Stuff and Nonsense

Sometimes when you need to go see a customer the travelling rather than the customer can fill you with a certain reluctance. Not so today’s meeting though. I had to visit my most delightful customer today and the travelling was a joy! The customer is in Leeds so I was able to drive to my mum’s in Warrington and spend a quiet evening with her before an early start to get the Transpennine Express to Leeds.

I like Leeds city centre (as a place to visit for business anyway). Out of the station a ten minute walk to another pleasant meeting, a few hours meeting then, thanks to the magical iRail application on my iPhone a gentle walk to the station in good time for a cup of tea and a short wait for the return train.

Getting out of the office doesn’t get much better. Leeds rail station is clean, simple and efficient, the announcements regular, accurate and clear. I had a 3G data signal for most of the journey so managed to catch up on email and project updates.

In fact the only slight downside on the train as I write this is the group of middle managers in the next bay noisily justifying their existence by making as many pointless phone calls as possible. The management babble is hysterical! Perhaps it’s a game to see how many synonyms they can use in a single sentence so they can avoid agreeing to, asking for, or actually doing,  anything at all while trying to sound as though the world rests on their flabby shoulders.

Since I’m people watching I may mention also the cool guy in the good suit. Immaculately dressed, he wears a slight frown and tensely grips his coffee cup as if it’s the only restraint preventing him from getting up and tearing the muddle [sic] managers limb from limb. I have the iPhone video app ready to go. If it all kicks off it’ll be on YouTube before we get to Warrington.

There is a geek sat to my right. He is typing something on his phone. He’s been at it a while. Looks familiar, fat bloke, no hair, seems to be enamoured of his iPhone. Wait, he looked at me! It’s ok, he’s gone back to his typing. I wonder if he is looking over my shoulder? Damn, he must be psychic. Every time I glance up to check on him, he’s already looking at me. He’s good at this. Scarily good; I think I’ll move seats…

…it’s no good, I’m on the other side of the train now and he’s moved too! He’s quick for a fat bloke. He’s still on my right though, he’s typing again! is he writing about me… “Saw this fat bloke who kept moving I think he thinks I’m typing about him”.

Hang on! Where’d he go? We came out of the tunnel and he just evaporated in front of my eyes!

Oh wait… I’ve been writing about my reflection. I knew he must have been cheating! No-one is really that fast.