... and I need a week off to recover from my week off.

Today, I have been to the studio, mystery shopped for banks and debated what to do for dinner. I have farted darted and carted and its only 6pm.

On the plus side, I have been able to find another potential committee member for the station, yet I wonder if she will try to undo all our work.. we will see.

TTFN

Three days into my weeks leave, I am on a train taking a trip across the desolate urban landscape that is Southampton.. home of the best stadium in the championship..

I have just spent an hour or so in Portsmouth shopping and before that two hours interviewing for new presenters at radio. Tomorrow I am taking my brother to the hospital to get his foot checked out.. he was stupid enough to want to put it in front of a car to see how it would feel.. the answer? Bloody Painful!

I am off to mystery shop Thursday for a mainstream bookmakers in four hours I will have sampled the delights of three of them, making sure they comply with various regulations.. saying that even if I am not I will sometimes make it sound like I am, a great way of getting something for as little as possible.

I am very quickly getting geared up for the Hospital Broadcasting Association conference. Its less than a month away so I have to make sure all my better clobber is up to scratch and my suit pressed and dry cleaned. I will be using a seperate blog on another site to keep people up to date. Details when I have set it up!

well the vibration of my phone must mean that some one wants my attention.. TTFN

Whoever thought of women wearing strappy, very loose tops? That has been my only highlight so far today. Two very lovely lasses wearing very little. Who ever decreed that women should year very little was a genius! Its a shame there two them proceeded to snog each other to pieces.. in the middle of the train.. one for the memory I think.

i finally completed my Genesis back catalogue this week. I have no idea why I wanted it, I just accumulated it. A most excellent collection of proper music I decree.

and finally.. Generic.. Err.. It just sounded good.

The police this week have come to an all time low.. a bus driver turns up at a police station with a group of junkies openly smoking crack on the bus and the police are "not available". Now you can not tell me that there were no officers at Lewisham station who could give just 5 minutes of their time to "protect and serve" as I thought was the core ethos behind policing.

In slightly more depressing news, Britney Spears has released a new track and in my opinion one of her worst yet.. I will wait for a hake decent remix that doesnt make her sound like she is struggling all the way through.

Well not enough time for me to say much today. I hope her indoors has me dinner ready tonight.

I hearby decree that my manager has finally lost it. She is willing to play Russian Roulette with our lives to make sure she gets her bonus.

As of today, if we as guards work a train that is booked to terminate early due to engineering works, we have to get on a bus the same as a passenger. Now some of you may be thinking that we are mad, not above rail passengers,etc, but when you consider that we are often carrying about £500 on us, we have just been through said train selling tickets and chances are some of those are pissed at having to buy a ticket, you can probably understand that some of up are a little concerned for our safety.

My company have never run a risk assessment of getting on a bus at 1am with a load of pissed up scroats looking to battle all-comers. They havent because they would have to do it every weekend when a different bus service runs. As it is, the CCTV on our lovely Disastro trains rarely operates now so when there is even a fight on the train, the police have very little in the way of evidence.

Now I have no problem getting on a replacement bus service during the daytime, or when most of the calling points are staffed, but at 2am meandering down country lanes, is it REALLY a risk the company are happy taking? Even bus companies refuse to drive in some areas that we go through to get to stations on those late night runs.

This is a time when I will fully support Bob Crow if he were to call a strike over our safety. I disagreed with the call for 72 hours on the tube as it was an issue that would have been better resolved with other tactics, but I think that if we were to refuse to start any diagram with a bus involved then we would get somewhere and still pass on a service to our passengers.. well, the ones that dont try to beat us to a pulp.

Sitting all alone, on a station notorious for trouble. With cash, a ticket machine and no way to defend against an attacker.

This is how the railway treat us. Even mobile security guards around here get stab vests!

If a person goes around Tesco, does a weekly shop, walks out without paying and has no money when asked to pay, are they a customer?

If a person uses a chipped Sky box to get free Satelitte, is he a Sky customer?

If a person gets on a train with no intention to pay, is he a railway customer..

If you ask the Railway Managers they are! They may refuse to pay, but if they are sat in First Class and demand the free coffee, breakfast and WiFi that First Class customers want, then we give it to them.

So next time your want to travel in style, refuse to pay!

Railway Managers.. the customer is always right even if he DOESNT want to buy a ticket!

A complex sounding word for a simple problem. I am shattered. I have not even started to work yet, but I am so tired. I am sat in a coach with about 20 bright eyed and bushy tailed schoolkids chattering away probably not about the delights of being back at school.

The "overheard comment of the day" award goes to one of these who has just said:
"I had to go out and buy all new bras this weekend because I have grown so much"
and why do you have to tell a whole carriage of people?

Walking down the platform it amazed me how many of these schoolgirls had their white shirts nearly completely open exposing a black lace bra and the shortest of skirts.. do schools allow it so that a young girl flashes her red thong as she walks along? Are they really content on continuing to tempt men, many of whom it has already been proved, can not help themselves!

It was a quiet end to the day yesterday. Not much happened, it was quite quiet meandering through the Surrey countryside.

It won't last though, it never does.

London Underground has ended its 72 hour strike with many tube lines sarting to re-open. I think to be honest that 48 hours would have been more appropiate, although on the other side of the coin I also agree with my RMT brothers that the pension and job security issues were being ignored. Lets hope that the powers that be can do something about the various issues that the RMT staff have so that we can get back to normal. As yet though, the planned 48 hour strike by TSSA staff has not been called off.

It was crippling though. London Bus companies had to draft out as many buses as they could to cope with the strike and even then, commuters were still waiting two full bus loads before they even thought about getting on.

Talks are now back underway which is aiming at preventing a second 72 hour walkout due to start next monday, 10th September.

I have moaned a lot about Havant Borough Council recently, but I finally have something good to say about them. They are taking the bull by the horns and charging supermarkets for every abandonned trolley that they find.

The £50 charge is small fish for the occasional trolley, but the number of them being found on estates, in beauty spots and river tributries means that the council are being forced to act. At least that might quell some of the break-ins, where you often find TVs being transported around in one.... doubt it.

Well this post is getting too long. I had better go get some sleep, I am on nights again tonight!

TTFN

Getting my ass kicked by the boss is nothing new. NOT getting my ass kicked shocked me tonight. I must have actually done something right for a change.

Its been a week of surprises really. Nationwide finally accepted a reduced payment against my loan, although they have asked me to review my payments in 6 months time. My partner also moves in next week, which is always good. Lets see if luck comes in 3s.