Give me sunshine....

I woke up this morning full of the joys of Spring. The birds were singing, and the sun was shining. The otherwise usually loud and crass and noisome builders and bin men in the street had a smile on their lips and a skip in their step. It is also John Peel Day too. Although it is going to be a day tinged with sadness at his untimely passing, it is also a day to celebrate his accomplishments and to give thanks, as such, to his contributions etc.
Alas, as per so ,many other mornings, the bastards at Mersey Rail pissed on my bonfire from a great height. Yes, once again I developed a Herbert Lom (Chief Inspector from Pink Panther) style twitch in my eye caused by the stresses and strains of what should be simple journey to work.

To my extreme disappointment, we arrived at the station only to find an Alton Towers style queue. Being a pedant I counted the number of bodies that stood between us and getting to work on time ….31! Alas, I couldn’t tell if it was because the usual culprits were paying by card as the queue was too long, which given my mood was probably a good thing –for my on safety

To compound matters after purchasing my ticket –the train was long gone by this point I was asked by what appeared to be a Mersey Rail Guard if I wouldn’t mind answering some questions for survey. Being the helpful sort I kindly obliged. The conversation went something like this:

Guard: “How did you get here this morning?”

Me: (un-sarcastically) “I walked.”

Guard: “Where are you going?”

Me: (again un-sarcastically) “Bank Hall”

Guard: “What is the purpose of your journey-work?”

Me: “Well if I still have a job. This will be the third time this week I’ve been late for work due to these bleedin’ queues!”

Guard: “Nothing to do with me I don’t work for Mersey Rail”

Me: “I know it’s not you fault but it’s ridiculous though-look at it (pointing to massive remaining queue a full 5 minutes after trains had left)

Guard “ Like I said it’s nothing to do with me. I don’t work for Mersey Rail

Me (Getting angrier) “ I appreciate that, but it’s really annoying that no does anything about it- it’s the same everyday”

Guard: “There’s no point complaining to me, like I said, I don’t work for Mersey Rail”

Me “I know you don’t work for Mersey rail- you’ve said it three times. It doesn’t mean that I can’t air my complaint…..”
At this point I just walked (well stormed really) away down the stairs as I could see that he clearly didn’t give a rat’s arse about it.


Lisa joined me on the platform shortly afterwards laughing at me and my outburst. She was inclined to agree with me though, and the fact that this fella was wearing a coat which had Mersey Rail written on it, and ID badge with Mersey Rail written on it and was with a colleague in the same attire, one would assume he would work for the freakin’ Mersey Rail.

Anyhow, his colleague followed me down to the platform to his credit with a contact card for someone at Mersey Rail to air my grievances and said his colleague wasn’t aware he had these cards on him. Lisa thankfully took the card as I just muttered something about it being no point. My point: If he did know about these cards he wouldn’t have passed the buck and washed his hand’s with my complaint?? Hardly. Also if they didn’t work for Mersey Rail why would he be carrying Mersey rail Cards? It’s a

I’ll no doubt get in touch, but it’s probably best to wait until the huge f***ing rain cloud looming over my head goes as there is a distinct possibility I could make matters worse.

Should you, dear reader, read about some true life ‘Falling Down’ incident in Liverpool concerning an angry tosspot Council Worker who lost his rag and brandished a machine gun to the F***wits at Mersey Rail one raining winter’s morning in Aigburth- then please believe me that I was provoked.