Mat Harden

Milton Keynes Central

I had a little miscalculation with the trains last Thursday. There was work party in Hoxton. That was all fine, apart from me falling off the back of a stall in Cru.
So, I had a few drinks, and thought I’d better be on my merry way. I walked up to Old Street and got on the right tube, the wrong way. Changed at Moorgate and eventually made it to Euston. I don’t remember much from there actually. The next thing I knew, I’d woken up in Milton Keynes. The train was just about to pull away (heading for Northampton I think), so I quickly jumped off.

I was very confused. It was late (about 0140hrs), and I was tired. I waddled over to the opposing platform and studied the timetable. The next train back to London Euston wasn’t until 0331hrs.

A promising young basketball player and his choreographer girlfriend very nicely gave me a couple of taxi numbers. One said £50, the other hadn’t even heard of Berkhamsted. That £50 would only mean one extra hours sleep on top of the 2 I was clinging on to. So I decided against that and waited. I feel asleep on the way back to, but luckily the ticket inspector woke me.
Bedtime: 0415hrs.
I thought I’ve never follow in Andrew’s footsteps, but as it turns out, it’s very easily done.

A bit rough

Getting on to the train I got talking to some guy who’d been out in Milton Keynes but then fallen asleep waiting for his return train. Leaving him to wait about 3 hours to catch the same train as myself. As we sat down, the ticket inspector came round - at 3 in the bloody morning! - to check our tickets. I explained that I’d fallen asleep and really didn’t want to be in Milton Keynes. He shook his head, gave me back my ticket and turned to the other guy.

Whilst inspecting the other guys ticket he said ‘this is a day return’.
“Yeah” said Other Guy.
“Well it expired at 0230hrs” said the ticket inspector and charged Other Guy another £17 for a one way to Euston.

A bit chuffin steep I thought!!!

I start a new job tomorrow, working for Living Designs in Shoreditch. I’m very excited about it. I worked at Tarsus for nearly six years, creating sites such as Smart Labels Summit Europe, news and blog systems for Venues, and built their shiny Intranet. I’ve met a lot of interesting and fun people there, but my time had come to move on.

I’m very much looking forward to this opportunity and all the new challenges. I’ll have a good platform to implement my skills and ideas as well as learn lots from the people there. Hopefully I’ll be updating my portfolio very soon.

My poor mother fell down the stairs this morning and broke her ankle in 3 places. She then had to crawl to the phone and call her own ambulance. She’s since gone into surgery and had two metal plates put in. Should be out of hospital in three or so days.
I tore ligaments in my ankle playing football once. Seeing you own foot bend the wrong way can be a very traumatic and painful experience. Swelled up like a barrage balloon!
I’m going to take her some DVDs to watch in the hospital, but I’ll leave Misery at home.

Get well soon Mum!

Today is my 29th birthday, so I will be mostly playing video games and eating tasty foods. Dump your birthday wishes here and I’ll see how popular I really am.

Who needs plumbers?

Look out MacGyver, there’s a new master of practical science! Who needs a plumber when you’ve got a Vittel bottle and some chewing gum?

Last week I noticed a drip coming from my upstairs toilet. This drip became more frequent enticing me to it’s damp origin. Inside the cistern I found the plastic nut was leaking, causing the water to reach the overflow drain. I quickly discovered upon tampering with the nut, that this would not be a simple fix.

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