Week Beginning: Mon 26th Feb 2007

Oh my! I've not updated my blog since last week!! Now that is what I call Lazy Blog Update-itus! OK, well let me catch up on this week. This is going to be a long blog, so I'm going to rush through the normal days of Monday (which had Thursdays Java Programming stapled in a 4-6pm slot), Tuesday (Maths), Thursday (in which I travelled down to London especially for a 1hr Lab), Friday (CIS110 and CIS109 Lectures), and Saturday (a relaxed day at home playing Age of Empires II: The Conquerors and doing Java Programming).

So what of Wednesday? Oh what a day! It's was a laugh!! OK, are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin... (Note all links below utilise Google Earth .kmz files - requiring Google Earth 4).

It all began Tuesday evening. I began planning my trip to ATCAD, an Art exhibition I was going to on Wednesday, for which I might be a Java Programmer for a section of the exhibition that needed one. First, I checked where I have to go to: Frogmare Mill in Apsley. Then, I check what time I have to get there: 12pm. So I begin planning a train route. I entered Aspley on the train website and saw that the train station, Aspley Guise, was near Milton Keynes. OK then, my Dad says, get a train direct to Milton Keynes and a cab from there to Aspley Guise, just don't forget to take the directions to the Mill.

Wednesday arrives, and I get up early. I set out to the train station to realise once I've got there that I had carefully left the directions to the Mill in my room. In my carefully planned day, I didn't have time to go back and get them. It was to be my utmost downfall. A train ride to London Victoria, tube to London Euston, and I soon find myself on a nice trip up to Milton Keynes eating Cheese on Toast and drinking fresh Apple Juice. On arrival to Milton Keynes, I hail a cab and we set course to Aspley Guise.

We get to Aspley Guise and the taxi guy doesn't know where Frogmare Mill is. Neither does he know where the train station is. Weird, I think, so I ask him to drop me outside the local Post Office, give him the £20 due and after a short consultation with the Post Office, who also don't know of Frogmare Mill, set off to the train station. It can't be that far, right? Ten minutes walking later, I am a bit worried, so I knock on a door of a house and ask. Right, only another five minutes to go. Five minutes later I arrive at Aspley Guise train station. Oh my goodness, I think, this is the smallest train station ever! It's comprised of two small wooden platforms, one either side of a level crossing, and a small wooden cover. Nothing else. The time is 11:45am, and I'm supposed to be at Frogmare Mill by 12.

Now at a complete loss, I ring up 118 118 and manage to get the telephone number of Frogmare Mill. After a short talk, they state that actually there aren't in Aspley Guise, nor are they in any place called Aspley. As I stated at the beginning of this blog, and as was written on the directions sheet, they are in Apsley! Well! That makes all the difference!

I call up 118 118 again and get a local taxi firm. A walk back to the Post Office and fifteen minutes later, I'm in another cab back to Milton Keynes. I pay the taxi guy £20 and get on a Virgin train back to London Euston. OK, time out...

I have to tell you about Virgin trains!! They are unique from any other train I have ever been on. The first thing I noticed was the doors. Instead of having two double doors down the middle, as most of the trains I have been on before, Virgin trains have a single door at either end of the carriage. This leads into a small area with doors to the next carriage, and to the inner part of the carriage you are in.

I got on the train, only to realise that I was in an entire carriage of first class seats!! So I had to walk right through the carriage and into the next before sitting down in a seat and getting ready to leave. As we begin to pull out of the station, the driver's voice comes through the speakers. "Hello, my name's (can't remember what he said his name was) and I'm your driver. Welcome to all the new customers who have joined us at the last station on our trip to London Euston. I would like to remind customers to please ensure all your mobile phones and electronic devices are switched off for the duration of this trip.", or something like that, but you get the jist of it. Astounded, I completely ignored the bit about the mobile phones. Who heard of not being able to use electronic devices on a train! I half expected to see two stewardess's walking down the aisle handing out refreshments or something!

And that's when I did see two stewardess's walking down the aisle pulling/pushing a trolley and calling out "Refreshments? Anybody want refreshments?" I stared in amazement. I'm on an Airplane! I looked out the window expecting to see clouds, but saw train tracks and fields instead. Guess not.

We soon arrive at London Euston and I get the right train to Apsley this time. On arrival to Apsley, I get out and try and make my way to Frogmare Mill using my memory of the directions I have. Fifteen minutes later, and standing outside Sainsburys, I call up Frogmare Mill and ask where they are. They say I'm going in the wrong direction, so I turn around and follow their directions. When their directions don't add up, and I end up outside a pub called 'The Paper Mill', I call up again and they say I have to walk further past Sainsburys in the opposite direction, ie the direction I was going in the first place! So I walk all the way back to Sainsbury's, pass by and go into Apsley town. I get lost in the town, ask at a shop, and navigate further into the industrial side of town. I find Frogmare Mill!

Delighted, I am about to go in when I realise it can't be the right place. This is a paper mill! A real paper mill, not some building where normal people can meet up and have an exhibition or something! Knowing I'm close, I begin exploring the surrounding area...

After a further twenty minutes, I am completely lost and am almost giving up hope. I have walked back and forth, and decide to try one last corner before calling up and admitting defeat - again. I turn the corner, and almost jump with joy! On the door of the building opposite is written the words "ATCAD". I had arrived!! Only two hours and fourty minutes late. Not too bad!

The rest of the day was filled with going through the Art Exhibition, which was all about electronically generated art of some kind or the other, helping them pack up the exhibition, and then a nice pub trip with dinner later on! After that, a successful train journey home and straight to bed.

Moral of the story: remember to take your directions with you - they are vital!