so what really happens at train stations when daylight savings strikes?

do all the little rectangular digital clocks flicker for a second and then dial back an hour? do the trains reverse, freeze in their tracks, drivers confused (are there even trains that early in the morning?) and the sleepy city of Sydney relives another hour?

haha. if only we really could reverse time. world policies make living in Sydney really ironic.
i really wonder how many people will show up at school a total hour earlier at like 7am and go: damn! daylight savings! and i thought i was late!

i have an extra hour to finish 2 assignments.

Death Perfume

Friday 1st April

I caught the train from Central, never knowing when the train would stop being a can of sardines. Akira sniffed and extracted her phone from her bag. It was another stuffy day when we missed the Quakers Hill and had to catch the Penrith.

I'm against overdosing of Impulse or deodorants of the like. So why did the kind lady sitting on the floor next to me have to suddenly spray a fountain of it on herself...and suffocating me to death in the process? Was my pained grimace too much to explain?

Akira: Something smells weird.
Me: *glance*

Good thing Sydney trains aren't airtight. I'd have died.