It vas leaves on ze line!

Taking the train to Lewes for my interview this morning, I was asked to show my ticket the moment I stepped onto the platform.

Anyone who has ever been to St. Leonards Warrior Square railways station (and escaped with their life) will know that this is unheard of. Southern Rail has been losing money hand over fist ever since I moved down here because there is very rarely, if ever, a guard on the platform and nobody ever asks to see your ticket.

It's usually the same on the trains too unless you get an early morning train to London or something. You can hop on the train at Ore and hop off the train at West St. Leonards without having to worry about someone checking to see if you've paid your fare.

I'm not saying that this is something I did a lot, because I didn't. Usually I'd be disappointed that I'd spent money doing the honourable thing by purchasing a ticket, only to be left unchallenged for the entire journey and feeling that I'd wasted some cash on what could have been a free ride. And yet I kept buying tickets. Read into that how you will.

But this morning, like I said, I was hardly out out of the ticket office when a big guy in a long black coat asked to see my ticket. Because he was standing right in the doorway and moved back a little as I approached, I thought he was apologising for standing in the way, but when he repeated himself I had to explain that I needed to collect a pre-paid ticket from the machine behind him.

The guards on the train were also very vigilant, actually taking time to check each ticket they were shown instead of just nodding every time they saw a flash of orange in a customer's hand.

We used to joke about how the train service would be much more efficient if the Gestapo ran it instead of Southern Rail, and that eventually drivers would be shot if trains were delayed ("Nein! Nein! Bitte! It vas leaves on ze line!"). I had to hide a smirk as the long black coats of the suddenly-efficient train guards on the station seemed to take on a humorous, and simultaneously dark, familiarity.

The interview seemed to go well enough. On the questionnaire I was stumped when asked if a PSU converts power from AC to DC or vice-versa, but I think I answered all the other questions to a satisfactory degree. I should know whether I've got the job or not by the end of the week.