The big day out

They say that beginning university study, particularly enrollment day, is a big adventure. I think that the powers-that-be may have gotten something lost in translation when predestining my day.

Today I left the house at approx 6,40 am. I got home at approx 6,40 pm.

I caught the 7,07 am train from Gosford to the city to enrol in uni. I met Sister at Central and headed to uni at about 9 am and after several hiccups I left, fully enrolled, at 11. When I got to the enrollment hall I went to the front of the line (as prearranged by the Disabilities Unit) and asked to see someone (also prearranged). This someone took me to the faculty office--pausing briefly to ask if I had gotten my forms and promptly shaking her head when I said "no, I was told to go to you first"--to enrol. I followed her through the labyrinthine halls of the arts faculty and filled out the form for a guy who was way too disinterested for his own good. That bit went without a hitch. He showed me out and I discovered, to my dismay, that the woman had led me around the block to get to the arts faculty when she could have taken me down a lift that was next to the hall.

Once that was done I was sent to get my student card. I handed my forms over to a semi-cute guy who read them, furrowed his brows and asked his mate (much less cute) a question. Then Semi-cute stamped my forms. He stamped a transport concession form too. You beauty I thought. Less-cute said "he's not entitled to that because he's only part time". Fuck you I thought. (One is only entitled to transport concessions if one is a full-time student. However students with a disability can apply to get that requirement waived if they are part-time solely because of their disability). I explained all this to the two guys and Less-cute said "oh, are you disabled?", glanced at my walking stick and suddenly looked embarrased. "Oh well if you're going to get it anyway then you may as well do it now". So I took all my forms to the next room.

The next room was set up with several little computers each with their own screen and webcam thingy to take photos for student cards. I sat down and after having explained the whole part-time-yet-entitled-to-transport-concessions bizzo my photo was taken. The computer froze. The IT guy came and furrowed his brow and said it would be best if I went to another workstation. Again I explained the transport situation, again my photo was taken, again the computer locked out. Third try and I got my card.

We went and grabbed lunch in the QVB and headed to Town Hall station where I read on the notice board "All North Shore, Northern, Central Coast and Newcastle trains terminate at Hornsby due to bushfire. There are no road busses due to road closures. Passengers should postpone travel until the rail line is reopened". This is where my day really started to go pear-shaped. I called Cal for advice and he said I should get a bus to Palm Beach and then the ferry over to Ettalong and he'd pick me up and drive me the rest of the way.

It appears that everyone else had the same idea.

After a lot of running around trying to find the bus-stop (I had called the info line and was told to go to the corner of George and Bathurst Streets, but she neglected to tell me precisely which of the eight possible corners this could be), I boarded the bus. "There's a three hour wait for a ferry at the other end" the driver said. Fuck it I thought. The bus was packed. It's only saving grace was the three gorgeous guys sitting in front of me. Thank God for sunglasses is all I can say. As it pulled into the ferry wharf there everyone groaned as one. The line was at least 100m long. At least. I was dying for a cigarette. My legs were killing me. I very nearly cried.

I did the only thing that a man in my situation could do. I had a smoke, bought a bottle of coke, took some pain killers, and pushed in the line. With the walking stick in one hand and the cigarette in the other I had no spare hands for the bottle of coke so I put it in the pocket of my shorts. When I got to the line I sat down and opened the bottle. I was tired, sore and now sticky and brown too.

Allow me to digress for a second to berate Cityrail. The trains were shut down yesterday at around lunchtime and remained so all night. This morning they opened the line long enough for all of the commuters on the Central Coast to go to Sydney and then promptly closed it again at 10am or so, effectively trapping thousands of commuters. For those unfamiliar with the Central Coast and/or Sydney regions there is, for all intents and purposes, one road and one train link between Sydney and the Coast (there are a few other roads but they are so totally and ridiculously out of the way that they don't bare mentioning). The only other less ridiculous link between the two is the Palm Beach-Ettalong ferry. This is why there were hundreds of people lining the foreshore. If Cityrail had have kept the rail line shut for those few hours the none of this would have happened! Many other passengers I spoke to agreed with me.

I made my way down the wharf and stopped about a dozen people short of the boat, which was now full. I waited another half hour and boarded the ferry. Thirty minutes, a pleasant ride and $4.50 later, I was on the Central Coast. During all this, my phone battery ran out so I had to have it turned off until the eleventh hour. This also meant no music.

I was tired, sore, pissed off, brown, sticky and musicless.

I called Cal but he didn't answer. He finally called me back and picked me up. I could hear the alleluia chorus in my head as he pulled in to the carpark. We walked through the front door almost 12 hours after I'd walked out.

All this for two hours' worth of enrollment. I wonder what the actual course time will be like?