My apologies for not writing this week but these early turns are playing havoc with my body clock plus I can’t always access the blog through the LUL computer network. Fortunately there hasn’t been much to report and as I’m back on late shifts next week normal service should be resumed. I'm still mightly pissed off that next week's "Pool" duties were only posted on Tuesday and hopefully this is just a one-off glitch but if this carries on then I’ll certainly be asking my Union Rep to raise this issue at the next “Level 1” meeting with the TOM (Train Operations Manager, top boss at a Depot).

It’s rained quite a lot this week so I’ve had numerous Auto failures. On Thursday the District and H&C were suspended because of a signal failure at Whitechapel so there was no interchange available at MIE. I made a PA as we pulled in, even explaining that the train stuck on the opposite side of the platform was going nowhere but when I opened the doors a couple of dozen people came out like the runners in the 2:30 at Ascot and not all of them came sheepishly back again.

At SHB I spotted a lady in a wonderful asymmetrical peach-coloured top hat which I suspected was a Philip Treacy and that reminded me of when he was commissioned to design a new hat for LUL. It was meant to be given to all staff with the new uniform we were getting to coincide with the Millennium and he said something along the lines of wanting to create something as distinctively recognisable as a Policeman’s helmet. Distinctive was a wholly inadequate word, it looked like something that could have worn by Scott Tracy in Thunderbird One. Sadly I have been unable to find a picture of it online but it was quietly shelved and we were issued the standard cap instead.