My back hurts! I have been out delivering Labour newspapers again, in one of the hilliest parts of town. It seems like each house has a 10-metre path with steps either up or down, and it is a notorious route. Normally the kids offer to deliver leaflets (for a small bribe) but I wanted to do these myself for the exercise.

Its not just that I am, lets face it, overweight, but exercise is also good for relaxation, and by the time I got home today I really did need to be calmed down. Not for any real specific reason, but today the normal background stress factors seemed to get to me more. The journey into London was slightly worse than average, and the work itself was dull. The journey home was poor: I left in time to catch the early train, but that was cancelled so I had to wait ages at Clapham and then the train was more full than usual because of the earlier cancellation.

I think I could probably put up with the work problems (poor lighting, poor ventilation, the room I work in used as an ad hoc meeting room and short cut, appalling man-management and communication skills of senior management, etc.) if not for the various frustrations of the railways including:

• People with laptops
• People with mobile phones who shout
• People with loads of bags who think their luggage deserves a seat more than other passengers
• Ticket inspectors who wake you just as you drop off
  (Why can’t they just employ staff at the stations?)
• People who throw themselves onto a bench seat so that anyone else on the seat gets bounced up
• Trains getting delayed or cancelled
• Not getting told that a train is cancelled until right after an alternative service has left the station
• People who cross their legs so that everyone else has less legroom and so that their cruddy shoes keep touching the trousers legs of anyone sitting opposite
• Crowded platforms. Especially when the train comes in, everyone stands back to let people off, and then someone comes from nowhere and jumps straight on.
• Backpacks which stay on the backs of people who keep turning round and walloping everyone else
• Tiny suitcases with wheels and a handle. Unless they contain gold bullion or solid lead they surely can’t be too heavy to carry, but they are so small that you can’t see them until they crack you on the shins
• People with so little imagination that they cannot survive any part of the journey without reading a newspaper, even when its standing room only and the only way to read a paper is to keep flapping it someone’s face.
• Filthy looks when you indicate that you would like to sit in a seat occupied by luggage and shopping rather than stand up for the journey
• Elbow monsters – people who seem to have at least 5 elbows

There is more, but I am getting stressed again just thinking about it, especially when I remember that it costs me over £200 to ‘enjoy’ all these things and my season ticket ran out today so I have to fork out for one tomorrow.