eptivity

So I’m in London again, worky-working busy bee on a proposal due in a week or so. I rode the train down this morning, only my connecting train, at a delightful place called Watford Junction, was canceled. Leading to the following exchange with the ticket lady to whom I appealed for assistance:

Me: I’m supposed to be on the 9:51 train to East Croydon, but the announcement said it was canceled. Can you tell me the best way to London Kensington?
Her: The train leaves at 10 to.
Me: Sorry?
Her: It leaves at 10 to.
Me: Sorry?
Her: It leaves at 10 to.
Me: Sorry?
Her: It leaves at 10 to.
Me: Sorry?
Her: THE TRAIN LEAVES AT TEN TO.

At first I couldn’t understand what she was saying owing to the presumably bullet-proof glass the ticket counter is behind. Then once I figured out what she was saying (see IT LEAVES AT TEN TO), I couldn’t figure out what she meant. I didn’t know if she was saying something about platform 10 or platform 2 or that the train was leaving at 10 also or that this was her wacky British way of saying “10:02.” Plus, the train (see the one I’d just told her was canceled, which apparently I knew before she did and which she didn’t believe for quite some time) did not, in fact, leave at “10 to”; it left at “9 to,” which only added to my confusion because CLEARLY she could not be talking about the 9:51 train.

And okay, Internets, here’s the thing: if you repeatedly told someone the same piece of information approximately 600 times, and that someone repeatedly indicated her lack of understanding by responding with “sorry?” wouldn’t you, I don’t know, present the information in a different manner? Preferably one that makes any sense at all.

In order of preference, I would have accepted:
a) “It leaves at 9:51.”
b) “It leaves at 9 to 10.”
c) “It leaves at 9 till.”
d) “It leaves at 9 to.”
e) “It leaves at 10 to 10.”
f) “It leaves at 10 till 10.”
g) “It leaves at 10 till.”

And this is all beside the point that the train in question was actually canceled, (see not believing me), so the time in question didn’t matter in the slightest and I had to take a totally different train to London Euston, which is where the train I had just alighted from had been going anyway, and then take the tube, which was delayed, to within a half-mile of my hotel and walk the rest of the way.

Good, good times. It actually wasn’t bad because it was a beautiful day if one walked fast enough to keep warm, and I got to pop into Starbucks on the way WINNER.