Lunchtime thoughts

I'm sitting on my lunchbreak in a coffee shop trying to keep warm and shelter from the rain with my skinny mocha. It's on days like this I miss working in Canary Wharf. There just don't seem to be any good places to sit round here indoors and in the warm, unless you want to pay. The shops are rubbish too.

It's funny, yesterday we obviously went to the marathon, we went to a variety of spots - the ones I usually go to though - to try and catch a view of my man running. Canada Water/Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe, Canary Wharf, Embankment and Westminster.

I found as we got to Canary Wharf I'd missed it. Now I'm no train spotting enthusiast or fan of station architecture, but I felt sad as we arrived there.

Later as we navigated the maze-like system of the shopping centre - in order to simply get to the other side of the road for a better view - I felt sad. I remembered my lunchbreaks of sitting in the warm centre reading my book when it was cold and bitter outside. I remembered numerous lunches spent mooching round the many shops and the successful shopping trips on a lunchbreak where I could buy most things I needed.

My sister in law suggested I can go there any time to see the shops, but it's not the same I argued. It's ideal for lunchbreaks but I wouldn't want to go there on my weekends I admit.

So, yes, the marathon. Well my man completed it, in 5 hours and 19 minutes, a 40 minute improvement on last week's run. He's gutted he didn't get a sub-5 hour time, but after all he's been through I think he did amazingly!

However, the ongoing issue of raising the funds remains, we're still on less than £1,000 so over £600 to go. I'm trying not to dwell on it for now and hope over the next few weeks he secures it. After all he's just managed to complete two marathons and I want him to enjoy being employed again!

As for the marathon and London's transport system and organisational skills, I said I'd let you know.

Hm, well, overall the service itself was good. There weren't any line closures impacting on the journeys we had to make. Granted we had to queue to get into Canada Water, but it did progress relatively quickly. Although one of the station worker's manners left a lot to be desired when my Aunt simply asked him if there was a toilet in the station.

However, the organisation in the meet and greet area was horrendous. Normally we exit Whitehall and join everybody in the meet and greet area on the huge expanse of gravel/sand (whatever it is!) Unfortunately this year for those running over 5 hours the end was somewhat wet as it started to rain (yet again, what is it with all this rain of late, these April showers have featured enough now I feel!)

Meet and greet was a disaster, people leaving and arriving were let in/out the same route and so it was a mass of people barging all over the place in wet coats and carrying massive umbrellas. Not fun. Even those who'd just run the 26.2 miles had trouble getting back, my man waited 20 minutes in the rain just to get to his family.

Trying to leave was the same mess, no systems, no organisation, just people stuck all trying to go in different directions with nobody able to move!

As we finally emerged I noticed a lot of police and talk of crowd control so perhaps later on (when there'd be much less people anyway) they did sort something out.

My 'London is rubbish at organising thing's' rant continued this morning when it seemed yet again Greater Anglia trains couldn't cope with the simple Monday morning rush hour.

That was fun. What was even more entertaining was how our driver kept highlighting this was the Olympic host for 2012 as we neared London. He was telling this to a train packed full of grumpy commuters, on a train that was running over 20 minutes late on a standard working day. Not the best of timings...

Anyways time is getting on and it's time for me to brave the wet, busy streets of the city and get back to work. I've got more to say re my weightloss/exercise/diet plan though so you may well hear more from me later on...