Tales of the Underground
Dan has this theory that the reason everyone is so rude in London, is that we start off everyday underground, rammed up next to some sweaty guy’s arm pit for forty minutes, and we’re continually fighting, silently, with each other for our own space, for just a little more than we have.
Maybe he’s right.
Getting on the tube last night it was more crowded than usual. The platform was already full when we got down there - clearly hadn’t been a train for several minutes. We stood at the back of a crowd, waiting to get on, several people back. A train pulled in, people got off, our little crowd started moving on - one guy, (in a beige trench coat), pushed in front of another (black leather jacket), then proceeded to slow the whole crowd down - so black leather jacket man literally pushed him onto the train. He didn’t jostle, he didn’t stand up close behind him, he didn’t barge, he stuck his arms out and pushed beige trench coat man onto the train.
Despite the hell that is commuting I have never actually seen one commuter push another.
We had no choice but to follow them on to the train, there were a crowd of other people behind us, equally eager to get on the train. We were stood crushed up in front of them as the two of them bickered constantly from Westminster to Green Park. Beige Trench Coat man doing his best David Brent - ‘you can’t treat people like that. you only know the language of hate’ (which sounds reasonable but he was so smug and irritating about it). Black Leather Jacket man all ’shut the f*** up, why you still talking to me…’. Both of them desperate to have the last, acrimonious word, not wanting to loose face in front of 50 odd commuters who were all staring in the other direction just wishing they would be quite and we could all get through commute together in relative peace.
They got off at Green Park, followed each other off the train, I don’t know what happened next.
At Bond Street, the next stop, I was staying on the train but the people stood behind me had to get off. Did they barge past me? Did they pretend like there was space and just push through? No, they said:
‘Excuse me, sorry, I need to get off the train’,
When there was space for me to move out of their way, without getting in anyone else’s way I did. And as they went past they said:
‘Thank you. Sorry’.
Clearly, they weren’t from London.
Slightly concerned by: the high level of tube related blogging that has gone on recently
Resolving: to be more varied
And aiming for: shorter entries