Falling Asleep on the Train
I fell asleep on the way home. More than once. I’m pretty sure that I was only asleep for a few moments, but you never really know, do you. For all I know it could have been minutes – it felt like seconds. I fought it for the better part of an hour – eventually a coffee bought on my way through Reading Station woke me back up.
Today was a long day. It began when I slid out of bed at 5am, showered, shaved, dressed in the clothes prepared last night, and slipped quietly from the house to catch the 6am train. After several changes of train, I arrived at my final destination the better part of an hour early. Better that than a mad scramble. I sat quietly in the final railway station cafe sipping coffee and catching up on the news before eventually flagging down a taxi for the final leg of the journey.
I can’t tell you about the middle part of the day – the brain draining part – because of all the usual reasons. Let’s just say I then sat in a conference room with my laptop for 7 hours without a break.
I’m tired this evening.
I’m sorting through fragmented memories of the train journey in my head, wondering if there are any stories worth telling. One in particular comes to mind – an elderly gentleman sporting an iPhone X that sat opposite me on the way home. He was perhaps mid seventies, but dressed like somebody in their mid thirties. His phone rang while sitting across from me, causing him to fish it from his pocket, and delight the rest of the train carriage with the ring-tone (on maximum volume) for some time while he tried to unlock the phone with his face again and again. He eventually gave up and keyed in a pin number – twice – before answering it. The caller hung up just as he shouted “HELLO?”.
Anyway…
I finally arrived home to an empty house at about 7:30pm, and set about both clearing up after everybody else, and cooking dinner for one. The younger children have been at Girl Guides all evening, and our eldest was at a friend’s house (she arrived home a few minutes ago, after being threatened with draconian sanctions). I re-heated the saucepan of bolognese sauce sitting on the cooker, and threw some pasta in a saucepan of boiling water. Ten minutes later, I slumped in front of the computer and scrolled the social internet while feeding my face.
As soon as everybody else returns home I will go to bed. I have to be up at 6am tomorrow – I’ve already ironed clothes and hung them up. Before that, I’ll try and get through the various blogs I try to follow – clicking like buttons and posting comments as I go.
Oh – and you know that second blog I was contemplating writing? I’ve still not even looked at it. How surprising is that ?