Quartday, Guire 6th 067.M42

There was an incident on the magrail today. I'm not entirely sure what it was, but we were somewhere around halfway between Central and the thirteenth precinct when we just stopped. Rather suddenly, too. Many of the passengers standing in the aisles were nearly thrown from their feet. I'm thankful I'd been early enough to get a seat, but in the end that almost turned out to be a hindrance because it made it nearly impossible to get to the exits.

We were stopped for nearly twenty minutes before an announcement was even made, and there was really nothing of use included in it. Just a half-hearted apology for any "inconvenience" caused, but no explanation of why we were just sitting there, or when we'd get moving again.

I like to make sure I give myself adequate time when leaving home of a morning. At least an hour and a half, if not two. If all goes well, I should be at work within the hour. But it rarely goes well. If the elevator is working and I don't have to descend fourteen flights of stairs, then it's generally a relatively quick walk to the Central interchange, but then there's the queues at the barrier gates, contending with the escalators, finding the correct platform. The last few weeks it seems that the Departmento Commutorum has been throwing dice randomly to determine which platform the train should come in on, which has been making every morning an adventure.

Once I'm on the train, it's generally not too bad. Some days I get a seat, some days I have to stand. Swings and roundabouts really. Standing usually means I can manoeuvre myself closer to the doors, which makes it easier to get out when we arrive at Thirteenth. Sitting means I'm at least off my feet for twenty to thirty minutes. But then, like today, I'm usually behind a jam-packed pile of humanity when the time comes to get off at my stop. Not so much of an issue when I've got my full allowance of time available - it's a bit more of a problem when we spend nearly fifty minutes sitting there with nothing happening and no updates as to why we aren't moving anywhere.

Thankfully we did get under way again before people started getting the urge to prise the doors open and make a break on the rails on foot. That would have just ended up slowing us up even further if they had. But we were very, very late getting into Thirteenth. Normally I would walk, it's another twenty minutes and the walk isn't too terrible. Thirteenth has some nice avenues with some of the higher vaulted ceilings, and as the buildings are all various Administratum offices, they're generally quite well-constructed and set a bit further back from the streets, so it feels a bit less claustrophobic than other areas. But this morning I had little choice. If I'd walked, I might have just made it in time if I'd hustled and run. But I'm not a fan of getting to work sweating under my robes. So a bit more of my precious bonus scrip went to hiring a motor-trike driver to deliver me in the right direction. Five minutes late to clock-in. Scribe-Master Waders had a strict word for me, though I was able to provide the update from the magrail feed proving that the trains had been delayed by an unspecified incident and she was willing to accept this. And as this was my first offence this year, I managed to escape with a warning not to let it happen again and an order to make up the deficit from my meal break. It could have been worse. I know that Scribe-Master Ordanse doesn't give warnings - if you're late, you're terminated.

The rest of my work day passed without incident. Kader has fit in well to the quality rota, I have yet to uncover a single mistake in any of my random checks of her work. The rest of the team are continuing to perform well. Their recent celebration for our record-breaking accuracy rate seems to have spurred them on, and they're still leading the floor in terms of accuracy. I have a new case-load of vox transmissions to transcribe, business dealings between minor traders and some of the material production facilities. Reports from Achlys tell of a new series of ore veins that have been uncovered, providing a new surplus for the tithe and hopefully allowing us to build up a bit of a buffer for any lean times that may be upcoming.

Goran's data transfer came through last night. He managed to find me Mei's mother's full name, her address and vox frequency. Daisy Xia-Yung. Hab 1528, Elysian Heights in the twenty-fourth precinct. So it's a bit of a hike from work, but not terribly far from Mum and Dad's place. Which makes sense. I think based on what Cordell has said in the past, he and Daisy met in schola so yeah. It's not a surprise she lives somewhere in that direction. I tried to call her during my break, but she didn't answer. She might have been at her own job, it was the middle of the day shift after all. If I can't get in touch with her via vox, I might try dropping around after work in a couple of days. I would like to call her first, and make sure it's okay, but we'll see.

Thought for the Day:The only thing separating civilized society from savages is regular maintenance.

Addendum: So I was just about to sign off for the night when I just got a call. I'd hoped it was Daisy, but it was actually Kader. She just asked me if I'd like to go to dinner with her tomorrow. I thought she'd said "us", meaning the row, so I said yes because I quite enjoy spending time with my teammates, but when I said I was surprised that she hadn't asked me while we were still at work, she said that she didn't want anybody else sticking their nose in our business. I didn't even know "we" had business. But I've said yes, so I'm not about to renege on that agreement. So I guess I'm going to dinner with Kader tomorrow.

Maybe I'll try to catch up with Daisy and Mei on Sextday. At least that's my off day, so I don't have to worry I'll be getting there after Mei's gone to bed.