A couple of weeks ago I went on a journey and it turned out to be a journey into a completely different world!
I decided to take a trip to the NEC in Birmingham to one of the huge craft fairs they hold there. Rather than driving I decided to take the train.....and so my journey began!
It was quite early, earlier than I am usually up, let alone stand on a station platform. It was just before 7am.
I shuffled into the little shelter to sit on the cold plastic seat and took a look around. There was already one other occupant, a balding man in his fifties I would say, wearing a warm winter coat and holding a small holdall bag. We nodded 'good morning'.
A few minutes later, walking across the foot bridge and towards our little shelter came another fellow. An older chap wearing a well worn overcoat, a flat cap and glasses and clutching a brown soft briefcase. He said morning to 'Mr Baldy' and they stood momentarily silent side by side in the shelter. 'Mr Baldy' then proceeded to get out his mobile phone and read what he called a 'factoid' to 'Mr Flatcap'. It was a factoid about the origin of the saying 'to sweat like a pig' which apparently has no relation to pigs at all but to the smelting of pig iron! Who knew?!
Once he had read out this vital piece of info Mr Baldy proudly deposited his phone back into his coat pocket and so began a most strange conversation between these two men. It became apparent that they meet every morning at the station, and exchange pleasantries and other vital bits of information before the train arrives.
Once the factoid had been aired subjects covered within the five or ten minutes before the train arrived were pub quizzes, which of course could be a good place to show knowledge of the aforementioned sweating like a pig info. Mr Flatcap was annoyed slightly at the fact that the latest pub quiz he had been to at a local pub had seemed to focus solely on the subject of horses and horse racing! Not it would seem a subject close to Mr Flatcaps heart.
They also pondered on the whereabouts of another fellow traveller whom they had not seen for a few days. From what they were saying it would seem she was a junior doctor at a local A&E hospital who was very nice but as Mr Flatcap pointed out was probably working shifts which would explain her apparent disappearance from the station platform.
Mr Baldy went on to ponder as to what life would be like married to such a person as the lady doctor and whether she would get annoyed if he kept asking her for medical advice such as a sore throat or an achy joint. Mr Flatcap soon put him right though with quite a sweeping comment, explaining that people like the lady doctor 'tend to marry their own'! Luckily, to save Mr Baldy from embarrassment, our train slowly pulled into the station.
As we boarded the train I was surprised to note the Mr Baldy got on and turned right and Mr Flatcap got on and turned left. So these two men, whom I had begun to assume were work colleagues were obviously just early morning railway station acquaintances. Or perhaps they are work colleagues who prefer to travel to work separately. Who knows?
Once I boarded the train I was deposited into another world. I found a seat with a table and space for three other people. Already there was a lady opposite me who was reading,reading,reading from a laptop and then writing, writing, writing, lots of notes in a big hard backed book. Her most annoying habit however was her constant polite type cough followed by a big sniff. It's one of those things which you slowly tend to notice, it creeps up on you until all you can hear is a loud sniffing noise. Unfortunately I only had one slightly used tissue on my person and even then I was so tempted to thrust it into her face and say, ' here, use this, for gods sake, anything to stop you bloody sniffing!.
Next to Mrs Sniffy sat a younger chap who was reading the paper but as the journey progressed it seemed he also had started to notice Mrs Sniffy and perhaps he too was wishing he had a spare handkerchief to hand. He also seemed quite interested in what I was doing!
I had managed to get a seat by the window which was nice but I had brought with me an activity as I couldn't bear the thought of a train journey of nearly two hours relying solely on the interesting land flying past the window for company and entertainment. I had brought a ball of wool and a crochet hook with me so I crocheted for the whole journey.
At the next stop the seat next to me was filled by a young woman who was obviously a science teacher. How do I know this? Because she took up most of the table with papers which she was marking! It got me thinking though. Why had she left it to this morning to be marking them and putting on comments. Did she go out last night, leaving the papers behind? She perhaps had a better offer than sitting marking papers. A meal or a film was much better company than a red pen. Perhaps she had so much marking that she had had to give in by bedtime and this was the final bit before getting to work. How sad to spend your whole life ticking answers on pieces of paper.
I'm glad I had my crochet hook and wool with me. A much easier and relaxing way to spend a morning on a train!
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