Another week of earlies, another delayed posting, thankfully I’m on lates for the next two weeks so normal service should be resumed.

Wednesday I was spare, got called up to do a WOO via HAI quarter of an hour before England v Slovenia was due to kick off, was on the train till the end of half time, booked off and saw the last half hour in my local. If England beat Germany I will be working for their remaining games, had they won the group my next day off would have coincided with the semi if they get that far. I’ve got my builder in this weekend fitting a new kitchen so hopefully we can get everything done by 3pm Sunday! He’s back doing the bathroom Cup final weekend……is this a sign?

Thursday was timetable, Tubelines strike didn’t seem to trouble the J, N & P much, apart from a signal failure taking rather longer than usual to fix on the Picc and subsequently Wood Lane Control asking us to do PAs informing the punters to avoid HOL like the plague. The only incident of note involved a “Mobility Impaired Passenger”, a blind man with a guide dog, who was assisted to my train at TCR by a CSA. The CSA then informed me of the MIP’s destination, in this case EPP, made sure he had my train number so he could inform the station staff at EPP so there would be someone waiting on the platform to assist him out the station.

Predictably when we arrived at EPP there was no one waiting but as I had ten minutes before I was due to go back WB again I guided the gent over the bridge and out of the station. At some point, usually within the first year of joining LUL, we all get disability awareness training which includes being put into pairs and taking it in turns for one of us to put on a blindfold while the other acts as our guide while we negotiate Victoria station. When I was an SA at Paddington and did the MIP helping thing myself I became acutely aware how little sighted people actually bother to look out for others. Most people spend their lives totally self involved in their own little world …. and then step out in front of a bus with any luck.

I did spot a CSA making tea in the SS office and asked him if he’d been told about the MIP. He’d only just booked on for work and hadn’t been told, so somewhere between TCR and EPP this piece of information had been overlooked. Strangely as I pulled away going back WB I saw a CSA come down the stairs and walk towards the end of the platform where the MIP had got off the train, so maybe they got the train numbers mixed up……..