A man in a suit is not always the best behaved.
I was traveling by train the other day. When I entered the carriage, I went to sit at one of these desks. There sitting opposite me was a well-dress man in a sharp charcoal-grey suit and shiny shoes. He was reading a newspaper and had a cup of coffee and an empty banana skin next to him. He also had a bin just behind him to throw away his shit.
After I sat down, he made no attempt to move his empty cup and banana remains out of my way, even after I pushed my way in somewhat. Sir seemed too engrossed in his paper. And it wasn’t The Sun by all means. A while later he finished reading and put his paper away, leaving his rubbish still on the desk. It might well not have been his but when his stop came, he got up, picked his litter and finally dumped it in the bin.
I could say that at least he threw his rubbish to the bin instead of leaving it behind like so many people. But he also should not have left the desk strewn with it even though others were also using it. Did he own the train? Was I invading his personal space which he had to mark with his banana in my way? Wearing a suit does not mean well-educated and well-behaved although one may have had a lot of money spent on education.
Habit maketh not the monk, something for me to remember.
The Chaos of transport
The other day it was raining, I was in a packed train and the ceiling was leaking. Fortunately not on me. Oh, and did I say the train was not moving?
Train travel is very expensive in the UK yet its price reflects in no way the level of service. As a commuter, you will fork out a lot of money for an expensive ticket only to be provided with a regularly delayed and appalling service. What with the poor state of the engineering industry in the UK, it's no surprise it has come to this.
We all know how sensitive trains are to the weather. Snow falls on tracks and trains are stuck. If it’s windy, it’s too many leaves on tracks and trains are stuck. If it rains, the tracks are flooded. If it’s too hot, tracks buckle. Even when it’s sunny, I’ve heard that trains have to go slowly because of the glare or reflection of the sun off the rail into the driver’s eyes. They must be the most disable people on earth!
What other option does the commuter have? Travel by car, by bus? Not much better. Traffic jam, road rage, expensive parking…. If your commute is long and you take the train, at least you can do something during this time, for example read the paper. If you are driving or stuck in traffic, you can only keep your eyes on the road and make sure you don’t get too close to the car ahead.
Train travel is very expensive in the UK yet its price reflects in no way the level of service. As a commuter, you will fork out a lot of money for an expensive ticket only to be provided with a regularly delayed and appalling service. What with the poor state of the engineering industry in the UK, it's no surprise it has come to this.
We all know how sensitive trains are to the weather. Snow falls on tracks and trains are stuck. If it’s windy, it’s too many leaves on tracks and trains are stuck. If it rains, the tracks are flooded. If it’s too hot, tracks buckle. Even when it’s sunny, I’ve heard that trains have to go slowly because of the glare or reflection of the sun off the rail into the driver’s eyes. They must be the most disable people on earth!
What other option does the commuter have? Travel by car, by bus? Not much better. Traffic jam, road rage, expensive parking…. If your commute is long and you take the train, at least you can do something during this time, for example read the paper. If you are driving or stuck in traffic, you can only keep your eyes on the road and make sure you don’t get too close to the car ahead.
