2 posts tagged “public transport”

My current job is winding up and so this is the last Saturday that I'll be working. After this morning's experience, I am so glad.

First off, they were doing maintenance on the railway tracks. This meant that instead of taking the one train from my village (yes, that's what they're called in the Blue Mountains) into Sydney, I had stop halfway and go in a bus. That happens from time to time on a weekend. Sometimes it works out ok, because the buses are a totally totally express coach service and use the freeways. They usually have more comfortable seats.

So this guy sat next to me shortly before the bus left. I didn't pay him too much attention because I was reading and listening to my iPod. It's my safe little bubble which makes the drudgery of public transport that more bearable. I was about to discover how insubstantial this bubble was.

5 minutes into this 45 minute bus trip, without any warning, SPLAT!, the guy sitting next to me throws up - getting vomit all over himself and my right leg and foot. It was absolutely terrible. The smell, which made my own stomach feel very queasy. Feeling the warm liquid seep through my pants onto the skin of my leg. The guy was very apologetic, and so he should have been. He offered me $20, which I didn't accept (in hindsight I wonder if I should have), but I did take some of his tissues to wipe myself. I don't know if he was drunk from the night before, or even worse, some type of bug or illness. He was obviously unwell.

I had to sit there, in this full bus, next to this guy for another 40 minutes. Fortunately he didn't throw up again, although sometimes it looked like he was about to and I would shudder. My protective bubble was totally gone and I was very aware of him.

I was due to work from 10 am to 6 pm and I had plans to go out after work. Normally I would have been tempted to go back home and get changed into clothes that weren't covered in vomit, even if it meant I was very late. But I couldn't do that on a Saturday. On Saturdays there are just two of us in the library, it's a very big deal to be sick or not around, because it means that the other person is left all on their own, this is not very safe and against our rules.

So I got off in the Sydney CBD area and wandered around a little until the shops opened and then I bought a new outfit, as well as a small towel. I was due to buy some new clothes anyway, so it wasn't a total waste. I was only a little late to work, and fortunately, there's a shower in one of the restrooms in my building. So as soon as I got in, I cut the tags off my new purchases, scrubbed my shoes clean, had a shower and scrubbed my right side all over with tea tree shampoo and then got changed into my new clothes. It was such a relief to be in clean clothes!

Today is my late shift, which means that I work from 11 am to 7 pm. On days like this I get to wake up a little after 7 am, which is nice. It's around the time I used to wake up before I moved to the Blue Mountains.

Just before leaving for work, I remembered that I needed to test some of the off-campus access to our databases. So I did that, even though it caused me to run a little late. I almost missed my train, but didn't, thanks to my running.

Anyway, the train ride is going smoothly until we hit the section between Glenbrook and Lapstone. This is one of the prettiest sections of the whole track, as it overlooks a beautiful gorge. On the downside, there's no mobile phone coverage there and the track is prone to rockfalls.

All of a sudden, the train stops. An unexplained stop for 5 minutes is nothing out of the ordinary. Soon 10 minutes have passed. Eventually the driver says something on the intercom, but the intercom is so garbled that it's only possible to understand one in every three words. Something about a problem with the track, something about returning to Springwood. Springwood? That's practically where I started. What would we do from there - catch a bus? Then I'd never get to work...

There is much more confusion and delays. There is little more information about the problem, something about a damaged track ahead, caused by a rockfall? Eventually, after sitting still for almost an hour, we start moving again, forwards. Apparently it's ok to continue. In the end I'm only 30 minutes late to work because in my original plan I was going to be getting in a little early.

Most of the time the rail system works well for me. I could not imagine driving all the way to work and back every day. But when there are problems with it, it really sucks.