Another post-lockdown trip (or 2)

I've made a couple of trips since lockdown now. After my short hop up to Croydon for a job interview, I made my way down to the South Coast, for another interview (which I also didn't get). This involved travelling on 2 trains, changing at Haywards Heath in the middle for a train heading for Littlehampton, to take me to my destination in Shoreham-by-Sea. I didn't tick off any new stations on this trip, however I was shocked at some of the face mask positions, including as covers for the chin, rather than the nose and the mouth. I was also slightly put off by an individual who felt the need to eat a hard-boiled egg on a train. I even saw the "Thank you Key Workers" Class 700.

But my next trip took me back into London for the first time since lockdown. To be brutally honest, I was a bit wary. but I wanted to meet up (socially distanced of course) with a friend from uni. So I got the train to Croydon, before picking up tramlink to Wimbledon, where I met my friend, before getting a train to Waterloo. Here we changed for Waterloo East to cross the river to Charing Cross, leaving us with a short walk to Covent Garden, where we got food and sat and caught up. This trip meant I actually got the chance to tick off a few new stations: Wimbledon, Waterloo and Vauxhall. I didn't stop at any new stations on the way home. 

I've been to London on two more occasions since that day, and I'm actually going to skip over the first of these two trips, as it was the inspiration for something that I'm planning on doing tomorrow (check my social media for updates on the day), and I'll therefore mention it in next week's post. But on my last trip to London, I got the tube to Westfield London, which is near the old BBC television centre. I did this via Hammersmith, changing between the two stations. At the Piccadilly and District Line Station, I even saw a floral display reflecting the rolling stock used on the subsurface lines.

 I took the opportunity to go in the large Lush store at the centre, which was fantastic because my local Lush is tiny, and with really sensitive skin I've found I get on with their products really quite well. My local store is so tiny that, given the current social distancing guidelines, they've just put a table with a till at the door and you have to request what you want, whereas the Westfield one gave me the chance to browse. I picked up a couple of new products to try and I'm really enjoying using them.

  

On my return to Victoria, I had a bit of spare time before I needed to be home, so took the opportunity to get on a train to West Croydon via Crystal Palace, ticking off a few new stations on the way. From there, I simply took the tram back to East Croydon, from where I got a train home.

Stations ticked off: Battersea Park, Clapham Junction, Wandsworth Common, Balham, Streatham Hill, West Norwood, Gipsy Hill, Crystal Palace, Norwood Junction, West Croydon.

Having re-checked my spreadsheet, I've also made a mistake with a calculation, due to how my spreadsheet is set up, so there's a few extra stations added in to my total today.

I think I'll leave this here for today.

Station Count: 237

I'm Back!!

Well hello there everyone, and welcome back to my blog! 

It's been a while now since I last posted - I have been having a few technical issues which made it really difficult for me to be able to upload, but I'm back now and I think those issues have been dealt with for good. Or at least for the foreseeable future, anyway.

So, I'm going to continue my "Trains I've been on" series in the next few weeks, but I'm going to use today's post for a proper "get to know me" post. Those of who who follow me on twitter will know that a few weeks ago, I asked for numbers between 1 and 100 for an upcoming blog post. This is that post! I found a website online with 100 questions for a get to know me post, but I felt that 100 questions was probably overkill, so I'm going to do 20 of those, as well as adding the basic things like who I am!

I got some suggestions off twitter, and have used a random number generator to select the rest of the questions.

Name: Charlotte

Age: 21

Job: Currently unemployed, having finished studying Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry at the 

University of Nottingham this year.

Where I'm based: Sussex, in the South East

Am I left or right handed? I am right handed.

What's the thing I can't leave the house without? My purse and my phone. I don't use contactless payments on my phone, hence why I need my purse!

Am I a morning or night person? I'm more of a night person, but I'm not hugely either. 

Am I on time or always late? I'm always really early getting to places, unless it's a 9am lecture at uni, in which case I mastered the art of walking in at 8:59 am.

Have I ever gone camping! Yes! I'm actually a volunteer Guide leader with Girlguiding, and I was in the Scout and Guide society at University, so I tend to camping at least once a year. Except this year, obviously.

If money were no object, what would you get for your next birthday? Theatre tickets to see something in the West End. I'm looking forward to seeing Six, & Juliet and Come From Away when the West End reopens, and I want to see Frozen and Andrew Lloyd Webber's new version of Cinderella once they open (in theory next year).  I like theatre almost as much as I like trains, but theatre costs a lot more!

Was I ever a Scout or Brownie? I was a Brownie... I was also a Guide, which is the section of Girlguiding equivalent to Scouts. I then became a Young Leader and then an adult leader, and have never left!

How tall am I? I'm about 5 foot 1, maybe 5 foot 2.

Do I have children? I don't, but I'm only 21 at the moment, so I'm still young. I'd quite like to have kids one day, although it won't be for several years yet!

Do I/Have I played any sports? I used to swim when I was younger, in fact I swam for my school at local events on a couple of occasions when I was at primary school. I was also a member of the University of Nottingham Salsa dance team during my time at uni, which involved several competitions a year against other university teams. I missed a lot of the 2019-20 season due to injury though, which was a shame.

What is my favourite foreign food? I'm going to be really boring here, and say pizza. I'm not all that into spicy food, or that adventurous generally with food. I'm quite fond of tacos and fajitas too, and I make a pretty good pasta carbonara. 

What's my favourite snack? To be honest, it changes every so often, and often between sweet and savoury things. I'm quite fond of anything chocolate based, or party rings biscuits, or if I want something savoury I'd probably be tempted by a sausage roll. 

What is my shoe size? I'm a 4/5. It depends on the shoe and on what socks I'd wear with it. Annoyingly I have really wide feet though, so it can be difficult to find shoes that fit.

What phone do I have? I have a samsung galaxy A5 (2017). It's the first smartphone I've ever had, and I'm definitely an android fan. I'm not fussed about something being the most up to date phone and the A range is really reasonable in price.

What's my favourite colour? Pink! I've always been a fan of pink. It varies what shade, sometimes I'm more into brighter pinks, then other times I like a more pale pink and other times I'm a fond of an almost coral colour, that's more orange-based.

Do I have any piercings or tattoos? No, and I can't see that changing, although I'm quite a fan of temporary tattoos!

What's my favourite restaurant? For the variety of food and really student-friendly prices, I'm going to to go with wetherspoons.

Mac or Windows? Windows. We had macs in the music technology room at school, which I used for my GCSE music composition. I used them a couple of times a week for most of a year and I still had no idea what I was doing with them.

Am I more of a tidy person, or a messy one? I'm definitely a messy person. I can make a mess really quickly.  

What is one item on my bucket list? I'd like to stay at Corrour in Scotland at some point in the future.

And that's it for today's post. Check back here on Wednesday at 10am for a new post, about some of my post-lockdown train journeys, before the continuation of my series about rolling stock I've travelled on next Saturday at 10am.