Stay on track... don't scream! (Ulog #17)
There are some days that go off the plan so much, that the best you can do is to just motor on and try and reach your goal... perhaps cutting down that goal to just a single one of get to a bed before midnight somewhere in the city that I'm supposed to be in. Well, thankfully, this day wasn't a disaster in that sense, I reached the bed in the right city with an hour to spare before midnight... but it was a trickier day than I had hoped for!
The beginning
Actually, the day started off really nicely, spending a few hours with my kids and wife before needing to start the travel. The weather was good, and our oldest daughter had a friend over that she hadn't seen for ages, yet they started up like they had never been apart (they have known each other since they were about 1).
The first hint of trouble came when I looked up the first travel leg for day. Planned Trackwork? Well, that added an extra 45 minutes to my travel, which meant I needed to do some quick packing. Well, I guess this was a self inflicted speed bump due to me not checking the travel the night before... overconfidence! Luckily, this was going to be a short project, and so it was mostly just a matter of remembering what the dress code for the concert was. Plus, I always have a bag half packed with all the essentials like toiletry,emergency food and electronics!
Trains and trains
Well, I made it to the first main change with no problem, but here was where some things started to fall of the plan.
Today, the weather was quite nice in The Netherlands, but it was uncomfortably hot in Germany. I took this screenshot later, as my phone was giving me "warnings" of high heat (even dangerous) levels. Temperatures that were hitting 35 Celcius or above (roughly 1.5675432672345249657328526 thousand degrees Fahrenheit!), which wouldn't have been a problem in Australia, but were causing central Europe to go into transportation meltdown. Actually, to tell the truth, I think I've lost my Australian heat tolerance since living in Europe, and I was also getting quite worn down from the heat (probably carrying a violin, a messenger bag and towing a suitcase didn't help... or the long sleeved jumper that I forgot to take off...).
While you are travelling you start to learn words that you know spell trouble. Verspating... Delay. Well, delay is better than cancelled, I guess...
So, time to wait in a super hot train station. What to do, except eat some yummy wursten! Little did I know, that this would be one of the very few things that I would get to eat this day....
Arrival and Hotel
By the time I arrived at the destination train station, I just couldn't stomach a half hour walk to the hotel. So, Taxi it was... this was the best part of the travel! On time, air conditioning that worked, and no one sitting next to me! Pity the ride was so short....
So, when I arrived the reception was closed and I had to use the night safe. Which I managed, but there were a few keys in there, and so I had to call the night reception. Remember this post of my non-planning friend... Well, he didn't think it would be good to bother us with forwarding things like.... THE #@$^TWRT%$^#$%^@^@$ RESERVATION EMAIL FROM THE HOTEL!!! Which would not have been a problem, except the reception couldn't find my booking...
So, after calling him a few times before he picked up, I had the reception and him sort things out.... apparently, the booking wasn't done under my name, but the name of the concert organiser. Sure, that makes sense, I'm only the person that is going to show up and stay at the hotel....
I'm finally in a stinking hot room, I forgot to ask for the wifi code... and the note on the table is super helpful in saying that I just need to ask for it at the reception, which is closed. There is nothing open for food... I haven't eaten since that lovely little German hot dog! Luckily, I've played this starvation game before, and I always travel with a handful of pre-packed muesli bars for just this sort of situation. I'd prefer a nice cooked dinner and a nice cold beer, especially after this crap day of travel, but a bar and some water will have to suffice for tonight.
What sort of deranged evil genius would put a chocolate on a pillow in a stinking hot room... now I've got chocolate in my hair!
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Your conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion cracks me up
Every knows the mints are the standard item for hotel rooms with one exception, Switzerland
Haha, it is a running joke that I'm having with myself... but glad that someone notices! Yes, I know the chocolates are pretty standard, but i thought they might have skipped it with the heat and put it in the fridge instead!
I noticed it a couple times in your posts and so get a kick out of it. Your up to a trillion going to run out of numbers soon LOL
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What a hell of a day, I have had days like that and they seem to last about a week
Hope tomorrow is a better one for you
After a day like that, it can only get better!
Well that was quite a story. haha. I know it wasnt "the best" trip, but im sorry its kind of funny they way you wrote. :D
I just might be evil but that last line cracked me up. hahaha
Yes, you are definitely evil! Although, it is much funnier when it happens to someone else! I'm sure I would close it laughing....
you are hilarious and im a bit disappointed that wasnt you in the first photo! love the choc in your hair and all photos. the weiner looked good! 😛🤣
It might be me! Oh, I love having the sausages when I'm travelling in Germany, it's so easy to get a nice snack!
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Welcome to Mercury and Mars Retrograde. Mercury Retrograde = communications and travel snafus. Mars Retrograde = having to do things over again -- or take alternative options -- because what you planned on or arranged the first time didn't suffice.
Oh, Lord I have our own stories I could tell you. We haven't had water for over a week. I can hardly think of it without crying.
Mercury comes out of retrograde on August 18. Mars on August 27. A few weeks then of straightening out things that went wrong, were started or were planned over the past several weeks ... and life will move forward again.
Stay strong.
Wow, no water for weeks? My little bad day is nothing in comparison!
How are you surviving? Do you have to ship (drive) in drinking water?
Urgh- that sounds like a truly tormenting day- I really really hope today has been a better, less stress-filled one for you. Genius move on the muesli bars though- no food after that travel chaos would be just enough to push a man over the edge I imagine!
Safe trip home when it comes to it.
E x
Ah, it was a different day of juggling a short-fused and insecure music director... ah the joys of leadership, different days, different challenges... I prefer the trains...
Oh man- that sounds like a frustrating day- joy of joys!! When do you get to travel home for some peace and quiet? E x
I get back tomorrow, then straight into another project, but at least that is in The Netherlands... however, I will be visiting sunny UK for our holiday very soon! We are spending a week in the Cotswolds (West of Oxford?) in a little village that I've forgotten the name of.... driving, taking the ferry over and then driving again!
Safe trip back tomorrow and very best of luck with the next project. Thats a beautiful bit of the UK you're visiting- i look forward to your posts about it 😁 E x
Chocolate on the Pillow - what a fine reward after a hard days travelling!
Genius recount of troubling day, I'm sorry to say it made me laugh all the way through which feels so very mean but you have a great talent for entertraining us.
After all the effort I hope the concert went well the next day!
#thealliance #witness
It would be a fine reward if I didn't have to wash it out of my hair! I wrote the entire post, not realising it was melting into the back of my head...
The concert went well thanks, no casualties!
This always makes me laugh when I travel and the systems can't handle the heat but I guess if we have a cold spell that would put use, well at least on the West into a spin. :D
Heh, if Perth had a snowstorm, I could just imagine the chaos!
@bengy We would be set, we have our thermals from the US but our little one would be frozen and still want to play in it.
the stress from travel is one of the few things that will get @insideoutle and I to argue mainly when something like those track works gets thrown in.
As for the heat you should come back to Perth for summer where 35deg is an average summer day and its not considered a heat wave until you have 4 days in a row over 40
Lol, I think you deliberately misspelled her name so that she wouldnt read that!
Yes, the benefits of travelling alone, you can just do whatever you want. Ice cream time... Sure!
The last few times we came back in summer when it was hitting over 40 C (5.24 trillion Fahrenheit), and we both melted! The kids (born and raised in Netherlands) are complete sloths in that weather as well! A few days ago, the yellow in NL reached the 30s and our oldest was saying it was just like Australia... Ha ha, not even close!