Should have done it years ago, three or four anyway; didn’t live here before that! What a difference it makes! I now catch the train to work as often as I can, that being on days there are no night meetings at work and when it’s not pouring with rain in town, twenty kilometres away (not always easy to tell when one texts friends to ask; one says yes and the other no!)
In real terms. the advantages are numerous; only a fifteen minute drive to the train (instead of thirty-five through traffic) and fifteen minutes of day dreaming and quiet time on the train. The free car park nearby is a bonus, long may it remain even after the station renovations are completed, which I’ve been told have begun but as yet are not apparent to the eye. Alighting at Kingsland means that there are good cafes at the door should I choose a diversion before the fifteen-minute walk on to work. And, as was the case recently, divert early morning meetings to said cafes, ‘Crucial Traders’ in particular I would recommend! Checking out what’s happening ‘on the street’ in terms of home and garden renewals which are many. And best of all, thirty minutes of exercise each day and a little carbon-footprinting reduction.
These outway the disadvantage of having to leave home fifteen minutes earlier which in turn means that much less time to rest and hang about of a morning. I’m also hoping that whilst reducing the impact of my car fumes, breathing in everyone else’s on that otherwise enjoyable walk won’t outweigh the benefits of the exercise. I could always wear one of those nose and mouth masks, but they don’t come in black! White is so not my colour!
The trains of course are not at all like trains in Japan, ours bump and squeak along rather than get you there almost instantly, but you do always find a seat which is a bonus. And on one occasion when there wasn’t one, a very courtous young man stood and gave me his seat! Truly! In this day and age, a gentleman!
I do miss all the advertising in the Japanese trains though, however dubious some of it might be! Anyway, I’m a converted ‘trainee’ ‘trainer’ ‘train-aholic’… just what DO you call some one who loves riding on trains?
