Tube troops…
I can say one thing for certain the tube in London is very convenient. It takes us to places around the city quite fast and under normal circumstances without delays.
There have been a lot said and written about public transportation, the conveniences and the downsides and I am not the strongest or most committed fan of the system for my views not to be biased. OK, I have been known to snob buses, trams and occasionally the metro, which makes my current predicament even more interesting, as I have to take the underground every morning to work. My observations from these morning trips, is what I want to share with you, at least some of them.
Take today for instance, I was running late (mind you, I don’t enjoy running late and having to rush through the whole process of getting ready), I stayed up watching a movie again, having a mild case of insomnia this week.
I can label this week, one of the worse weeks of this year, if anything could go wrong, it did. I didn’t have anybody to share my thoughts or feelings with, so even the smallest problem escalated and blew up to gigantic proportions. Sadly, I don’t know many people in London yet. Who am I kidding my social life in this city at the moment is pathetic. This being one of my worse fears moving here and having to start all over again in finding new local friends it really isn’t helping my adjustment to my new environment. I do love the city and I feel good being here, but it would be so much better to actually have people to share my new experiences with. It can get quite demoralizing at times. And my partner, who has been my only anchor of stability, hasn’t been around much. We both travel a lot for work and unfortunately he doesn’t like phone calls. C’est la vie as the French say…
Back to todays random observations of my tube journey to work; it doesn’t matter how cold it is outside, in the train is boiling hot. It feels gross and sticky and I have only experienced the feeling of sweat running down my body in extreme heat situations before. Too many people tightly packed in a small space with very little ventilation would make even the strongest person feel weak. It’s amazing that more people don’t develop claustrophobia. I personally don’t like being in small places for an extended period of time and I have been counteracting my mild claustrophobia during my tube journeys by listening to music and getting lost in my thoughts. I tried reading the newspaper but that really makes me feel nauseous. I wonder if it will get better. So I smile (I refuse to look grumpy like most of the people around me), sing in my thoughts and occasionally I read the head lines of an article that looks interesting over someone’s shoulder. One of favorite things to do however is to observe how people interact or not, how they look and behave in general.
I had heard a lot about people being more stylish in London, well my answer to that is compared to what? Compared to Bulgaria and Romania they are for sure. But compared to Paris or New York well that is a different story. Dutch people don’t have a classic style in my opinion, but they have mastered the color fusion. Londoners are odd in that respect. I see a lot of extremes. Take men for instance, very few know how to dress well and the majority of the lucky ones that have the innate charisma of dressing well; they achieve it by spending a lot of money in designer clothes. But as we all know, or at least we should, you can’t really buy style.
Every morning there is an endless parade of ugly suits, cheap ugly suits. I can’t judge someone on how much they spend on their attire, since I don’t know what they have in their wallet. But I can and I will judge them on how they put the whole look together. Granted it’s a lot easier to buy a well balanced and color coordinated designer look, but with a little bit of imagination and not very much money we can achieve a lot. An expensive suit can be ruined when paired with the wrong shirt and tie… and I am not going to mention the shoes.
I am not here to give a Style lesson; only to paint a vivid picture of what I see…
Today for instance these two men boarded the train two stops after my Journey had started. Both tall and blond they looked like father and son or maybe lovers. They both wore grey suits, black shoes and pink shirts with colored stripes. The younger one at least from the back looked nice, but when he turned around, I found myself thankful for not having eaten breakfast. That tie !?@* Christmas vivid green in color against a pink shirt with color stripes, it was horrid, absolutely nauseating. Add the bright red socks and you get a Santa Clause in the making. And what is up with the messy 70’s inspired semi spiked hair styles? Eight out 10 men sport that look. I always thought that Brits were famous for their originality. OK this particular style can look pretty good on a young trendy male, but once you crossed the line of 40 it only spells desperation and middle life crisis if you ask me.
Let’s talk about the infamous English manners, where have they gone? They certainly non existent amongst the tube society! People are busy, running and rushing, but how long does it take to say excuse me, pardon me and thank you? How much effort does it take to smile in appreciation? Only foreigner and some older people observe these simple niceties in the tube.
Mr. Santa Clause this morning rushed to get a seat once it became vacant, when a pregnant woman was standing and looking uncomfortable in front of him. Some might argue that the pregnant woman shouldn’t have taken the tube if she wanted or needed a comfortable journey to work… but not all of us have the luxury to own a car or afford to be taking taxis every where. In the end an older woman offered her seat to the young expectant mother while numerous young and healthy looking men continued to sit comfortably reading their newspapers and listening to their iPods nonchalantly.
There have been several reports done about people growing ruder all the time. Consideration for the person next to you is the last thing in the mind of the thousands tube riders. This one however is a long debate and I am not going to try to tackle it at the moment.
Instead, I will keep smiling, keep dreaming, keep observing and keep looking for ways to make my morning journeys to work more enjoyable and entertaining.
**********************************************************
A fun read is the going underground blog:
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_london-underground_archive.html
I especially enjoy the “tube fashion victims” write ups, worth spending few minutes or hours reading through it, it is bound to make you smile.
Some useful link about the London tube:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tube/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground (if you are interested in reading a bit about the history of London Underground.
There have been a lot said and written about public transportation, the conveniences and the downsides and I am not the strongest or most committed fan of the system for my views not to be biased. OK, I have been known to snob buses, trams and occasionally the metro, which makes my current predicament even more interesting, as I have to take the underground every morning to work. My observations from these morning trips, is what I want to share with you, at least some of them.
Take today for instance, I was running late (mind you, I don’t enjoy running late and having to rush through the whole process of getting ready), I stayed up watching a movie again, having a mild case of insomnia this week.
I can label this week, one of the worse weeks of this year, if anything could go wrong, it did. I didn’t have anybody to share my thoughts or feelings with, so even the smallest problem escalated and blew up to gigantic proportions. Sadly, I don’t know many people in London yet. Who am I kidding my social life in this city at the moment is pathetic. This being one of my worse fears moving here and having to start all over again in finding new local friends it really isn’t helping my adjustment to my new environment. I do love the city and I feel good being here, but it would be so much better to actually have people to share my new experiences with. It can get quite demoralizing at times. And my partner, who has been my only anchor of stability, hasn’t been around much. We both travel a lot for work and unfortunately he doesn’t like phone calls. C’est la vie as the French say…
Back to todays random observations of my tube journey to work; it doesn’t matter how cold it is outside, in the train is boiling hot. It feels gross and sticky and I have only experienced the feeling of sweat running down my body in extreme heat situations before. Too many people tightly packed in a small space with very little ventilation would make even the strongest person feel weak. It’s amazing that more people don’t develop claustrophobia. I personally don’t like being in small places for an extended period of time and I have been counteracting my mild claustrophobia during my tube journeys by listening to music and getting lost in my thoughts. I tried reading the newspaper but that really makes me feel nauseous. I wonder if it will get better. So I smile (I refuse to look grumpy like most of the people around me), sing in my thoughts and occasionally I read the head lines of an article that looks interesting over someone’s shoulder. One of favorite things to do however is to observe how people interact or not, how they look and behave in general.
I had heard a lot about people being more stylish in London, well my answer to that is compared to what? Compared to Bulgaria and Romania they are for sure. But compared to Paris or New York well that is a different story. Dutch people don’t have a classic style in my opinion, but they have mastered the color fusion. Londoners are odd in that respect. I see a lot of extremes. Take men for instance, very few know how to dress well and the majority of the lucky ones that have the innate charisma of dressing well; they achieve it by spending a lot of money in designer clothes. But as we all know, or at least we should, you can’t really buy style.
Every morning there is an endless parade of ugly suits, cheap ugly suits. I can’t judge someone on how much they spend on their attire, since I don’t know what they have in their wallet. But I can and I will judge them on how they put the whole look together. Granted it’s a lot easier to buy a well balanced and color coordinated designer look, but with a little bit of imagination and not very much money we can achieve a lot. An expensive suit can be ruined when paired with the wrong shirt and tie… and I am not going to mention the shoes.
I am not here to give a Style lesson; only to paint a vivid picture of what I see…
Today for instance these two men boarded the train two stops after my Journey had started. Both tall and blond they looked like father and son or maybe lovers. They both wore grey suits, black shoes and pink shirts with colored stripes. The younger one at least from the back looked nice, but when he turned around, I found myself thankful for not having eaten breakfast. That tie !?@* Christmas vivid green in color against a pink shirt with color stripes, it was horrid, absolutely nauseating. Add the bright red socks and you get a Santa Clause in the making. And what is up with the messy 70’s inspired semi spiked hair styles? Eight out 10 men sport that look. I always thought that Brits were famous for their originality. OK this particular style can look pretty good on a young trendy male, but once you crossed the line of 40 it only spells desperation and middle life crisis if you ask me.
Let’s talk about the infamous English manners, where have they gone? They certainly non existent amongst the tube society! People are busy, running and rushing, but how long does it take to say excuse me, pardon me and thank you? How much effort does it take to smile in appreciation? Only foreigner and some older people observe these simple niceties in the tube.
Mr. Santa Clause this morning rushed to get a seat once it became vacant, when a pregnant woman was standing and looking uncomfortable in front of him. Some might argue that the pregnant woman shouldn’t have taken the tube if she wanted or needed a comfortable journey to work… but not all of us have the luxury to own a car or afford to be taking taxis every where. In the end an older woman offered her seat to the young expectant mother while numerous young and healthy looking men continued to sit comfortably reading their newspapers and listening to their iPods nonchalantly.
There have been several reports done about people growing ruder all the time. Consideration for the person next to you is the last thing in the mind of the thousands tube riders. This one however is a long debate and I am not going to try to tackle it at the moment.
Instead, I will keep smiling, keep dreaming, keep observing and keep looking for ways to make my morning journeys to work more enjoyable and entertaining.
**********************************************************
A fun read is the going underground blog:
http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_london-underground_archive.html
I especially enjoy the “tube fashion victims” write ups, worth spending few minutes or hours reading through it, it is bound to make you smile.
Some useful link about the London tube:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tube/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground (if you are interested in reading a bit about the history of London Underground.
Comments
a shout out from Huffman Tx! Just wanted to mention keep
up the excellent job!
my webpage: Wikipedia