Day trip to Reading

I took the longish trip to Reading today to invigilate the first of my students' exams, which is basically just a fancy word for watching them to make sure nobody cheats. It turns out that I didn't have to be there at all because someone else was paid to do it. Either the policy has changed since I last taught there, or I was missing out on some money.

In any case I brought my camera with me in case I found anything interesting. It is Reading though, so that was a little bit difficult. I decided to take pictures on the bus during the trip from the University to the train station.
This is a pathetic shot, but I always think it's funny riding over a bridge that dates from 1697 and connects the residential area to the town center (or should I write centre) while looking out the window to see a bridge built to connect one area of the Oracle to another. What is the Oracle you ask? A mall.

To the right is the George Hotel, a nice Tudor building that happens to be the place that Aaron and I spent our first night in Reading after our 8 hour bus journey from Luton to Reading.

<-- The other, I mean, another Tudor building in Reading center situated quite prettily against a Burger King backdrop.

I don't know anything about the church --> but it is a nice change after the road full of stores built in the 70s.



<-- This place is just jaw droppingly weird. It's a small casino/betting shop with loads of decorative (if you're into gold lamee) crap in the window.
Got to the station and I was greeted with possibly the emptiest platform I've ever been on at Reading.

While riding along, I caught a glimpse of my favorite bunch of trees in the bits of countryside that are actually really nice in between Reading and London. I couldn't get a shot of them because we were on a low track and I was too slow but they remind me of a patch of trees on the road that connects Chincoteague to Assateague - a dense mushroom-like cluster of trees in a clearing.

Not to break with the day's theme of stupidity, I managed to get on the train that stopped at Slough. It's the place where The Office was set in over here. I think the US version did an excellent job at picking Scranton as it's equivalent.

Finally turned up at Paddington. You'll notice that all of the non-crazies are walking in the opposite direction to where I am; the direct route to the Tube. I mean, really? Do you see those freakin' ceilings?!