Concert: York 2

I spent most of today on a training course, but got home earlier than normal. And the York 2 concert in the Wimbledon International Music Festival wasn't on until 7.45, so I figured I'd have time to eat beforehand.

While my dinner was cooking, I looked up directions to St. John's Church on Google Maps. In another of their ill-advised "improvements", they've removed the advance journey planner, y'know. So now you can only look up details for a journey departing immediately. Which is fine, as long as (a) you're not trying to look up details in the middle of the night, say, when the Tube isn't running, and Google Maps now doesn't include that as a travel option in that case!: or (b) the journey won't differ in some other way from when you look it up. Ah yes, the perpetual disimprovement of Google Maps. If it ain't broke, break it!

Anyway, at least you can still get walking details from it. From which I gleaned that the whole thing would take me just over half an hour, including a walk of 12 minutes from Wimbledon Station. Well, I know I can beat their walking time estimates if I need to - which was good, since I did leave a bit later than I'd have liked. I raced to West Brompton, and to the Westbound platform, and imagine my relief when a train pulled in just as I arrived! I jumped on and sat down. And as it pulled out, the announcer said it was going to.. Parson's Green. It was terminating five stops from Wimbledon.

>-(

So we all disembarked there, and waited for the train that the driver promised was coming behind us and going the rest of the way. And the platform indicator promised it was 3 minutes away.. then 2.. then 1. It was 1 minute away for a very long time, along with another train that was supposed to arrive simultaneously with it - but eventually disappeared from the board. One did finally arrive, and chugged its relaxed way into Wimbledon. They're always quite easygoing about getting to the end of the line, you know..

It was nearly 7.45 when we were let off and I nearly gave myself a coronary running for the concert. Note: there are Oyster card readers at Wimbledon station, that say "touch for entry and exit". This is completely untrue. You only touch if changing from, or to, a mainline train there. Thing is though, you can't see the exit barriers by the time you come to these readers, so it's impossible to tell, and I did touch out on one of those. Luckily, TFL seems finally to have dealt with the problem, and when I touched again at the barrier to get out, the barrier let me out without a quibble.

I remembered my directions, complicated as they were. Right from the station. First left. First right. First left. Third right, along Spencer Hill. (No, there isn't an easier way, I checked.) As I wheezed along - for the sake of it now, I knew I'd be late - I did wonder whether Spencer Hill was named for a reason. When I turned onto it, I could confirm that yes, it is a hill, and I had to climb up it. The church eventually materialised on the left - I could hear the strains of the concert before I could see it.

I did consider just listening from the outside - it was milder tonight. I moseyed over to the door, where a sign instructed latecomers to head round the side and await a suitable break. But, d'you know, whatever it was they were playing, I didn't like it, and I couldn't be bothered. After a short while, I called it a night and made my way back to the station.

Where all the information boards apologised, but said they couldn't give us any information. So I waited in the middle, where I could see all four possible platforms that I would depart from - and I got on the first train that appeared. When another appeared on the adjacent platform, our driver was good enough to tell us that that one would leave first, so we all changed. Not that it was a speedy journey home - we had a couple of unscheduled stops, and the driver kept apologising about a signal failure earlier. Indeed, I hear delays on the District Line were severe tonight..

Let's hope for better luck tomorrow night, when I'm headed to hear the London Philharmonic at the Royal Festival Hall. I'll go straight from my course, this time. And I think I'll stay in on Thursday, and cram for Friday's exam..