neverwhere | (no subject)

Last night was an utterly miserable experience that I hope will never be repeated ever again. But of course I'm sure it will. *le sigh*

I don't know if you've heard but London suffered a freak snowstorm yesterday that caused absolute chaos -- everything was buried under a foot of snow, ice, and sludge. Nothing worked, there were no trains, no underground, no buses, no taxis, nothing. A tree hit the train tracks in Ashtead, one stop away from my town which not only completely stopped service, but killed a little girl and injured several others. People spent 12 hours on the M25 motorway trying desperately to get home, or spent the night in crowded train stations because they had no other mode of transportation. When I say there was chaos, I am not exaggerating.

Thankfully my saga was not as dreadful some, but it was infuriating and more than slightly worrying.
I went to the bus stop after rehearsal to catch the bus to Stanmore underground station, which then takes me to Waterloo train station so I can catch my train home. At least, that's the usual plan. I was so excited when it started snowing, I couldn't wait to get out and play in the freshly fallen and ohsosquishycrunchy powder. So I danced about in the snow for a while, and then made my way to the stop. There were about 10 schoolkids having a snowball fight, hitting cars as well as people, which was annoying but tolerable...except for the fact that when the bus finally came they continued the fight. On the bus. I just couldn't believe it -- the kids inside were still doing battle with the ones outside, with the outside ones opening the backdoors on the bus (there's a button on the outside so that disabled people can come in that way) and throwing enormous chunks of snow into the bus (and onto the people in it!) and the inside ones taking the thrown snow and hurling it back at their friends outside. And because the bus was stuck in massive traffic, this went on for *45 minutes*. The bus became completely covered in wet slush, and because there wasn't any heater on the temperature inside was freezing. I still can not believe nothing was done about those kids -- god knows I wanted to throw them off myself, but I was too busy huddling in my corner trying to keep warm. I hope those brats catch pneumonia.
The sudden snow and strong icy wind made the roads freeze almost instantly, so driving was not treacherous and movement almost non-existent. I had about six miles to go to reach the tube station, which in normal afternoon traffic takes about 20-30 minutes. Yesterday it took 3 fucking hours. And guess what greeted me when I finally arrived at the station? Yes, that's right -- there was no service on the underground. Hurrah! So here I am, stuck in north London with no way to get home to southern Surrey, there's a blizzard outside and I can't feel my hands and feet. Oh, and my mobile battery was about to die, so I couldn't risk calling anyone. Needless to say, I was extremely worried about what was going to happen. Luckily the entrance to the station was still open, so I didn't have to stand outside in the cold, but if the trains didn't start running they were going to close the whole thing and I'd be out on my own with nowhere to go. The thought of sleeping on the pavement outside in the snow became a frighteningly real possibility. It's times like this that really make you thank whatever gods you believe in that you aren't homeless. There were still Underground workers at the station, and they said that there might be service again at around 10pm, if we were lucky. So I waited. What else could I do? And then it became 11pm, which worried me even more because even if the tube trains did start running again, I would still be stuck as my last train from Waterloo leaves at 11.15pm. Finally I decided to risk using my phone, and got my local taxi to send a car up to fetch me, which, unbelievably, they did. I was afraid for a while that the driver would get stuck and abandon his car because the conditions were so terrible, as I had heard other people were doing the same, and lots of empty cars were now crowding the already messed up roads. But thankfully he did arrive, around 10.30pm (the underground station had closed an hour earlier) and I made it home about 20 past midnight. And hey, it only cost me 70 quid. *meep*

I bet you feel your day was a lot better now, dontcha. *grins*

And for a complete change of mood...
Here are some lovely pictures I've been meaning to post:

-- Those cheeky Marauders pestering a very smarmy Snape. This scene is so cute.
-- An adorable cartoon of Amanda and Kurt from X-Men: Evolution. Awwww. :)
-- The best picture of Billeh and Dom ever. Is it just me or does Dom's expression scream 'love' in bright neon letters? So utterly sweet and wonderful.
-- I can't remember who asked for it (

aebon perhaps?) but here is the full picture of the anime self portrait that is my default LJ icon. I'm such a cute lil' witch!
-- For

shortypenguin: Richard Mayhew from the BBC miniseries Neverwhere. And yes, the screencaps are my own, I can make more if you want them. (See? I told you I had a present for you. :)

Please welcome new friends

deepinthedark and the unspeakably cool

ladyjaida. This girl is absolutely amazing! (And if you read her latest entry, you'll see that all her teachers think so too. ;-)
Ooooh, and speaking of amazing people,

ragdoll is definately one of the most amazing people I know. Not only is she friends with the famous LucyAnne who updates The Dreaming and LadyConstantine who's had the only Neverwhere site for years, but she corresponds with Neil, AND he actually has one of her books on his shelf. Her book on HIS bookshelf! How cool is that!! I am just in awe of her now. :))

I wish I had something more intellectual to add to this entry, but I'm too sleepy now to make the effort. Besides, this entry is bloody long enough, isn't it! *giggles*

I will mauled by a mob of midgets.