The weekend according to Eddie

An atrocious 48 hours of misery and farce on the London Underground

Half the lines part-closed "Due to Planned Weekend Engineering Work". This closed nearby Aldgate East station, which immediately DOUBLED our volume of passenger traffic.

Many Ticket Offices closed (ours included): managerial policy is that they are no longer necessary.

Half the Ticket Machines out of service (ours included) following a botched overnight attempt by the IT boffins to upgrade the system, which put many of them out of service completely.

One person (me) on the gateline, trying to deal with this shambles.

The inability of a venal, grasping and utterly useless Management to do anything about this.

Tourists most excite my pity: polite and friendly holiday-makers completely baffled by their inexplicable inability to either purchase a ticket or catch a train.

The lost 10-year old boy in tears.

The 4-strong commando squad of graffiti-taggers running through tunnels and halting what few trains were actually running.

Vomit in one of the Aldgate garden planters.

The Sunday lunatic emitting high-pitched squeaking sounds before collapsing on the platform. We had to summon the paramedics and the police to take him away. But there he was again first thing 06:30 on Monday morning- can of Special Brew lager in hand- swinging punches at the staff members who refused him admittance to the system.

And 10 minutes later, THERE WAS ANOTHER ONE: a bearded and roaring Scotsman, this time, holding a bottle of surgical spirit and generally frightening the horses.

Meanwhile, the ticket machines are not giving change because the Booking Office clerk is on a training course and his duty hasn't been covered. So the Ticket Office window is still closed (as it has been all weekend) and the Ticket Machines don't work properly. This is the Monday Morning peak, remember.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

(Yeats)

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

minds fell apart because
the shopping centre was sold
the tills were empty - devoid of gold
coins and loose change - a world
torn apart - no blood grapefruits anywhere
to be had and the ritual of consumption
became a stark scream of despair
as the innocent youth, mothers and others
had no diversion
all those with coupons
(the canniest savers)
were hit the worst
while the impulse buyers'
passionate intensity
was squandered in the cyber-aisles of E-Bay.......

Sounds like an interesting weekend