Beyond Selidor

I think I doomed myself by posting about travel mishaps on Friday's open thread, but more about that later. Yesterday, Matthias and I went to London, the main intention being to see dark electro group Rue Oberkampf perform live. Unlike on usual London concert adventures, we were completely unable to find a hotel cheap enough to justify staying overnight, and since the gig was in Islington, we decided to chance it and return home to Ely on the last train of the day.

We travelled down just before lunchtime, had a quick lunch at a new-to-us Mexican place in Coal Drops Yard behind the station (the food scene in the immediate surrounds of King's Cross Station these days never ceases to amaze and delight), and then hopped on the tube to see this art exhibition at the Royal Academy. It was very busy — a Saturday afternoon on the last weekend of the exhibition, so to be expected — but very worth seeing, although inevitably the new works engaging with the gallery's legacy and collection were much more interesting than the source material.

Then we headed across to Islington, dodging the rain, for drinks, dinner, and the concert. It was in my very favourite kind of venue — a tiny little club (this one on the top floor of a pub; the club was only open to ticketholders, the pub was open to whoever wanted to come in for a drink and pizza), with room for no more than sixty or so people. I can see the value in big spectacular arena concerts, but increasingly these days I'm much more interested in these tiny, small-scale events. This particular club seemed to be populated by every ageing goth in London ... and me and Matthias (I was certainly the only person wearing any kind of pastel colours in that room, that's for sure), and the gig was a lot of fun, just really relaxed and low key. We finished up just after 10.30pm, with plenty of time to get back for the last train.

So how do the travel problems come into all this? Well, just before the gig began, Matthias checked the National Rail app and saw that for some reason no trains were going to Ely, but rather stopping in Cambridge. 'Urgent track work,' allegedly. Further reading revealed that a bus would supposedly be there to take anyone needing to go beyond Cambridge, and in any case as long as we could get to Cambridge, a taxi beyond that would be expensive, but not the end of the world. We tried to relax, enjoyed the concert, and made our way to the station.

Things were at least as described, except that the train to Cambridge was slightly late, it was dark and devoid of rail staff, and no information about where this replacement bus would be. It was also pouring with rain. This, however, is not my first rail replacement bus rodeo, and I ensured we were among the first people out of the station, ignoring the crowd stampeding towards the queue at the taxi rank, and spotted a lone bus at the far end of the bus interchange. I dragged Matthias in my wake, it was indeed the bus we wanted, and after we got on (the only people who got on after leaving the incredibly crowded train), the driver ... closed the doors and left! So anyone else who waited in the station in confusion, walked more slowly, or had no idea the bus was a possibility was utterly out of luck!

We made our way meanderingly back to Ely through dark fields, torrential rain, and massive puddles of water that sprayed up alarmingly every time the bus drove through them, and got home only half an hour later than we would have done if the train had gone all the way through to Ely. All in all, not too bad, although I did feel terrible for the other people on that bus who needed to get all the way to King's Lynn!

Today, after not enough sleep, I went to pool first thing in the morning, and swam languidly back and forth for a kilometre while the rain poured down outside. Beyond that, I have not left the house, just lounged around, cooking, eating, and catching up on Dreamwidth. Signups opened for rarepairexchange and I managed to write a letter and sign up, which (given my lack of sleep and slightly downcast current feelings around fanworks exchanges) is something of an achievement!

I hope you've all been having lovely weekends.