iPod...don't leave home without it

On Saturday, I trained in to London for a day of neighborhood exploration (I'm considering a move closer in to the Big Smoke). Because I was carrying around my handy-dandy A to Z guide, I wasn't up for any additional and unnecessary paraphernalia to weigh me down, so I left my iPod at home (and any consideration of a second book for reading material was certainly out of the question).

Bad move.

On the train home, we left Waterloo station right on time (as usual), but stopped about 8 minutes into our journey for a 10-minute delay due to 'faulty tracks in the area'. No problem. Minor delay.

In about 10 minutes, we were again merrily on our way. And then we slowed to a second stop just before reaching Wimbledon. This time, the train guard made an announcement that there was a signal failure further down the line, and there were NO TRAINS moving anywhere in the area and the expected delay was approximately 40 minutes.

Nice.

At this point, the sum total of my entertainment consisted of trying to count the leaves on the tress outside the window of my train compartment. About 15 minutes later, we pulled in to the Wimbledon station, where there was plenty of people-watching to be done, thankfully. But even that bit of mental stimulus would have best been accompanied by some fresh tunes.

I arrived home approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes after my train departed Waterloo station. Normally, this journey would have taken 30 minutes (including the walk from the Woking train station to my flat). Certainly, it could have been a lot worse, but...

I will never ever again be without my iPod on a train. Never.