Snow vs the Train: Murphy's Law and my big meeting on Thursday

Hey People

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, but nothing too interesting has happened since Tuesday. ON Thursday, I had to go to Utrecht again, this time for a super meeting. It had snowed the previous night (snow is something I don't miss from Canada) and I soon realised the uber efficient Dutch Trains cease to be when there is snow. Normally, the trains here are great and if it says it leaves at 835, it will be gone by 836. Any given Train comes about every 30min, but to some of the bigger destinations, you can sometime take another train that also stops there. To get to work from Enschede to Borne, I usually take the 835 train and I arrive in Borne station at 853. The trains are like the c-trains at home, but with 5-8 compartments that are interlinked together. They are also separated into first and second class. The first class has more comfy seats and just a better chance of having a seat but obviously, a bit more expensive. For me and most people, it's not worth the extra money and 2nd class is just as good. Also, Enschede is the end station so we usually get a seat anyways. Lastly, when I go to Utrecht, somebody usually drives, and so I get there in about 90 min or longer with traffic.
Anyways, on this particular Thursday, my co-worker didn't want to drive because of the snow. We only got 5 cm, but up North, people were snowed in. Anyways, I had to get up extra early and met her at Enschede station to catch the 727 train. Jose is usually the earliest one of us to leave as he leaves the house by 650. Anyways, when I got to the station, he was still waiting for his train since it was experiencing a delay of 30 min. Our train was the "inter-city" train was is normally the most efficient and is the one that goes to the airport (takes 2 hours). In addition, it is not the first time I went to Utrecht via the train. My sharp eyed readers may note that in my second week I went to NATCO II and that was in Utrecht and we went by train.
Our train left on time, but at our next stop, the first of many unfortunate events occurred. The doors to the train stopped working. This stop was at Hengelo, a smaller city, but a major hub (like City Hall station to transfer between Sommerset and Whitehorn train) so lots of people needed to get off and on. Only the doors at the opposite ends to the train were working, so it was amusing to watch people make there way between the carriages to either end to get off and on. That meant are train was delayed for 10min as a tech had to be called. 10 min later we left Hengelo. 3 stops later, are train stopped at another station. The driver announced over the PA that the warning signal lights and the barriers that come down to stop traffic have working from here to some distance. 20min later, The train announced that it was to go back to Enschede, but people can get off at the station before (Amelo) and switch to another train which goes along a different route and will bypass the parts (this is mainly for people going a lot further like to the airport and Amsterdam. For us, we were suppose to ride it another couple of stop to Amersfoort where we would switch trains, and travel another 15min to Utrecht central station. However, with this detour, it would be the equivalent of going from Anderson to Whitehorn but has to get off at Victoria park, wait for another Dalhousie train that'll take us to the end of downtown, Get off at 7th street station, catch a Sommerset train to go back towards City Hall and finally switch trains at city Hall to go to Whitehorn. All this instead of just getting off the first train at Olympic Plaza, and getting on a train at City Hall. At this point, my colleague decided to call off our attendance of the meeting since we'll be super late if we take the detour. The train arrived at Amelo when a new announcement came on the PA saying that one track has been fixed, and this other train will be going to Amersfoort. We excited got on that one, thinking that we might actually make it to part of the meeting. However, it was at this time that one of my gloves fell out of my pocket and was never seen again. They were the leather ones I never wore in Calgary, but often over here. Luckily I still have my wool flip mittens I usually have.
WE arrived in Amersfoort and waited for the last train that will take us to Utrecht. As we been use to, the announcement came over head that our train was delayed for about 20min. We finally arrived in Utrecht station at 1030. Taking a quick intra-city tram, we arrived at our meeting at 1110. We were more then an hour late =(
Anyways, the meeting was alright, all in Dutch as usual. Also, I realised it was the same presentation and content as the last 3 meetings I been to, just this time with a bunch of new people. I always look forward to lunch at this meeting, and was quite happy when we broke for lunch 30min after I arrived with my colleague. Rest of the day went by quick, and I started noticing other people start to nodd off (there were only 12 of us in a round table, so very noticeable). Another college of mine drove us most of the way back to Enschede and we took a train the rest of the day. And that was my adventure on Thursday =)

LEs