Compare and contrast
It’s always very strange coming home, and to some extent strange that I still refer to it as home.
The train from King’s Cross was absolutely packed, every seat was booked and two additional carriages were laid on to help all those escaping from the city for the festive period on their journey, this did have the disorientating affect that the last two carriages did not actually fit in the train stations and it appeared as though you were sat in a field, but that’s a minor detail. The train from Newark to Lincoln was equally packed, although instead of carriages B through W it was a single carriage affair, with those who had just travelled up from London looking faintly confused as they tried to adjust to the strange concepts of trains running overground, of not having to fight for seats, of fields and open spaces, and feeling almost relieved that their phones had no signal so that their offices couldn’t call and ask difficult questions such as - its only 3pm why aren’t you still here working? They even relaxed to the extent that they began to talk to each other, admittedly it was only to find out which station the train was coming in to, but levels of communication among strangers that wouldn’t even be attempted in the city.
I don’t miss the country life and can often be heard to be (unfairly?) scathing of it but I do wonder how living in the city is changing me. I no longer say thank you to bus drivers, when I walk down the street I blank everybody - chuggers, big issue sellers, tube ticket touts, by doing so I don’t get harassed but I wonder what else I’m missing, if a stranger attempts to start a conversation with me I immediately assume that they have an ulterior motive (probably they are a psycho killer who wants to make me their next victim…) and attempt to disengage from the situation as quickly as possible. I wonder whether in exchange for all the advantages, opportunities and downright fabulousness of living in this city I am loosing something, and while I can’t quite define what it is, (it’s currently a vague, blurry concept), it may be a trust in human nature and I don’t think that this can be a good thing.
Playing: With my new camera
Wishing: For snow
Watching: Endless repeats of Friends on T4