For two mornings running I've been standing shivering at 7am with all of the other worker bees at the station waiting for the 7:15 to Kings X.
People often ask me how I can bear the travel schedule that my work demands. It amazes ME how every morning bleary eyed commuters line the platform clutching their £4000 season's pass patiently queuing to board the train for the privilege of STANDING for an hour.
Two days in a row was enough. The urge to bahhhh! like a sheep was overwhelming.
Brits put up with a lot.
Last week I SAT....... AT A TABLE..... and had eggs, toast and espresso ( oh I should also mention the Perrier with ice and lemon) on a train going 300kms an hour. All the while, classical music gently masked the hiss of the passage.
Today I stood between two fat people and gnawed at a cold bacon roll whilst balancing a nasty clear plastic cup of Nescafe, the undissolved dehydrated coffee floating on tepid water.
A woman yapped down her phone at her boyfriend with a voice reminiscent of a small ratlike dog.
The German train was slick and everyone had wire rim classes and severe haircuts.
The brits brushed back hair still wet from their morning "bath" and tried to deal with the bodies pressing in on them in an atmosphere of overheated misery.
As the journey wore on, jackets were shed, ties loosened and the under the breath moaning began.
We didn't get above 40 kms/hr and arrived 20 minutes late.
I'll take the plane and the suitcase over that drudgery every morning.
I'm back in Cambridge overnight then it's J for the weekend. I'm not sure yet if I'll stay in London on Sunday my flight from Heathrow to Russia is at 8 am Monday.
Lately I've been sitting beside a lot nervous fliers.
They stare at their newspaper, knuckles whitening as we careen into an air pocket and its this feigned nonchalance that's always the give away. As they're too proud to ask for reassurance, I wind them up a bit and saying things like " JESUS! In all my travels I've never heard a plane make THAT sound!" or "The stewardess is crying in the bathroom and the others are cowering in the galley writing letters to their families. It doesn't look good"
Actually I just smile and say "Its fine, don't worry...have a drink"
Fun times ahead as I'm going to see my Russian brother VADIM in St Petersberg on Monday night! The Vadim story is a long one so I'll not go into detail, but some of you reading will have met him.
That's it until Ruski-land.
Its colder than a witches'......
Winter has arrived in the UK and I see its hovering around freezing in Moscow.
Funny to think that in two weeks I'll be sweltering in Dubai and India and two weeks ago I was doing the same in Brazil.
I get around.
Hope its warm wherever you are.
T
1 comment:
Say hello to Vadim for me. It's been a long time since the white caddie in Ottawa.
Don't complain about the weather. It's much colder in Toronto. You're tough in a lot of ways, but you have obviously softened in other ways since growing up in frigid Ottawa.
Take it easy buddy!
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