Tickets and Tweezers

This actually happened yesterday but I forgot to blog about it. 

Akira and I were late for the Schofields train, and we were dashing across the upper level to get to the ticket barriers. I put my ticket in, and it showed up as Not Valid. Akira told me to try the one next to it (she couldn't get through either) and it again showed up as Not Valid. I tried the one next to that and it again showed up as Not Valid. 

Finally, by that point the train was on the verge of leaving, and we went over to the wide gates.

Two barrier ladies were sitting and letting people through. One of them asked us as we approached, why our tickets weren't working. If I were feeling snarky right now I'd comment on the fact that obviously we wouldn't know why the ticket barriers were malfunctioning because clearly our magnetic strips were perfectly fine. But I'm content - on with the story...

Akira put her ticket into the barrier at the lady's gesture, and it showed up as Not Valid. Hers has been doing this for several months now because for some reason it's registered as stolen by Cityrail machines...even though it's obviously not because she has it. Strange. Anyway, I put my ticket in as well, just to further prove the point. It showed up as Not Valid. 

The ladies nodded and opened the barrier, and Akira walked through, but then I stood there, because...my ticket hadn't come back out. 

At which point I turned to them and said my ticket was stuck in the machine. 

The one sitting down looked at me as if I were an unobservant old person who had memory issues, and pointed at my hand (which was holding my pass holder) and said: "Look you're holding it in your hand. It's right there! Just look!" and she had obviously mistaken my bus pass for my train pass, because I patiently explained that this-is-my-bus-pass-the-machine-ate-my-train-pass-please-help-and-move-faster-because-we're-students-who-have-to-catch-trains-on-time. Minus the latter segment.

Honestly though, I'm not complaining, just commenting and stating a fact: Those two moved as if we were just discussing the growth rate of grass, not running for trains. The barrier lady in front of me asked her colleague, "where's the key?" The other one looked around slowly, glancing, looking with some sort of annoyingly lax mode, and finally found the keys on the tiny desk. 

They opened the side, and then realised that my ticket was actually stuck in the sticking-it-in-slot place. So they tried to pull up the top to get at it, but FOR SOME MYSTERIOUS REASON it was stuck and broken and wouldn't open and it started getting awkward for me standing there, watching them struggle.

The two of them were just wrenching at it, trying to pull it up in this sort of awkward way that didn't look very insistent or hurried in any way - just...you know...day out in Slothviille.

Eventually, about two minutes of reluctant pulling and awkward watching later, one of them waved over to these two police officers who were about two metres away and asked if they could help.

The first man came over, and he was really tall, and said, "what's wrong with it?" and one of the ladies explained that it was broken, and it usually just "lifts up" like so *she gestured in a sort of way that is supposed to indicate extreme mobility*. This police officer, and I'm not exaggerating when I describe this, put his fingers in the gap and pulled up so weakly that I swear he did not put any force or exertion into the effort. His fingers just slipped right up and he shrugged.

I legit, facepalmed, at this guy.

And then, finally they had the brilliant idea of trying to yank it out from the slot. One of the barrier ladies, I can't remember what she used, tried to scrape my poor ticket out. Then the police officer suggested tweezers. 

They were not tweezers. They were pliers. Please get your terming correct, sir.

Anyhow, he just dragged my ticket out, and the lady handed it over to me. And I said "thank you" as politely and apologetically as possible, and dashed off through the barrier.

THAT WAS AN EXTREMELY AWKWARD EXPERIENCE.

The Schofields had obviously disappeared sometime during that fiasco. 

And my train pass has scratches on it now. 

What a bad day. I also deterred a lot of people from walking through the wide gates. The ladies had to tell quite a few people to use the normal barriers because the wide one was broken. Sorry everyone!

Invisible Trains

Delays.

I suppose I can't complain, considering how I was only 20 minutes late arriving home. I'm still not extremely sure of the circumstances going on around cityrail, but from what I gleaned whilst at the Interchange, waiting for the train to materialise from thin air, from listening to the Cityrail man speaking to a woman, and what Akira assumed, someone walked in front of a train at Lidcombe.

Of course, I didn't catch the beginning of what the Cityrail man said, I only heard him telling the woman about someone just 'walking' onto the tracks; I wasn't actually sure if he was talking about the event today or not.

So a few minutes ago, I decided to actually research this up, and there's no official statement yet, I suppose, but on railpage, it's been announced that there was an "earlier fatality at Lidcombe this afternoon". Which is pretty sad, I suppose.

I didn't think anything of it, whilst I was at Central. I just took the details of the delay, and you know...stored it.

Akira and I actually arrived at Central really early, because the buses were moving extraordinarily fast today from school. So it was such a confusion when we got upstairs to the Terminal, and saw NO TRAIN. D:

Checking the monitor, it still said Platform 8 so... we just kind of stood there with a heap of other people waiting for the train. Down the platform, there was a group of SBHS boys, and one of them was reaching out into the empty space, laughing, and saying to his friends, "look, the door's right here, I can feel it." [photo]


To which, Akira sceptically laughed and demonstrated someone thinking the train was there and just sauntering off the platform.

On a side note, I reached out and felt the heat of the sun and said 'look Akira, I can feel the train!' Later when the train actually arrived, it turned out I'd been prodding where the door would be.


Eventually the announcers managed to stop cutting their delay announcements in half, and told us that the Schofields train would be arriving in 3 minutes.

It moved really slowly, but it wasn't that bad. I've had worse.

But, my condolences today go to the family and relations of the person who has seemingly ended their own life, and for whatever reason it may have been, I wish him the best wherever they are now, whatever religion they might have been, and wherever that belief would have led them.

If he had a reason, then I have no right to accuse him of being selfish have I?

Oh well, I'm really sleepy, probably because I had a four hour nap just then, and I want to keep sleeping, but I decided to come and blog about this because it was something big in the train world of Sydney. I heard there are delays running up to about 40 minutes in either direction right now, and passengers are advised to disembark at Auburn or Flemington to complete their journey as citybound trains aren't stopping at Lidcombe.

Good thing I'm getting driven tomorrow morning (though i'd hate to say this, but I wish I could catch the train. I'm a very in-the-midst-of-it-all kind of person).

Train delays. No one wants them, but sometimes they're as inevitable as change. It's okay, I'm learning to drive soon! But then again, driving takes even longer.

Grimace.

Barrier Bypassing

I hate to be returning to this blog on an unhappy note, but...I'M UNHAPPY.

Really I was going to save this blog post for later when I really felt like letting it out, but then I just read my friend's facebook post and I realised...it's time I screamed about things that will backfire against me with speculation, but I feel is fair to use as evidence that, the world is unfair.

So, pre-established harmony is a farce. I hope.

Or maybe it isn't, because I feel as if I can practically feel a bad day coming on from the moment I wake up in the morning.

Today, I had tutoring in Hurstville.

I disembarked from a Waterfall train.

I met up with Melody halfway up the stairs.

She slid her ticket in and walked through. I pushed mine into the barrier, and it swallowed it; being a single ticket. I followed her through the barrier, as being a student allows you the habits and fluencies with the flow of barrier movement.

THEN THE GUY IN THE ORANGE JACKET WALKED OVER TO ME AND DECIDED THAT I LOOKED SUSPICIOUS ENOUGH TO YELL AT FOR A TICKET OFFENCE.

Okay, sir.

You probably deal with enough delinquent children who walk past you whilst you're on duty, who don't buy tickets and just sail through with their friends. You probably know that there are people out there who have cheated on ticket fares. You probably assume, and assume being the key word here, that you have the right to point the finger and point-blanc ACCUSE with no evidence except the bloody arrogance in your voice.

Oh you see, but you blatantly, obviously, do not observe.

Let me assure you, dear readers, that I had bought a Single, Child to Hurstville ticket from Central station at 3:34 PM today, for $2.10, with every intention of putting it into the barriers at Hurstville. WHICH. I. DID.

So, sir.

Obviously if you accost me so rudely outside the barriers, and demand to SEE MY TICKET. How in the blazes of hell am I supposed to show you something that I AM LEGALLY NOT SUPPOSED TO POSSESS ANYMORE?

My conversation with him ran something along a dialogue chain of him accusing me, I protesting profusedly that I had walked through with Melody and the machine had swallowed my ticket because it was a single, him telling me to basically shut up and stop LYING to him because he could fine me for committing such an offence because it's illegal, I tried in vain to argue but ended up spluttering because he was so in my face about it, him telling off Melody for also breaking the law, and then IGNORING EVERY WORD THAT CAME OUT OF MY MOUTH AND TELLING ME IT IS WRONG IT IS WRONG IT IS WRONG IT IS WRONG ITISWRONGITISWRONGDON'TDOITAGAINORIWILLKILLYOU.

Thank you, for reducing the IQ of the entire solar system.

First of all, may I please beg the forgiveness of any actual proper moral adults in the audience before I continue.

WHAT IS WITH HIS IMPERTINENCE!

First of all, if I had really wanted to, I could easily sue him for defamation and assault, as well as falsely accusing and accosting a civilian.

There are, as my mother proclaimed, security cameras that will back up my statement. Also, I don't know if these exist, but the barriers should have a record (if they don't, they bloody well should) of ticket dips. Any of these options, even if they took apart the barrier itself, pulled the ticket out and checked it for my fingerprints!

Excuse me, sir. Just because you see a girl who walks after her friend at the train station, and she has a white star on her face and is wearing mufti because it is a school themed civi day which requires her to wear such strange makeup, does not make her an obvious target for uncalled for verbal abuse.

BIAS. IS. NOT. LEGAL.

It's been many months since I last doubted the logic behind human society, but it's once again I really do begin to question the human race.

Such ignorance and stupidity should really be diminished.

This might sound like a very trivial matter to you, READER.

But you have no idea how confronting it is. If you're a child, you'll probably understand the feeling. When adults think they have supremacy in ruling the universe because they're "mature" and hold "responsibility". Another thing, being older with a license does not make you right all the time.

I never said I'm right all the time.

It does not mean that anyone has the right to tell another person that they're lying.

If I said tomorrow, "my favourite colour is blue." and someone screamed at me angrily with, "DON'T LIE TO ME, IT'S GREEN."

who are you, to say what's right or wrong?

That's completely a different subject, I know.

The point is, I don't give a smidgen of care if it's that man's job to stand there looking tough and yelling at children who misbehave and break the law, he had absolutely no right today accusing me of committing a crime which I did not actually commit, and then threatening to fine me.

Oh. Threats, Defamation, Verbal Abuse, Discrimination. Hm.

THE WORLD ISN'T FAIR. say most.

Tell that to Loki, whose entire armour and bag was crushed by a train today.

Forgiveness is true strength? Bah. Whoever comes up with morals like those are too weak to fight back.

Honestly I wish I didn't have tutoring today, I easily would have stayed there and Mycrofted that barrier guard. Lucky for him.

I'm also too tired of living to keep typing this blog post.

Quite surprising I haven't dotted this post with colourful language yet, but I think my tutoring homework booklet suffered enough with the gigantic hole I accidentally punctured through the entire thing whilst at tutoring today, when I furiously stabbed my pencil at the desk and somehow snapped the pencil in the process and stabbed a hole in the centre of the page - through all the pages.

Eurgh.

I'd rather not live here on Midgard.

pours and delays

Hello Sydney-ians! I'm sure anyone travelling around on public transport today without an umbrella was sorely at risk of the looming clouds and all. Certainly, I was. I didn't bring an umbrella. Genius, I know.

It's the holidays now, so it's not like I'm travelling my common daily route of Parramatta to Central. Instead, I have a winter holiday course of Mind and Morality at the University of Sydney which is pretty awesome. But I'm not here to tell you that. My current new route is Parramatta to Redfern. Return of course.

Parramatta Station this morning.

That's still not very important, but I had a troublesome day today, getting around in the rain.

Mostly the afternoon.

Horizon and I were at Martin Place, having come back from not-conquering the intimidating NSW State Library. I caught her train, with the intention of returning to Redfern and changing trains from there. Of course, bad things had to happen to counter awesomeness, and I found that several lines had closed for some irritating reason, including the North Shore, which meant I had to catch the Epping train. Eurgh.

That meant I was in for some Strathfield switching.

At Strathfield, I had to wait for 11 minutes for the Emu Plains train. I took this photo when the train arrived:

Don't worry it's just graffiti, not rain.
I like the comparison between Morning Parramatta and Afternoon Parramatta though.

Parramatta Station in the afternoon

Ah...well it was an interesting day I suppose.

That's all. I just really seem to like taking photos of the train system when it's raining. It looks much nicer than it usually would.

Flickering Lights....

It's storming again today. Absolutely delightful of course, but it's not so much so if you're running around holding two folders above your head, dodging people and the wet tips of umbrellas which seem to have every persistence of dripping on your head. Stupidly I didn't even bring my own umbrella today, having ignored that sense of foreboding that comes on a fine-looking morning when that little part of you is just so psychic and says, you will need your umbrella...stop rushing out the door for one moment to stop and think for once.

I haven't posted on this blog in ages. A lot of things have changed in the train systems, but not much I suppose; rather that my routine has changed a bit.

I've been travelling to Hurstville, for tutoring on Fridays.

Not much. I'm waiting for my phone to wake up from being battery-dead, so that I can upload the glorious photographs that I took today at Central station whilst running for the Schofields train.


~

 Ah yes, which brings me to the subject of this post. The Flickering Lights.

Everyone who has caught a train on a rainy day knows what it's like, sitting down in that damp atmosphere with a drenching cold that causes you to tremble without a coat, wary of that reflective wet stain trailing across the floors, almost hungrily gazing at the bottom of your bag. Well... perhaps hungrily is a bit of a hyperbole...but you catch my drift.

So there we were, the 8 of us, squished into a 6 and 2 seater, chatting and laughing pleasantly about things.

Then...........the lights went out.

"Dementor!" cried VickiE in a transparent attempt to break the ice - as well as releasing her own first-impressions to the group. We all laughed.

Honestly I won't drag this out, but the lights flickered quite a bit, switching off and then back on. For the first 5 or so times, we were irrational, stopping simply to meaningfully wide-eye-stare at each other in falsetto-fear. Then I said something about electrical disturbance.

The second time it occurred, we were passing the cemetery. Ooo~ No disrespect intended, but it was quite a bit of an epiphany moment. Perhaps it were not dementors after all...

The mX and Other Stories

Hmmm....I'm sure all of you who catch the rain in the afternoons know of the newspaper, the mX. I've just had my school holidays, and yesterday was my first day back...it was quite nice to be able to sit in that stuffy carriage with a freshly printed mX in hand to devour the afternoon by storm. Yes, clouds were brewing on the horizon, but that's not really the aim of this post.

First day back and trains to catch, how wonderful. I've got a lot of catching up to do with this blog, but it's mostly because nothing very interesting is happening recently and it's quite deplorable.

There was a new sign at Central...not sure when it was put up. AH yes the barriers all have a new electronic little display! It's only at Central, but it's kind of odd and really amusing and a bit of a waste fo space and an eye-sore if you ask me...

Also, I stuck my bus pass in at Parramatta by mistake and walked without thinking and the doors tried to kill me. I did the same thing at Central but luckily I didn't walk this time. heh... good thing the Invalid Ticket notice showed up on the display I just complained about...sorry...

On the train in the morning (not the Intercity because we missed it) a lady yelled at a student for standing in the way at Strathfield, i think it was. And she was very loud and demanding, and then she started cursing at children in general for being evil little creatures and accusing us of acting nice and then stealing $100 from her wallet.

..................ooookaay......

Just saying, that is very rude. Not everyone is like that. If all children were like that, imagine what all adults would be like. Because, in case you forgot, children grow up to be adults. Why is it that adults always seem to forget that children are technically the same as you? Like seriously tell me you have the slightest inkling of basic biology.
If a child was capable of stealing from her wallet, an adult would be just as capable. I'm sure she's probably had some traumatic experience where she's lost $100, but why is she so able to willingly, carelessly and evidencelessly ...is that a word?... accuse the entire population's worth of children of being petty little thieves who have nothing better to do than act like dolls and steal your money? Society, my friend, is collapsing.

That sardine can of a train, is really a metaphor for our society. Trundling on a railway line with no indication of where we're really going. Who says that the destination is the true destination?

And...I've been writing too much Modernism. okay. going to stop. now.

Umbrella Menace

It's summer now. But I'm starting to find that the weather is being as irritable as ever. It's not like I have any particular affection for the sun, but super cold damp rain isn't making me any more pleased. Every day, I see umbrellas and jumpers.

Let's start with those umbrellas. Personally I love umbrellas; they're so enigmatic and flourishable. I have a habit to extend mine without opening the wings and just resting it on my shoulder; it feels comforting.

Anyway, the other day, Akira and I were hurrying for the Schofields train. I was trotting along the platform, and heading for the first carriage as usual. There's a pole coming up ahead, and a lady gaining on my left. Suddenly, I see an umbrella unceremoniously stuck forward along my left side, forming a rather rude barrier preventing me from veering left. The owner of the umbrella was a not-particularly-young woman.

As soon as she had passed me by, her umbrella lowered. So...she was totally making way for herself there. I'm kind of insulted. Have you ever heard of something called, not being lazy and moving around a bit if someone's in your way? I don't have to make way for you. Besides I swerved right the moment it happened, so it was but a brief second in which I was surprised by the umbrella poking out of my left waist...

RAIN. Ack..... bringing out the worst in people.