Tube Strikes

Sorry for the delay in posting, I've got reading week this week so I'm home for the week and have been pretty busy so far! I will tell you all about this week on Sunday though.

Well last week was certainly eventful! I've been saving up since I started this to go into London to visit one of my best friends, Emma. She's studying at Goldsmiths, so we had planned for me to visit her last Wednesday. Unfortunately the night before we realized that tube strikes were planned to go ahead the next day, but I was determined to get out of Uxbridge and into central, seeing as I had been saving all those weeks! 

I walked into town after my morning lecture, and got lunch for £1.98 from Greggs, before heading to the tube station. It was a lot quieter than usual in there and there were still loads of Metro newspapers in the stands at 1pm!!! Usually they've all disappeared by 10am! Anyway, luckily I had a loyalty card for 'Happy Days' which had enough stamps on it for a free regular milkshake...Chocolate Orange is definitely the best flavour! So after picking up my free milkshake I went to get my travelcard. The ticket office was closed so I had to use a machine, which meant it cost me £7.50 instead of £5 because the machine can't tell if you have a railcard or not...but luckily I got a £2.50 refund from an open ticket office in central. I have to say, the workers who weren't on strike were very helpful and I don't know what I would have done without them telling me exactly where to go! I eventually got to New Cross an hour and a half later, which I thought was pretty good for a tube stike. AND I discovered New Cross is WORSE than Uxbridge....yes...worse!!! I forget the amount of times Emma pointed to an alleyway and said 'a guy got mugged at knife point there last week'. She also introduced me to Iceland...I was in heaven!! Quote of the day from Emma..'I love it because the prices are simple...they don't have any pennies so you don't have to be clever to work out how much it all comes to'

I spent £3 in Iceland on 3 items...a huge carton of juice, a bag of 7 pears and 2 ginger cakes (2 for £1)! Bargain!

When the time came for me to head back to Uxbridge, I assumed the journey back would be as easy as the journey in...I was so wrong. I headed to Canada Water, where I had to get the Jubilee line to Waterloo...from Waterloo I wanted to get to Green Park to stop off at the ROSL clubhouse for a bit before I headed back home, but because Green Park was closed I had to get the tube to Picadilly Circus and then walk to Green Park from there. A stop before Picadilly Circus they announce that it has now closed, so I had to get off at Oxford Circus and then get a bus from there. What I didn't realize was the amount of people outside Oxford Circus. I exited the tube station to find myself amongst thousands of people...I couldn't see what direction I was going in so decided to walk to Green Park instead of trying to get on a bus. Unfortunately I walked up Oxford Street towards Selfridges instead of down Regent Street to Picadilly...oh dear. I eventually got to the club after about half an hour to 45 minutes of battling my way through thousands of commuters. And even worse than that was having to lug my huge heavy Iceland bag with a big carton of juice and 7 pears in it, all round London. I walked into the club a dishevelled mess...so I'm not suprised I got a few hard stares from some of the older members. After using their toilets, moisturiser, water and free internet to find out what was going on, I headed to Green Park station which was now open, to get the train back up to Oxford Circus...I had no idea what I was going to do when I got back to Oxford Circus...but luckily I was saved!! I was standing staring at the maps at Oxford Circus trying to work out how to get back, when I head my name being called...I looked around to see Alix walking towards me! I actually don't know what I would have done if she hadn't of found me...I probably would of ended up going back to New Cross and staying at Emma's. So we caught the tube to Paddington and the overground to Hayes...where Tom picked us up and drove us home :)

So I would like to say a huge thank you to Alix and Tom for saving me!!! Also because I agreed with Tom that in exchange for them saving me I would mention them on here :P

So that was my eventful day in Central...after that kefuffle I am NEVER travelling into central when there is a tube strike on!! I also found it very difficult to not just jump in a Taxi, and not buy anything while I was on Oxford Street! I was pretty much running past the shops and refusing to look in them because I knew that if I did I would be tempted :(

__________________________________________________________________

Budget:

£1 - Iceland - Tropical Juice

£1 - Iceland - Bag of 7 pears

£1 - Iceland - 2 Jamaica Ginger Cakes

£1.98 - Greggs - Lunch 

£1 - Hot chocolate at work
= £5.98

With the money I saved from last week I'm using it to go to the gym this week :)

Diet:

Monday:
Breakfast: Cereal - Blueberry Wheats with milk

Lunch: Mushroom cup a soup
Dinner - Sausages with Vegtables
Snacks - None

Tuesday:
Breakfast - Cereal - Blueberry wheats with milk
Lunch - Mushroom Soup
Dinner - Pizza
Snacks - None

Wednesday:
Breakfast - Porridge

Lunch - Greggs 

Dinner - Party Food (there was a party going on at the house when I got back from London)
Snacks - Pear

Thursday:
Breakfast - Porridge
Lunch -2 Pears

Dinner - Mushroom Soup
Snacks - a slice of ginger cake

Friday:
Breakfast - Porridge

Lunch - Cup a soup

Dinner - At home

Snacks - Pear