In which Will describes coming home

And it may involve a bit of ranting and sweary type words.

I’ll start on the Friday, when I attended a writers event in Boro. Having been warned that there may be an open mic slot, I took alonmg a story to read out (Justification, if anyone who has read it is wondering). I sat at a table on my own and was joined by two guys from Glasgow, one of whom supported Rangers (and sarcastically thanked me for the fact that the Dons cost them the league title last year) and one who supports Man U. We were later joined by a Sunderland fan which made for an interesting combination.

There was some stuff read from a book that was being launched and then we stopped for some surprisingly posh food. Then there was the open mic spot. My story went down well with everyone seeming to enjoy it. There was a pause before people started applauding which is always a good sign in my view. The rest of the people taking part were poets and it was quite good, apart from one which went on far, far too long and everyone at my table got bored with. The last poem read out was an amusing little thing about excuses for not lending someone your England shirt.

Afterwards a few people came up to me and said how much they liked my story and how they couldn’t see the ending coming, except for one person which was a first for that story (those who have read it will understand. I hope). And I got a free anthology of short stories from the tees area. All in all, it was a good night and I’m glad I’m now making contact with other writers in the area.

On Monday I decided that it was about time to get my train ticket home for the holidays. I went to one website, for times and prices and put in that I would be traveling on the 18th of December. Looked through all the times and prices and found one train that would cost me £13. Perfect. I was then taken to the National Express website to actually buy the tickets where, again, I specified Dec 18th. Keep this in mind, it will become important later.

On Tuesday I went for a drink with a friend and dropped Data off with her, as she is tree sitting for me. Then I found out something that pissed me off.

We had no heating in the house for a couple of weeks as first of all the gas payment meter was broken and then neither me or my housemate had money to put on the meter. The landlord is supposed to put on £30 a month but he decided, as he had not recieved my housemates rent yet, that he wasn’t going to until he got that money. So I’ve decided when I get back that I’m going to look for somewhere else to live, assumiong of course that I can find somewhere in Boro that will let me move in without a deposit.

Wednesday night was spent packing and then on Thursday I set off. Got on the train to Darlington no problem. At Darlington they had set up a temporary ticket barrier and so I had to show my ticket before leaving the station for a smoke. I also had to show it on the way back in, at which point the person told me which platform I needed to be at. Got on the train to Newcastle. No problem. Had a couple of smokes there and then got on the train to Aberdeen.

Sat down, powered up the laptop and started to watch WWE Armageddon. I wasn’t the only one watching something on my laptop, I counted one person watching Iron Man and at least one watching The Dark Knight, leading me to dub our section of the train the coach of extraordinary superheroes. But I was happy with my sports entertainment.

Phoned my dad from Stonehaven (the usual routine, by the time the train gets from there to Aberdeen my parents can get to the station. Saves them having to hang round at the station if the train is delayed). I then got off the train in Aberdeen and wenty to go through the ticket barrier. Wouldn’t let me through. Spoke to a guard about it. Turns out that my ticket was for the day before.

So I had to speak to someone at the ticket counter. Who insisted that I must have ordered my ticket for the Wednesday and therefore I had to pay for a new one. In the end I had to give them my name and address so they can send me the bill.

so, it’s going to cost me £92 for a single ticket and a £10 admin fee on top of the £13 I paid for the ticket in the first place.

But I’ll tell you something. If those dozy fucking cunts think that I am paying a penny fucking more for my ticket when something got fucked up on their end (including the fact that I didn’t receive a confirmation email, for fucks sake), especially after I put the right fucking date into two websites, including their own fucking one, they can fuck right off and while they are there I will be quite happy to use a nuclear missile to aid them in extracting their stupid, fucked up, zero fucking braincell containing head from their useless arses.

Apart from that, everything has been OK while I’ve been home. I’ve had quite a good time.

Thus far from OD I have received one card from Scotland (with a monster), one from Norway (with some chocolate) and two from New Zealand. Anyone else who has sent one, I’ll probably get it when i get back to Boro. (That reminds me shesolovely, the chocolate you sent me has a story on the inside of the wrapper. If I scan it in and email it to you, any chance you could translate it for me? It’d be kinda cool to read it.)

I know that I still owe you a mega entry about Daphne’s entry. Hopefully I’ll get that done over the next couple of days.

And finally. Like last year, rather than doing one of those year end surveys that is flying about, I’m open to your questions about my life in 2008 and hopes for 2009 only. Any questions not about that will be held over till my next regularly scheduled Q&A period.

Have at it.

Will

P.S. This entry is dedicated to the voice of the Federation computers Majel Barrett-Roddenbury. RIP.

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