My Train Journeys

My taxi driver today needs a mention in the blog because he made the morning journey quite interesting. If interesting is the right word for what happened. When I ordered the taxi it was showing 2 minutes away on the map, then 1 minute as he started moving towards me then it got to 3 minutes. So I looked at the app and noticed he'd taken the wrong exit which meant he had to go further away and then come back. He finally arrived and greeted me with good morning sir (very polite). I couldn't work out what accent he had, it sounded like a type of accent Iranian origin people have mixed with an accent that people from gujrat India have (I've always been interested in accents). He started talking to me while being the most cautious and law abiding taxi driver I've ever seen. He wouldn't go over the legal speed limit even when the roads are all clear and while driving that slow he kept checking the blind spots and mirrors continuously.   He said that I was his fi...

The train today is quite busy being the second working day of the week. The man sitting opposite me in the train this morning looks like Lord Farquaad (with glasses and without the hat) from Shrek. He has this weird look on his face whilst he is busy working on his 14 inch, silver HP laptop. The best way I can explain the look is, he looks like he's scared that he won't be able to finish the work he's doing on his laptop by the time the train stops and he's also constipated. Looks like he's rushing to finish some important work or may be he thinks the time is running out.. On the other hand, the man on his left is sitting with a news paper reading every page of it in detail. It looks like he is killing time and there's almost a sense of calmness on his face. I think he is reading everything written in the news paper to make use of the spare time he has on his hands while he's traveling and he has nothing else to do. He must feel this is a long trai...

It really bothers me when people suddenly change. Their behaviours, attitude and actions all change only because they think it's ok to do so when they see some others doing that. Or is it the announcement on the train when it is reaching the station, makes them change? , "we are now reaching our final stop. All change please, all change". I see this happening everyday. Prefectly normal, polite and sophisticated humans get on the train from the Midlands and when the train is about to reach Euston, they forget all their manners, don't care about giving respect and almost don't see others on the train. All they care about is how to get off the train before others and go through the ticket barriers even if that takes violating human rights or pushing someone. Its like there's a competition. Is there something in London's air that causes this effect? Does the air in London chemically react with some enzyme in their bodies and alter their brains functi...

What can one do to entertain theirself on a boring train journey - read books, newspapers, catchup on TV, movies, social media or even change their face to see how others react. I am an eye witness to two separate occasions when two ladies displayed this magic trick (or even a super power) on the moving train effortlessly. If you could have a super power, what super power would you like to have? Mine would be to be able to see the future. Imagine the possibilities with that. I could save so much time and effort by checking what time exactly my take away would be delivered and then opening the door just before it knocks. This would be the best use of that power most certainly because I wouldn't have to keep waiting for my door to knock while dreaming about the food. Who wants to know the next lottery numbers anyway.. Yesterday, on my train in the morning, there was a lady initially sitting on my left with her eyes closed. She then thought to  herself 'sod it.. I...

The man sitting on my right is loving his sandwich so much that he is celebrating with loud chomping noises (munch or chew noisily or vigorously - Google's definition of chomping). The man opposite me (wearing a grey casual jumper, with black framed glasses, and grey hair... (Is he called Mr Grey?) is giving him dirties but this chomper does not care (or is he oblivious to what he is doing? and he can't see how people are rolling their eyes? ). And.... , the man opposite me has stood up now (what is he gonna do), he pulled his bag from the top rack (this is getting intense), he's pulled out his head phones and put them on as rapidly as he could to block the noise. This situation has compelled me to do something out of norm, I've also had to put on my left ears bluetooth earphone so I could stop this torture. I don't ever do this normally, I like using one ear for music and the other to hear things around me.(you can try that too) I've just realised,...

There are two types of people in the world (again another well tested theory of mine); ones who can understand simple instructions and the others that need a step by step guide in writing to be able to understand simple instructions. The lad whose served me in the coffee shop this morning was certainly the latter type. He couldn't comprehend my simple enough order, "caramel latte with half the amount of caramel syrup you would normally use and an almond Croissant please".  He made me repeat that twice, packed the croissant in a bag and left it on the counter in front of me and then I caught him adding a lot of syrup to my cup. I had to intervene, as I don't like a very sweet coffee. I said, "can you take some out of the cup as I said half the amount", he started showing me the bottle of syrup and said we've only got that much (what is going on with him). Then he started to pack another croissant and again I had to tell him he'd done that...

12 November 2019 There are a few categories of people that travel on trains (according to me.. I'll detail some more in later blogs). Some travel short distances and some long. I sometimes play this guessing game in my head by having a quick glance down the carriage and guessing how many will get off at the next two stops and believe me I'm getting better at this game. It could be because I've seen a few faces regularly traveling and I've remembered where they get on and get off. Or their body language shows they'll get off soon as they start picking their stuff and start leaning forward in their seats as their stations approach. Which is what the man sitting opposite me and the one sitting on my right did before getting off. I've mastered the skill of not dropping any crumbs while eating a fresh baked crisp and a very flaky pain au chocolat. It only took me a few months to learn this skill but that's another thing on the list of my achieveme...

Today's first few achievements - having made it to my train within 6 minutes before it was departing which meant: a 150 metre down hill sprint towards the station, then getting a salted caramel latte with an almond croissant (fancied something different) and holding the back pack, a coffee and the croissant in one hand while using the ticket in the barriers with the left hand and then securing a decent seat in the train. It's a fairly busy carriage today and also a very quiet one. But I do think my choice of drink and the croissant today are even better at sharpening my observational skills. I say this because there's a man sitting two rows ahead listening to morning radio with his head phones on but I can still hear that clearly. Or could it be that he hasn't connected the headphones correctly? As I got on and sat in my seat there were two men already sitting on the two seats opposite me one at 12 o'clock and the other at 11 o'clock (their posi...

Caramel latte with half the amount of sugar free caramel syrup along and a pain au chocolat - check. That's my breakfast sorted. Window seat with the table - secured, and back pack on the top shelf above me - check. It's generally quieter on Friday 's but today 's train got busier than normal. There are so many trains so frequently traveling to and from Birmingham and London that it would be extremely difficult to determine which train these events relate to. I'm saying this just in case someone reads this and thinks they've been observed while travelling and they're mentioned in this blog. It's amazing how much information we can pick just by drinking a strong coffee and getting high on the sugars from a chocolate filled rectangular croissant or not croissant. For example at 9 O' clock the middle aged white lady sitting, wearing a beige formal long coat with the curly gingerish hair tied in a ponytail is putting on red lipstick just...