The Ascendant

Chapter Eleven

I'm all business as I stride down the train platform at Paddington. There are just nine days to go before I start my new job and today is probably the first day of execution, as opposed to mere preparation since I received the job offer.

Popping into the newsagents, I pick up a London A-Z and follow the signs for Underground connections, taking the downward escalator to join the hordes of people queuing up for tickets. The queue moves quickly enough, and before I know it I'm at the front, confronted by a baffling touch sensitive machine. I don't remember using this last time. Panicking, I press all the wrong buttons at least twice while the people behind me grumble and tut but decline to offer any help or advice.

Something has gone badly wrong: the words on the display are now all in Russian, or maybe Polish, but whatever these instructions may mean none of them remotely suggest 'Return ticket to Camden Town' so I give up, sweating and swearing, and head for an even longer looking queue.

The queue moves at a predictably slower pace but at least when I get to the front there's a man in a kiosk churning out tickets on request. Job done.

Having regained my sense of purpose, I head through the gates and follow the signs for the Bakerloo line. This worked just dandy on my last trip to London, so there's no reason to tinker with a trusty process. I'll catch the next train from here, pass through five or six stops, then change at Charring Cross for the Northern line. After that it's straight up the track for another half a dozen stops to Camden Town.

The underground station is a little like a rabbit warren, and everyone seems to be scampering in so many different directions that it's very easy to become confused, but I keep an eye on the signs and eventually arrive on the Bakerloo line platform. The electronic sign says there's a train due in one minute, and before I know it I've got a seat and it's on to the next station.

The train stops every two minutes or so, which in terms of distance must be no more than half a mile, but plenty of people are getting on and off at every station. It's now 7.45am, which allows me over an hour to get to Camden and find the first property I'll be viewing.

In no time at all we're pulling into Kendal Rise station but I can't find it on the map. It's not on my section of the journey anyway. I turn to a passenger and ask if this is the train to Charring Cross and although I think he's slightly startled to begin with, he seems like a friendly enough bloke, and tells me that I'm travelling in the wrong direction. It was an easy mistake to make, the man said, but my confidence is slightly shaken and I can't help but feel like a very small fish in an enormous and perplexing pond.

I re-examine the tube map and realise my mistake, making a mental note to check the direction of the train before leaping on in future. Maybe it was the speed at which the northbound train arrived in Paddington that threw me, but the next southbound train is equally prompt and before I know it I'm on my way again.

I count the stops to Charring Cross: twelve. I've lost ground and there's no longer time for a leisurely coffee before my first appointment but with a bit of luck I might still make it there on time. 

The train rattles along through the tunnels, getting progressively busier at every station, and by the time we reach Oxford Circus it's crammed with shoppers from the sales. Two stops later we've finally arrived at Charring Cross.

I hang around Charring Cross station for a while, losing my cool and my bearings as I do, but eventually I find my way onto the north bound platform of the Northern Line, and a few minutes later I'm swaying on a packed train like a seasoned Londoner. I glance over the schedule that I printed off in the internet cafe yesterday to remind myself of the day's appointments.

First up: 26 Marquis Street, NW1. Single bedroom in 5 bedroom house share, with 4 others. £440 pcm excl. (9.15am)

I'd rung about forty different advertisements in all, but many of the rooms were already taken so it seems you have to be fairly quick to snap them up. With that in mind, I have a wad of cash in my pocket to place a deposit on the first reasonably priced room I like the look of.