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Busy day today. For one thing I had to do overtime, which meant I started work at 2pm and finished at 1.10am. I started at Turnpike Lane, and we had a few 'stand-out' customers: a bloke with a buggy who got all abusive when I didn't instantly open the manual gate because I was answering a question from someone else - he smashed his fist on the GLAP door then started swearing and yelling at me, then when I did go over to open the gate (which, after that treatment, wasn't fast) refused to show me his ticket a) the right way up or b) at any distance where I could reasonably have read it, then when he finally did and I let him out, he was still swearing and saying he should have spat on me. Which was nice of him, I hear being spat on is a turn on for some people... ;)

Then we had the poor old couple who'd managed to become separated from a five year old child, presumably their grandson, on the train - he hadn't got off in time. The woman was really quite upset but luckily we got onto the station staff at Manor House and they got the child off the train alright, so that ended happily.

And then the drunk, with crutches and a foot in plaster, who couldn't even walk the width of the barriers (seven gates, if you want to picture it for yourself) without falling on me at the end and getting in everyone's way, who was quite insistant that he was perfectly capable of travelling to Croydon. Alone. Despite not actually knowing where he was, or how to get to Croydon. And the whole not-able-to-stand thing. When I left at 9 he was still sitting in a corner; the supervisor had called the police about an hour before because he had no idea what else to do.

Then we had a young lad having trouble getting through the gate, and his companion yelling at me that I was confusing him by asking for his ticket, and threatening to scream if I didn't let him out. As it was, it only took five seconds to find the ticket and show me it. Honestly, people - travelling isn't *that* hard.

While we're on the Turnpike Lane bit still, I should probably note the poor American who managed to drop his phone on the track a few nights back. One of the supervisors who is a bit of a character was there and called him - jokingly! - an idiot, and teased him a bit more when he said he was American. He did, however, go down and have a look to see if it was somewhere where he'd be able to get it, but the back had fallen off when it landed, and the sim card fallen out, so there was nothing that could be done until the current went off that night.

And lastly we had another visit from a rather persistant beggar that hangs around the station, also a few days ago. He's made death 'threats' to various supervisors because they have no compunction about 'escorting' him from the station, and decided to give me verbal because I'd asked him to leave alone a poor woman who was trying to use the ticket machine.

So, back to today: just after 9 I headed off for Southgate, via Bounds Green to pick up a fire extinguisher. I had a five minute wait for a train from Turnpike, and then at BGR they'd forgotten which type of extinguisher was needed, and were having a simultaneous disaster with a missing padlock key. And the fire extinguisher was very heavy, and very dirty, and because I was switching station duties I also had my rather heavy shoulder bag with me - funnnn escalator ride. Then of course we got held outside Arnos for ages, waiting for a platform to be free. But to my relief the supervisor was down on the platform when I got to Southgate so I didn't have to carry it up the escalators again. It was also a supervisor who's quite easy to get along with, and so was the late turn.

A bit of a difficult day. I was at least at a fairly busy station, but having gone in feeling fairly miserable after a lot of personal-life aggravation, even a cabride from Cockfosters couldn't cheer me up much, and I was apparently "abrupt" with the Station Supervisor, or so she told me later after I'd turned down about the fifth enquiry about whether I'd like a break. (Admittedly not all from her, some were from the CSA on the turn overlapping with mine.) While she was probably right - I'd never worked with her before and I'm *not* good with people until I've worked with them a few times - the fact that neither she nor the CSA on duty bothered to tell me that several of the gates were malfunctioning (and one had been doing so for several days) until I'd already been out on the gateline working for about half an hour didn't help. (Of course I soon discovered that they weren't working - what I didn't know was what resets had been performed, whether jobs were out on them, the exact nature of the problem - ie, were the gates working entry and not exit, or neither, or...?)

Turning down the breaks I actually did five hours (and, naughtily, a bit) straight through without a single break which was what my mind needed to clear it a bit, and I was greatly helped by the appearance of a CSA who was working the next station along, who had come to tell me that she had passed her interview for train operator. She's one of the few people I find it very easy to be friendly with and to talk to, and she's always really nice when she does on-shift visits like this, helping out and opening the manual gate if I'm helping someone else and so on.

Not so good incident - turned a 'customer' away who had a ticket between two mainline stations with no Underground validity, and possibly an incorrect date... having noticed that it wasn't valid route-wise I hadn't paid much attention to the date, but I think it was October 5th. While this is a situation where discretion could be applied, for example someone changing a route at the last minute, or problems on the overground, he very blatantly was trying to blag his way through, demanding I open the gate for him before he'd even produced a ticket. I told him, in rather politer language, to buy a valid ticket or sod off, and he left, sticking his head round a wall to shout a few swearwords and insults. Nice chap.

I also had to explain to a woman that she couldn't use her freedom pass to get all the way to Doncaster, and she gave me a really pissed off look, as if she were entitled to free travel everywhere in the whole country and who was I to say her nay?

We had loads of people getting stuck in gates - not helped by the malfunctions - and the number of people caught out by the early last train times due to it being Sunday was insane.

Thankfully the night supervisor was one I get along with fairly well and we spent some time playing with the gates before the last westbound went, and then there was just the long wait for the last east, which was thankfully roughly on time.

I did a late at Wood Green earlier in the week; towards the end of the shift the barriers were playing up and operating very slowly for Oyster cards - of course people just kept barging into them before they'd opened. I got sick of the phrase "Stand back and wait for the orange light"! I was also amused to see the rather steady stream of people coming and checking the payphones for change that might have been left behind - it seemed like someone was in every fifteen minutes. In fact, I'm sure more people check them for left change than actually ever use them...

The rest of this week I've been at Oakwood. Unlike last week, when I was there for sunlight duties but rarely spent more than an hour to an hour and a half on the platform each day, I've been there on a "proper" duty instead. No one was assigned for sunlight. And of course I've spent most of the day down on the platform for sunlight duties.

The supervisor came downstairs today while I was chatting to someone waiting for a train, and when I gave him a slightly quizzical look, he explained that he'd just seen someone coming through the gates who tried to throw herself under a train about four months ago. He came down to make sure that she wasn't going to do it again! (Apparently she was on her way to visit her boyfriend.. who's in sheltered accomodation.)

The ticket machine at work today kept devouring banknotes so we had to have an engineer out twice for it, great fun.

Next week I'm at busier stations, so I'm quite looking forward to that - I'm also still waiting on LU for a date to start my driver training, I feel like it can't come fast enough at the moment!

An exciting couple of days, and I'm not even being sarcastic! Ysterday one of the DSM's came along to do a trackwalk with the station supervisor, who had to be refamiliarised with the track around the station - familiarisations expire every six months and have to be redone, which I think I mentioned in a post recently, although mine were station, not track, familiarisations. I was on my lunch break and piped up "Can I come?", determined to remind the DSM if he seemed hesitant that he'd agreed back in April to take me on a track walk at the first opportunity but hadn't yet done so, but luckily he agreed straight away, so I found myself getting my hi-vi on and preparing to go on a wander. We nearly had a last minute cancellation when it looked like I'd have to man the platform for sunlight duties, but thankfully a cloud came over and we got away with it!

We walked around the sets of points around the station, crossing the track over to the cess on the westbound road to walk down to the furthest set - the other three can be done by just walking off the platforms. It was great fun clambering over the ballast, even if the DSM did seem to forget that he was a rather man man with long legs and we were both short-ish girls. I'm not particularly tall and the supervisor is another head or so shorter than me - though considerably fitter, nearly needless to say. Still, we did just about manage to keep up, and being passed by trains while down at that level is really quite a breathtaking experience for me still. Especially since there's a rail gap with the associated sparking!!

After dealing with the west end of the track we walked back, crossing over again to reach the platform, and then walking down to the east end of the eastbound platform. We were at Oakwood and the east end leads to the depot and is underneath the station and road. While we were down in the ten foot two trains passed, one in either direction, and the noise was deafening, but the interplay of the lights of the trains and, again, some sparking, was amazing. We then walked back up onto the platform on the westbound side, which bought the walk to an end. *sigh!*

Today I had my six month performance review, which went okay. The DSM (a different one from the day before) admitted he hadn't been sure I'd make it, but that I'd turned out alright in the end. I had rather a tempestuous first few weeks so I'm not surprised that he thought that! There wasn't much to say on the development side since everything hinges on the medical on Friday.

I was on the gateline at about 2pm, just updating the service board, and expecting to go home within the hour, when the DSM from the day before and the supervisor for the afternoon came over. "How would you like some overtime?" they said, and I said, "When?". Turned out the supervisor had to be re-familiarised with the track around Cockfosters, so I stayed on an extra two hours, until 5pm - I'd started at 7am - supervising the station. I was sent along a rather useless CSA to help - from what I can tell, he doesn't want the job, and therefore doesn't see the point in making any effort - although I was thankfully later joined by another slightly more effective one. Typically, though, the chaos that had reigned during the first half of my supervising died down by the time she arrived. Due to some earlier service problems I had to reverse a few trains, plus there were a few others problems tossed my way, all of which I hope I handled alright! No one perished so I assume things turned out okay.

Forgot to mention this one the other day, but working at Cockfosters recently I helped two foreign sounding chaps heavily laden with baggage through the manual gate. A few minutes later one came back and asked me where to get a District Line train to Wimbledon. Earls Court, I answered, and he looked round. Where are the District trains? he repeated, and I repeated my answer, then got a tube map to point it out. He showed me his itinery, printed from the TfL journey planner. It said to get a Piccadilly Line train towards Cockfosters, and change at Earls Court... unfortunately they'd misinterpreted it as *go* to Cockfosters. The poor chaps had to make another 50 minute journey back again...

Today I was down for sunlight duties which probably explains why it was chucking it down with rain when I woke up, to the point where I actually went and dug out my raincoat for the walk down to get the bus. When I got to the station it was almost as wet inside as out; with the renovation works there were an awful lot of leaky spots, and earlier - about the same time I was out catching a bus - the wind had simply been blowing the rain inside at various points just due to the open design of the station. There was even one leak from the ceiling in the stairwell; thankfully it was incredibly small and was dripping in the middle, at the handrail, so the small puddle wasn't the trip hazard it might have been. The rain also finally cleared up at about 10, so things improved.

I got sent off to a rather hastily arranged team talk meeting, which basically consisted of anyone they could drag off the stations. Since I was officially spare - and the sun hadn't come out enough to affect the monitors - and Oakwood has low staffing requirements, both the rostered CSA and I were sent off down to Arnos, where we were joined by the CSA from Cockfosters and two from Arnos for the informal meeting. Didn't learn much!

Lastly, I finally got a phone call from the recruitment people to say that I have to go in for a medical, which I've booked for Friday since I'm on rest day then. Hopefully there will be no major problems; the only thing that worries me is my weight, which is rather bad at the moment.

Today I'm going to Oakwood for sunlight duties...

...and it's pouring with rain outside. To the point where I'm about to try to find my raincoat because otherwise I'll drown just walking to the bus stop.

Dead lates, followed by dead earlies, followed by more dead lates... *groan* Still, a few interesting snippets that I really should have written about earlier:

I've now been out on the platforms for six months... as evidenced by the fact that I have to be re-familiarised with each station now before I can work it. Station familiarisation must be done every six months and involves one of the station supervisors taking you round the station and ensuring you know the layout and where important things like the Staff Assembly Points, fire extinguishers and tea kettles are. Obviously this is quite in depth the first time you do it, but when you've been working at a station fairly constantly over six months anyway it's a bit less crucial, and only the important things are covered, rather than having to point out the mess room and everything that's covered the first time! When signing on for work we have to write down the date we were last familiarised, and for the past six months, I've had it easy: having done all seven familiarisations in one day, I've had only one date to remember. Now, they're scattered all over the place!

I'm still waiting for Occupational Health to call about the medical that I may or may not need. This waiting is almost worse than waiting for the results of the interview and assessments in the first place...

Last night I had a young girl throw up in the ticket hall; I was kicking myself because as she came through the gate with her dad she was making an odd noise, but I thought it was a cough - had I clicked I *might* have got her to the staff toilets in time. Still, it wasn't too bad; I put whiteboards up around the mess since I had no other wet floor signs or anything, and then got the girl a drink of water and a chair to sit on for a while. Unfortunately we had no cleaner on station so the supervisor had to call for one from a different station, which meant it was quite a while before the mess was cleaned up. Not long after the incident I went on my break and apparently the girl's mother came down while I was in the messroom and asked the CSA on the gate to thank me for helping - it's always nice to be appreciated!

Monday night I was at Oakwood and ended up on the platform for quite a lot of the shift because some cabling to the OPO monitors - the screens the driver uses to see when it's safe to close the doors - had been damaged and there were no images. The mirror doesn't cover the whole length of the platform well enough to make it safe to rely on it alone, so I was down there from about 17:20 to 18:00, and again from 19:00 to 22:00... an hour off for break, back down again at 23:00, and finished with the last train into Central London at midnight. During the first stint I didn't wave many trains through because an incident at Arnos Grove - apparently a customer with a knife! - held all the westbound up for a while. I had a nice long chat with the driver stuck in station and we found out more about the incident from the train radio than we did from anywhere else.

The weather was cold but bearable until it started to rain at 21:00, bleh. I was also chilly because I'd dressed for a night in the ticket hall and heated box - short sleeved blouse, skirt and socks instead of tights since most of my tights have holes in and I haven't bought replacements yet. I did have my blazer but my large overcoat was in my car - parked at Oakwood, but I didn't bother getting it out and find it a hassle to wear anyway because it's so frelling huge on me. Of course, even once the waving out was done, I was still down there every ten minutes or so to tip out stablers. I just hope I haven't got a cold now...!

I had a heart stopping moment when, while answering a passenger's question about alternative routes given the Victoria Line closure, I glanced up and saw someone on the staff only side of the grey platform end barriers. I started heading down there but he walked out nonchalantly. I asked him not to do it again and he was obviously drunk and barely made it onto the train that showed up a moment later without falling over. I felt a bit queasy because if he'd fallen over there, or decided to go wandering on the track, things could have got very messy.

No doubt there's plenty of interesting things that I've forgotten to write about. Tough!

Just got a phone call to say I've passed the interview stage for train operator... now I just have to hope that Occupational Health gives me a clean bill of health. *whimper!*

One of the stupidest comments about the strike that I saw was in the Metro, and said something along the lines of:

I work in advertising, they should try to put up with what we have to put up with, working through the night and weekends.

The temptation to grab this person by the shirt and explain loudly and clearly that maintenance workers frequently DO do that since 'engineering hours' are between about 1am and 5am, and closures for engineering work take place at weekends, was overwhelming. The only thing stopping me was the sheer impossibility of doing so!!

In other news I've booked an assessment for Station Control Room Assistant so, if it turns out I've failed train operator (which is looking extremely likely) I'll have something else to fall back on.

Cockfosters has been quiet all week, although you don't realise how long tube trains are until you have to pass messages to two different drivers on different platforms, which means walking the length of four trains. Lovely!

Yesterday the ticket office was out of order so there was a little more to do but, to be honest, not much - the ticket office closes at 7pm normally anyway, and there never *are* any customers. The most exciting part of the evening was the inside of the used tickets bin breaking, and having to fish the bottom out of the secure case using one of the grabby things the cleaners use - it felt like I was doing a Crystal Maze challenge.