Trains and Taxis

So last week I had a particularly unpleasent experience concerning the state of public transport in the United Kingdom, particularly Wiltshire. I went up to Bath to see my brother and his theatre society's new play, Pygmalion. Now I should point out that I don't particularly like Pygmalion or My Fair Lady, but that this actual performance (with my brother in the role of Colonel Pickering, one that he didn't want but I think he nailed to a T) held my interest and was truly enjoyable.

So the following day, my brother and I go to the cinema to go and see Paul. It's kind of a tradition that we go to the cinema together whenever we're in the same town. We saw Paul, and the review for that is up already. We'd judged the timing of this particular event quite well, I'd thought, because my train was at 15:36 and the film finished at around 15:12. So we hop over to the train station, I see my mother for about 30 seconds and then I head up to the platform and wait for my train.

It arrives. It's full.

Myself and about twenty other passangers are actually told that we can't get on the train because there are too many people on it already. Now this is the Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central line, it runs every hour or so and it's only ever got 3 carridges on it. But I've paid for my ticket and I should be able to use that train. Now, I get that train every time I go to Bath, which is about once every six weeks or so, and I've never been able to sit down on it. It's always sardines in there.

Now this seriously pisses me off, because First Great Western should bloody know by now just how popular that line is. So I can't get on the train (I should note, I had to start work in Newbury at 5pm). The stopper service that would get me to Westbury is due in a few minutes. Westbury's good, that's where I'd have to change to get to Newbury anyway. My plan was to get a new ticket there in order to go Westbury to Newbury. But of course I get there too late, I've missed the connecting train.

Know what time the next train is?

19:10. Two hours *after* I was due to start work. It wouldn't even get to Newbury until 19:45, which was when Alan Carr's show actually started.

Then my phone battery died. There were no staff at the platforms, there was a payphone but I didn't have any change. I was one of the only people there.

So what did I do? What could I do?

I got a taxi. And it cost me £80.

I got to work for about 18:30, fortunately I'd essentially been swapped with Vicky, so that she started at 17:00 and I started at 19:00, but another member of staff hadn't turned up at all, so I got to start straight away. I must have told the story of how I'd got there about twelve times, just so that people would think that I was dedicated to my job, which I am. I love that job, it makes me feel appreciated. It just means that I'm working at a loss for the next few weeks.

It wasn't a particularly brilliant weekend all round, with my brother's play being great and then everything kind of sucking after that, until my parents swooped in on the sunday and offered to take me back to southampton. I think I got about 9 hours sleep the whole weekend. I don't want to sound self-pitying, but it was just mad and I think I'm too old for all this crap. We didn't even get a chance to do November's Children, which annoyed me, because I was looking forward to that session.

Ah, sod it.

RANGO.

"De Leezard? Hee's going to die."

I'll probably be quoting that line for quite some time to come. This was a truly, truly enjoyable movie. In terms of story and plot, this film doesn't really have anything original going for it, as Coates put it, it's pretty much Chinatown with Lizards. It's got the story of pretty much every western you've ever seen, but it's intelligent enough to know that and to compensate by celebrating the genre rather than simply hammering it out.

And the thing that really sells this movie is that it's truly, truly gorgeous. I mean, it's on a par if not better than most Pixar films, it's just so sumptuous and intricate that to think it's for kids is almost a little insulting, because they don't quite deserve this level or artistic attention. Fortunately, we all well know that this kind of film isn't really for kids, it's a film that adults can take their kids too and enjoy themselves.

I can't say too much more about it, because it isn't all that deep and it's gorgeousness speaks for itself. Go watch it because it's very entertaining. And Bill Nighy is amazing.

Next up: The Adjustment Bureau.