So, joy of joys, I was back to work on Sunday - then had Monday and Tuesday as my rest days this week. So today felt like my first "proper" day back.

Sunday was okay up until near the end, then some things happened around the time of the last two trains with the supervisor that threw me for a loop very badly, to the point where I was driving home wondering what on earth I was doing here. As a result Monday and Tuesday were a welcome relief, but I was also dreading work today.

I shouldn't have done. It was one of the rare good shifts, quite a bit to do and the time went quickly. I got into work with only a few minutes to spare because my train from Cockfosters crawled all the way, stopping between stations several times and, since I was at Arnos and therefore only three stations along the line, that's saying a lot! I got in and one of the CSA's was in the office, no supervisor - turned out delays on the Victoria had held up the 7am supervisor and the night turn one couldn't stay on to wait for him. At about two minutes past he walked in anyway, then left the office in my hands while he wents to do some checks and such.

So I'm sitting there pretending to be important (and better paid, heh!), watching the CCTV and keeping an eye on the Victoria line problems. Sent out a radio message when its service resumed to severe delays since we have quite a few customers who change at Finsbury Park to the Vic. Then the phone rang and I picked it up, and heard: "Regulator here, there's a PA at Manor House, delays resulting". I put out a radio announcement to the staff and was busy wondering why on earth an announcement at Manor House was causing such trouble even as the phone rang again, saying that train 314 was going into the sidings. Glanced up at the CCTV - chaos on the platform, what I'd originally thought was an Eastbound was a Westbound, and therefore very busy. Radio again, called for any of the spares to get down to the office or platform 4, and the supervisor to get to the office, only to have no response from either. After much fiddling, I figured out how to use the manual PA system (whilst I'm familiar with the PC one that generates messages, I've never used the manual before - and that fact also contributed to my problems on Sunday evening, oddly) and made an announcement to the platforms, hopefully successfully. The platform was packed - not quite dangerously so, but definitely busier than I've ever seen Arnos Grove get before, and they are island platforms, so if there's a crush with no trains you can have a very bad situation if it does overcrowd. I sent out another message over the radio for the supervisor to get back, while trying to field calls from the gateline who wanted to know if we actually had a service or not since obviously customers were up there and complaining that they'd just been turfed off the train.

Thankfully at that point the supervisor finally came back; I grabbed my hi-vi after briefing him then legged it down to the platform to handle the chaos and the PA's. The service remained patchy for quite some time, with some large gaps in the service, trains reversing instead of continuing to Cockfosters, and at one point a signal refusing to clear. Despite the fact that I'd stated on the PA several times that platform 3 was due to go first, and made no announcement to the contrary, as soon as a train pulled into platform 4 they all decided to jump on it - and got very pissed off when the signal finally went to green for platform 3 and the driver tried to close the doors before they were all back on.

All in all, great fun. I got off the platform at about 9:50 and went up to the office to help the supervisor send an email, he's not very good with computers! After doing that, and spending a bit of the time just hanging round the office, occasionally covering the phone, I went to have my meal break. I was nearly done when the supervisor asked if I'd go to the mail room near South Kensington station to drop off and collect some mail, and I jumped at the chance. Being paid to spend 40 minutes on a train each way? Heck yes. Far more interesting than hanging round an overstaffed station now that the peak was over. I had no trouble on the way in, and even managed to find the offices without having to ask anyone, then made my way back, also without incident - and also managed to finish the book I was reading, which was a history of transport in London.

When I got back, I got sent off to have a cup of tea, then went on to do some verrrry sloooowwww platform checks and OPO checks (where we ask the driver of a train if they can use the CCTV monitors or mirrors to see the whole length of the platform/train interface - some stations have a lot of problems with sunlight affecting the view), filled up the leaflet racks a bit, then ended up manning the office again for a while, which was actually quite good fun. I felt like Manager Attention Central today, with three of the DSM's speaking to me and also the GSM - can't remember the last time I even saw him. One asked if I'd enjoyed my control room visit the other month, one said in the course of a discussion about the morning's disruption that it sounded like I'd managed alright with the situation until the supervisor got there, all things considered, and the other came in while I was doing office cover duty. GSM collared me as I was going through the gateline after getting back from South Ken, and just asked how I was.

That was pretty much it for the day, beyond ruling out a few extra pages in the lost property logbook and the traffic circular logbook. Although I don't want to talk much about Sunday, there was one highlight - an asian looking lad coming up to me as I was sitting in the box watching the gateline (it was about 10:30pm, and very dead!), with a phrase card in his hand, asking me how to pronounce "figures" and "reasonable", and then having a little chat about the difference between "That figures!" and "That sounds reasonable". Bright spot to an evening that got bad later on!

In more interesting news, I found out that I passed my first assessment for train operator, which leaves the second assessment and, if I pass those, the actual interview - which is the bit I'm dreading. It's booked for early September which is nowhere near as far away as it actually sounds! I've also applied for Station Control Room Assistant, but they have no assessment dates free at the moment. Unlike train op, which has a host of help and information for candidates, I've seen absolutely nothing about SCRA, so I'm flying blind.