The Daily Grind

I have been getting a fair amount of traffic to this site from America, and using my stat counter I can see the blogs that have visited mine, so I always like to have a look. Quite a few blogs show photos of the area people live and the things they get up too. Even something boring like the daily routine can seem quite interesting to other people, especially when they live in another country.

So, this morning I took the camera with me and took a few photos of my journey to work. I live in Belper in Derbyshire in the UK, but have to travel to Coventry which is past Birmingham. The journey is about 60 miles, but I decided not to drive it as the traffic can be quite bad, so instead I get the train. I get up at 6am and drive down to the train station in Belper for the 7am train.

Walking to the train station.

I could walk from the house to the train station but that would add 20 minutes to my journey, so I drive. Lazy I know, but if you had to do this every morning, you would too, just to reduce the journey time.

Belper has a very small train station. It consists of just the train platforms, so there is no ticket office. The photo below was taken about 6.45am. About 5 minutes later there were about 30 people waiting for the train to Derby.

Once I get to Derby station I have to get the 7.20 am train that goes to Bournmouth. This train goes direct to Coventry which is handy. If there are no delays then I get into Coventry station about 8.20am. I actually quite like getting the train, as it means I have some time to myself in the morning were I can either read a book, work on my laptop, or just catch up on some sleep.

Once I get to Coventry I have a short 5 - 10 minute walk to the office. Part of that walk takes me through a small park. I think this is the only big of greenery in Coventry. The rest is just a huge concrete mess. Coventry used to be a very nice looking place until it was bombed flat during World War 2, so to rebuild it they just made everything out of conrete. Can't say I blame them, having your city bombed to pieces can't be too nice.


The picture below show the tower block were I work. Nice isn't it :-). This block is right in the center of town, so it's handy for the shops.


I get into work just before 8.30 am. I am normally one of the first people in. As you can see from the picture below, the office is fairly quite.


At the end of the day I basically have to do the journey backwards. I need to go from Coventry station back to Derby. Then Derby to Belper, then drive back home. I've only been at this job for 2 months, and so far the traveling has been quite bearable. Lets see what it is like after 6 months :-)