Following yesterday’s National Sickie Day where an estimated 300,000 people in the UK skived off work, it seems that today the machines are following suit.

My train into London was delayed this morning due to signal failure. When I finally reached London Waterloo, I discovered that a power failure on the Jubilee line had created the usual tube chaos.

In desperation, I fought my way through the throngs to the Bakerloo line, only to be delayed there due to some unspecified problem or other, for 20 minutes. Eventually I switched back to the Northern line to be told that passenger congestion at bank station (caused by ongoing escalator problems) meant I was delayed further.

Finally, the train limped into London Bridge and I was forced to leg it into my office…only to find that the security system that reads pass cards was faulty and 3 out of 5 of the elevators were not working.

Eventually I made it to my desk, where my PC refused to boot correctly and then hung twice before I yanked out the power supply and proceeded to bash it repeatedly with the nearest solid object that came to hand (my desk phone).

But – two hours after I was normally at work and being productive, the system finally seems to have got it’s shit together. Who knows – maybe someone asked it for a sick note!

It’s sure been a memorable Shrove Tuesday

…and I’m not looking forward to going home tonight!

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