Saturday 17 April 2010

120 minutes

Every day I drive to work - no choice really it's 40 miles away and there isn't a train. The journey is mostly on the M25 and includes the special joy of the Dartford tunnel in the morning and the QEII bridge in the evening. Those of you who know the M25 will understand that I'm used to suffering. The journey usually takes about an hour. One morning this week it took three. And for two of those hours I was completely stationary.
I absolutely know how lucky I am that I wasn't in the pile-up that caused the delay, and I know that for some people that day things might never be the same again, nevertheless I can't help but feel that I lost two hours of my life.
And what might I have done in those two hours? I could have.....
...flown to Spain and ended up sitting on a beach rather than at my desk in Chelmsford.
...cheered the mighty Bromley FC as they won the FA cup after extra time (ok, maybe not)
...sat on the edge of my seat, screaming at the TV as Michael Schumacher claimed his first grand prix victory since returning (soon, I hope)
Or perhaps just watched The Railway Children for the twentieth time, dug another trench on the allotment, knitted several more rows of the baby blanket I'm desperately trying to finish by July, read a book, written a poem, or walked up the hill with Philip, sat on the bench in my favourite field and gloried in the view over the valley.

6 comments:

Philip Dodd said...

Like your choice of things you could have done. You just love a bit of digging don't you? I reckon you may have been a gravedigger in a former life. Or perhaps it was an earlier version of you that dug out the Great Union Canal.

Sharon Longworth said...

Ha - don't forget I was Mrs Sowerberry - see the earth descending on you, clod by clod.......

Talli Roland said...

Oh no! The M25 - I dread that motorway. I heard about the closure and pitied the poor people stuck in that. I dind't know it would be you!

Hope your weekend gets better.

Eryl said...

I used to spend hours stationary on the M8 trying to get into my office in Glasgow, but because I hated my job I rather reveled in long delays. I would just turn up the music and enjoy the fact that I might not get there for ages, and it wasn't my fault.

I also have a bit of a soft spot for the M25: it's the last leg of my journey (apart from a tiny bit of M2) to my sister's house. I did once spend about four hours hanging about in roadworks around the Dartford crossing becoming ever more desperate for a pee, so that nearly spoilt it for me, but all is forgiven now.

Liz said...

Every now and then I think about what I could have done if my time hadn't been wasted like that and then realize that I'm better not to think about what I could have done. But, wow - Spain in two hours sounds awfully nice.

Sharon Longworth said...

Talli - thank you. Our weekend did indeed get better - we had such a beautiful day in the sunshine yesterday that all miserable thoughts were banished completely.

Eryl - I too turned up the music - to which I always sing along far too animatedly - that brought some interesting looks from the poor souls parked around me in the traffic.

Liz - in some ways it's daft - I waste plenty of time in other ways and don't mind that at all - I think it was the lack of control or choice over those two hours that really got to me.