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.

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!*