Why I was late for work today

I pressed snooze for about 30 minutes this morning, already off to a late start. I still made sure I had a good breakfast, since I'm trying to save money and cutback on buying morning coffees and snacks at the office. I left the house at 7:45am, 15 minutes after the trash pickup and just as it was getting light. I was spared the rain on the walk to the tube station, which was lucky; it had been raining all night, including bouts of thunder and lightning.

Since I was on the tube at 8am, at the beginning of the rush hour, I was crammed between the guy with the shoulder bag that kept bumping me with each sway of the train and a tall attractive guy in the argyle sweater whose waist I had to reach around to hold onto the vertical bar, since I'm really too short to effectively use the ceiling bars. Several passengers disembarked at Stockwell to change for the Victoria line, at which point I actually got a seat! I was only 5 or 6 stops from London Bridge, but I was glad to be sitting down. The train seemed to be taking forever this morning, as if it was as tired as the rest of us.

At London Bridge, my commute is to change to the Jubilee Line to go just three stops to Canary Wharf, although the distance between stops is much farther than most lines. Jubilee trains during peak times come by every 1-2 minutes, but there is still enough of a gap for the queue to back up between each train. I patiently waited with the small mob of people behind my 'usual' door, and 3 trains passed before I had a chance of getting on. We were shuffling to cram into the end carriage door, and I was struggling to take off my backpack, weighted down by two laptops, so that I could stand it between my feet and have a chance of squeezing into the train. I would set down my backpack, and lean forward, pressing against the other passengers to allow the doors to clear before closing.

I didn't make it on that train though. While I was taking off my backpack, another passenger bumped me, and my knockoff Gucci handbag fell straight down, through the narrow slot between the train and the platform, onto the tracks! I stepped back in shock. I don't even know who bumped me, and it doesn't matter. It certainly wasn't intentional. But of course I wasn't going to get on the train.

I ran down the platform to locate the announcer, as if telling him sooner rather than later would make a difference in how fast it was resolved. He walked back with me to see where it had fallen. It was between the closer rail and the platform, but not accessible by reach. On the Jubilee Line, there is a double set of doors - the glass doors between the platform and the train tunnel, and then the doors of each train. The first set are only open when the train is at the station, and there was no access to the tracks between trains. Besides which, you can't just reach down there - those risk of shock warnings aren't kidding.

The station manager joined us to assess the situation. He found an extra set of trash tongs that the station janitors use, planning to grab the bag with that, but after a few calls to whoever decides when trains can be delayed, he determined that nothing could be done until after peak hours. The Jubilee line, for example, is required to provide service of at least 24 trains an hour during peak times, and they are fined if they can't meet that service agreement. Given that during my wait, there was one accidental pull of the emergency lever on one train, and a person was falsely reported as having collapsed on another train, I think my dropped handbag was low on the customer service priority list.

It was 8:30am by the time the station manager was involved and it was clear that nothing immediate could be done. At first he even thought they would have to wait until overnight to retrieve it (!) the prospect of which I was note pleased about. My house key, phone, and wallet were all down there, and my flatmate is out of town. In the meantime, I couldn't call my boss - my phone was in the purse, and there is no reception in the station. I couldn't go grab a coffee - all my money and my Oyster (tube) pass were in the purse as well. And even if they had given me an extra tube ticket, I certainly wasn't going to leave my bag. After having my wallet stolen just one month ago, I was not going to let this out of my sight.

In the end I waited until after 10:30am before the electricity on the line could be shut off, the security door could be allowed to be held open, and he could reach down with the tongs to grab my bag. I made it to work by an early lunch hour, and it was certainly not the best start to a Tuesday morning. But, being the diligent, if not slightly overdedicated, consultant that I am, while I was waiting, I sat down on a file folder and started typing away at my work (well, after I composed this blog entry).