Dark Start

So, on Thursday, because I'm car-less while nice garage try to diagnose problem, I am reliant on public transport.  I need to be in early, i.e. 7ish and buses do not begin from my nearest bus stop, early enough to get to the place I need to be to catch the 6.12am to the city of my work.

I wake at 2am and listen to the torrential rain which is tip-tapping, in tap shoes, against my bedroom windows.  I listen for a further 90 minutes before I get up.  I'm stressed, so I'm not at all hungry but I'm trying to be "healthy" and so I make my lunch to take with and prepare scrambled eggs for breakfast.  I also have time to paint my nails and put a wash load in.

I leave for work at 5.35am.  Thankfully, the rain has abated and as I walk through my street, and the next one, a few hyper sensitive security lights click on, which I am very glad of as it's pitch dark.  I'm carrying my usual 2 litre bottle of spring water, lunch, 3 clementines, plus various useless stuff in my suddenly heavy handbag.  I have a, fast paced, 25 minute walk ahead of me.

Five minutes away from home, it's now 5.40am and a, "gentleman", speeds past me on a 30mph road doing around 45mph, hits the gutter and soaks me, both trouser legs, the left side of my jacket up to the collar and half of my bag.  Not proud to say that I swear at driver... twice, then actually gesticulate to said driver.  Something I have never done before in my life and hopefully will never do again.  So, do I turn back, head home and change soaked trousers?

I decide that the, probably 15 minutes it would take to turn back, change and head back out again, would make me miss the bus to work so I continue... wet, even the inside of my jacket pockets are damp.

I continue to the end of the road, turn right and walk along the path to towards the bridge.  With 15 minutes to go, I am in complete darkness, a lonely and deserted pathway with a grassy bank to my left and bushes to my right.  It's winding and feels endless, surely this is not safe.  I had the forethought to bring with me my car keys which have a tiny LED torch attached to make finding a key hole easier.  It's better than nothing but this is not a place anyone, man or woman, wants to be.

Street lighting is out, no doubt due to cost cutting, for 15 minutes of my walk, it's the most scared I've been... on foot, for quite a while.

I finally see a major supermarket which is if course,  brightly lit, this is less than 10 minutes before my bus stop and it's the most amazing oasis of light and a very welcome sight.  Two people are around 200 metres in front of me, one tall, the other smaller.  They seem to be walking in front of me but then the taller, the male, begins to walk towards me.

The male continues to walk towards me but keeps looking over his shoulder, the smaller of the two, the woman must work at the supermarket and he has walked her along the dark and potentially dangerous path.  We pass each other and I continue on the last leg of my journey to the bus stop.

I arrive at the bus stop with about 12 minutes to go and so I would not have had time to to get home to change.  I pace, in the wind, while I wait for the bus, I feel cold, at least in those places which are damp from the soaking.

Bus arrives and I board, pay, plug in my iPod to keep me company.  I listen to Desert Island Discs, a stalwart of British radio and it actually, despite the situation and my dampness, brings a smile to my face, more than once.  (Thank you A & D.) 

I arrive at the other end, alight and set off on my 15 minute walk to the office.  I get to work at 7.15am, I am damp, and exhausted, and so my day begins.

With much ringing around and explaining to my boss, I can get the afternoon off to take sick car, to the garage.  Before I get to do that, I need to do the same journey, only in reverse.