Commute

[commonpeople1]

The Tube
Originally uploaded by mvizcarra36

When I'm in the Tube, just by the yellow strip, with hardly anyone about and the train speeding in my direction, I sometimes get this occasional thought of jumping on the tracks. Or of someone from out of nowhere about to push me. Then I see the face of the train driver, bored and looking down (at a crossword puzzle? A gun?) and I wonder what it would be like to have Freddy Krueger's metal fingers run across the carriages as the train comes to a stop.

More and more people abandon newspapers and books for electronic games during their London commute. A woman in her forties was playing some game on her iPhone this morning. Her finger flicked over cars speeding down a street intersection. I was listening to R.E.M. and the song turned her look of concentration into something melancholic.

A young guy down the carriage was wrapping a scarf around his neck. He reminded me of a colleague from the temp agency I briefly worked for last summer. They'd make a beautiful couple. When I looked over again, he was staring back at me.

Comments

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

I often imagine being pushed on the track by a random loon...

In fact when I am close to the yellow line I often brace myself in case someone tries it... (especially since it did actually happen a while back to some poor French chap, for no reason whatsoever)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Where I catch my train, Mile End, there was someone pushed under a train a few years back. People are quite aggressive there as they run from District line trains to Circle line (and vice versa), pushing and shoving their way into the packed trains. I think my paranoia comes from being pushed by a surging crowd behind me.

[amypops.livejournal.com]

I was reading Scott's LJ post about sex on a packed commuter train yesterday and wanted to burst out loud at the incongruity of the text about casual gay sex and the visual image of a load of really pissed-off people with big coats on.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this is an urban legend, but I've heard the last carriage in the last tube trains at night...

[norabird.livejournal.com]

It would be awfully easy to drop off that edge.

Let me take this moment too to complain about people whose music on their headphones is too loud on the train.

By the way, I think because of you, I noticed two stunning fingers on my train rides recently, and wished I could take a photo of them to send! I think these would have passed muster.

Also, have you seen the zoo kid out getting ribs video on YouTube? He's a British 16 year old ginger with a stupendously amazing haircut. The song is good too.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Never seen Zoo Kid before... that boy is intense (just like most 16 year olds, I suppose). Lots of boys with that type of hair around here. The 40s and 50s are big in London.

If my mobile phone was from this century I'd sneakily take pictures of people in the Tube and post them here.

Can I also take a moment to complain of people playing loud music from their mobile phones in buses? :-)

claim insurance

[(Anonymous)]

wow. that was pretty awesome. they just keep getting better and better!

Re: claim insurance

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[petercampbell.livejournal.com]

The jumping on the track thing sounds like an equivalent of the sort of thought you get while standing on top of a tall building and having the image of throwing yourself over the edge...is that the death wish thing at work?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I have that feeling too sometimes from high places... especially my balcony! (we live close to the top of a tower block). I think it's just human imagination at work - quite natural really.