Popped back to feed Clive and found a letter waiting for me; it’s official, new timetable as of July 4, I will drop off the “roster” and into the “pool”. There are five refugees from the now-defunct East London Line at the top of the waiting list for going back onto the roster and then after that it is by how long you’ve been at the depot rather than now long you’ve been a T.Op. Pleasant surprise, I’m top of the list and as some of the ELL are coming up to retirement age I might only have to spend a year or so getting my duties a week in hand.

On that subject, yes, we do “duties” rather than shifts and have meal “reliefs” rather than breaks. I’m informed this is a leftover from the days when it was thought we should be run on military lines which might explain why some Duty Managers act like Drill Sergeants.

And get ignored.