Proper notes to right up when I get back to work
Well, my notes from the journey there:
New train spacious and clean, but not any more comfortable than the existing modern Folkestone to London trains. First impression: a bit like Heathrow Express. Was nice and clean until passenger nearest to me spilt his coffee anyway. Return ticket was 57 quid including my tube fare but that is a one off peak service (regular daily use must work out a bit cheaper), and it's only 53 mins from Folkestone to London. First time of trying to blog using the iPhone, I might switch to voice memos in a bit and Icertainly have a trusty spiral bound for real notes during FOWA. Bet I am the only delegate without a laptop.
Nearly at Ashford, not felt that fast yet. Stopped at Folkestone West too but not Westenhanger (my stop for work. Any ticket can ride high speed one until this point, but THE FUTURE starts at Ashford, and all the cheap tickets have to get off. Then, non stop to Ebbsfleet and then St Pancras.
I have extra reliance on tube using this service, generally I used to walk everywhere I needed from Charing Cross or Cannon Street, though today I am High Street Kensington bound, which would have been a tube ride anyway.
Ticket inspector - or should I say "train manager" - has an merkin accent over the tannoy, but strangely not in person. There are a lot of announcements, just like on Heathrow Express. Not a long journey though so it's not like I'd be trying to sleep anyway. The man opposite me has same shirt on. The same shirt as me I mean.
Ten mins from London now, just passed Dagenham Dock station. Is that not Essex? GPS is not working on the train so I can't check. The train is FAST, but then a normal train on the normal route would be equally nippy if it did not stop, maybe even faster, why is this not being publicised or trialled? Would have been a lot cheaper... Ebbsfleet must be the key here.
Slight aside while I'm here, The Sun is clearly following the mood of it's idiot readers in switching loyalty (again), so why are people acting as if the are opinion forming or leading?
Oh did we even stop at Ebbsfleet? Missed it, at St Pancras now, to the tube! It's actually a bit of a walk from St Pancras to the Circle line where I need to be...
More later, though I'm saving my actual conference notes for work.
💬 More of my notes from FOWA 2009
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in A small town, Kent. Wed to Clare + dad to two, I am a full stack web developr, and I do javascript / nodejs, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubbing, running, eating, home-automation + other diy stuff, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.