Mew

[baratron]

AARRGHH!! I'm such an idiot!

There's this 'event' going on in the UK at the moment where you can finally download the rare Pokemon Mew onto a Game Boy Advance cartridge. You have to visit a random Toys'R'Us somewhere in the country with... a Game Boy Advance (not DS) and the cartridge/s. (Personally, I have Sapphire, Ruby, Fire Red, Leaf Green and Emerald, so I hope I'll get 5 Mews.)

Because I am a moron and this information dropped out of my head, the times when it's near me (Reading, Croydon & Brent Cross) are this weekend from Friday-Sunday - when I will be in Brussels.

Because I'm not just a moron but also disorganised, I just found out that it was in Cardiff last Saturday - 20 minutes by train from where I was staying for BiCon! AAAAARRRRGHHH!!!

Now I have to find out where the hell the Toys'R'Us in Oxford is, and whether getting there on Thursday is practical, considering I have work in New Malden at 5pm.

Comments

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Trainline links get deleted after a few hours.. possibly, after a few minutes, so I couldn't see what you were linking to. But I do know the likelihood of me being on a train at 8.55am is nil. I don't function at that time of day, and travelling before 9.30am is too expensive for something not actually very important. We're getting the train at 9.21am on Friday to catch the Eurostar, and that will involve a great deal of personal effort.

I have a variety of possible routes to take. The easiest way to get from here to Oxford is the 285 bus to Heathrow then the Oxford link coach that Alexa gets when she visits me, but I really hate that route. The 285 is one of these routes that *should* take about an hour, but is very prone to traffic due to travelling a lot of the way on roads that only have one lane in each direction, and no dedicated bus lane. It can take closer to 2 hours. I also hate Heathrow Central Bus Station because of all the pollution from the incoming aeroplanes that make it hard to breathe, so try to avoid changing there unless necessary.

The next easiest way is the 65 bus to Ealing Broadway, then the slow train from there to Oxford. This takes about 2.5 hours in total including walking and waiting. A third way - how National Rail Enquiries wants to send me - is via Twickenham then slow South West Trains train to Reading, but that involves an entire hour of hanging around at various stations, and is very annoying. The fourth option is to go via Waterloo then fast train from Paddington, but this takes longer than the slow SWT train and costs more due to the London + Tube routing.

I'm most likely to do the 65 to Ealing Broadway, because I can play my game on the way and not have to think too hard. I know that the trains are at 07 and 37 past the hour as I already looked them up, so it's easy. I may come back the same way, or via Reading & Twickenham if the return trains work better. I can't see me leaving here realistically before 10.30am, and I don't want you to be late for your appointment in Swindon. I'll walk or find a bus.