Choo choo!

Yesterday I was required to be at Warwick Uni for the day, to find out as per usual, that the other person involved on my project work has done sweet FA. As usual I gave her all my results and hard earned literature review and spent the day having holes picked in my work and plans for the future. Thankfully, this time I could answer all of the questions and defended myself admirably.
By the end of the day (again as per usual) my brain was on meltdown, the theorising started in the car at 8.30 and didn't stop until 4.30. At this time I was offered a lift to the station which was soon countered by someone else's input that we wouldn't be able to move in a car at this time. A quick google map was thrust into my hand and I was told I had 20 mins to find the station which is roughly 20 mins quick walk away. Fantastic!
On arrival, very sweaty, I found the ticket office to be closed and a post it pad pretty much saying "sorry" on the door. There was no ticket machine, only what looked like a car park meter selling permits to travel. It read; please purchase a permit to the value of your desired destination. Well, how much to Sheffield please? I rang the helpline which was where everything just went wrong. I was told that the cost was £27 (which I didn't have in £ coins) and that if I got on the train without a permit for that value I would be fined a further £90, preposterous, but the dumb (I presume blonde) on the other end of the phone continued along this line of thinking until I hung up and paid £1 before jumping on a train. A train which took far too long to get from Canley to Brum New St.
At Brum New St. I ran to the ticket office to buy a ticket for the full value to Sheffield, the woman seemed pleasant enough and told me that I could catch the next train if I ran to platform 4b now. So I did. However, as the train pulled away I realised that once again the information I'd been given was bogus, yes this train was heading north, but not on the correct line. By now I wasn't happy and all hope of getting back to the foundry in time for a session was gone. The train manager printed me off an itinerary:

Canley 16:55
Birmingham New St.
Crewe
Stockport
Sheffield 21:08

What an absolute joke, I guess its pretty much down to me not checking the information I was given but I did expect (seeing as though she just sold me a ticket) she might know her stuff. Damn Brummies. I pity anyone that relies on trains more regularly than I.

Oh I can't remember if I've posted this but I passed my Mphil transfer interview, barely. I also went climbing at the weekend I'll write about that some other time.