There and Back
Another Monday, and another journey into London before most people have scraped themselves out of bed. I'm not entirely sure how I made it through today without falling asleepas each day passes working this ridiculous schedule, I become increasingly tired.
Perhaps the reason for the tiredness was the thoroughly unremarkable nature of the day. Apart from a moment of cleverness where everybody saw what I did and went “WooOOOooo”, the rest of the day was one long fight with the Sandman (the loveable childrens book character, not the nasty Spiderman adversary).
If I'm going to record anything at all as “noteable” about the day, it will be my encounter with an unexpectedly strange old man on the underground train this evening. I got on the circle line, and made my way down into the car, ending up standing a yard or so behind a white haired old guy with a walking stick. His hair stood up off his head like a toilet brush, and he wore a red checked flannel shirt.
After travelling for one stop, he turned to face me to leave the train, so I stepped back and made room for him to walk past. This is where it all got really, really strange.
With the stick in his right hand steadying his gate, he propped his left elbow out as far as it would reach (like a small child doing a Peter Pan pose), and waddled towards me. I continued edging further out of his way, wondering if he had some kind of disability, but it was too latehis elbow was in my chest, forcefully pushing me into the people behind before he turned to exit the carriage. He then dropped the arm, and the limp, picked up the stick, and began swinging it as he strode purposefully off along the platform.
Unbelievable.
A few stops later, while listening to the soundtrack from Rock of Ages (I downloaded it onto my phone last night), a pretty woman a few people away met my absent minded gaze and smiled. I suddenly worried that everybody in the carriage could hear what I was listening towhy else would a stranger smile? Before I could become too paranoid we drew into Paddington Station, and the peaceful commuting crowd turned instantly into an impatient mob.