The magic of 0700

If I leave the flat at 0700, I will be at my desk by 0815. It works very well. I get a copy of Metro, a seat on the first tube, a quick and quiet connection to the second tube line and another seat, then get off at Mainline Station with comparatively few people, pick up a latte and wait for my platform to be announced. I can get a fast train, which takes between 14 and 17 minutes, but I get a slow train which takes half an hour.

I prefer the slow train because I get to drink my coffee and play brickbat. Or read up on data protection legislation in Europe. Anyway, the shuttle bus leaves Work Station every half hour. Sometimes I can take the slow train if it means I don't just miss the shuttle bus. If I miss a bus I either have to wait for half an hour or shell out a fiver for a cab. I did that once this week when I had to be at work for 0745.

I have been leaving the flat between 0700 and 0710 since I started working at Work. When I've left it a bit later; what a difference! I did it yesterday. The tubes were both more crowded, everyone and his son needed to go to Mainline Station, the queue at the latte place was too long, and I ended up opposite some schoolgirls discussing the Geography field trip that might have been Biology too but none of them remembered. I didn't get much reading done!

I sat down to write this because I was *that* convinced the journey took nearly three quarters of an hour longer if I left the flat ten minutes later, and it turns out it's barely ten minutes shorter if I leave the flat at 0700. Weird.