Judging a book by its cover

[caddyman]

You shouldn't judge people or things by appearances, I believe. But I shall anyway.

There was a woman on the tube north tonight. Affluent, well-dressed and middle aged. She was, I suspect, a tube novice. She was clutching a single trip ticket (the most expensive way of traveling on the tube) and staring at anybody and everybody with a mixture of disgust, disdain and possibly horror. She was forced to stand for a couple of stops, holding on to a rail; she looked as she might physically implode through the sheer unpleasantness of it all. When she finally managed to sit down, it was on a fold down chair (not the most comfortable in the carriage) and she ensured that she sat as far from the bloke next to her (a perfectly respectable looking chap in a business suit) as she could without falling off and whenever we pulled into a station she clutched her rucksack (!) as if each person who passed her was about to snatch it and run.

I suspect from the look on her face that someone farted, but it can be hard to tell.

Full points for her exit manoeuvre on reaching East Finchley. I swear she managed to stand up and slink through the moving crowd without even her clothes touching someone.

I bet in the next few days those clothes, suitably pressed and laundered, will find themselves offered to a charity shop and the donor will dine out for months to come, regaling her comrades with tales of the day she went underground.

Comments

[romney.livejournal.com]

Nicely observed and very "Ruth Rendell"

[keith-london.livejournal.com]

I was trying to recall times when I reacted in a public transport system, like that woman. It would probably be just after London's "7/7". I looked on everyone with any manner of hand luggage, including little old ladies with their shopping trolley bags, with great suspicion and paranoia! It's all in the mind, sometimes.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

but here there were people brandishing sidearms in the long lines at the gas stations

Let me guess: Texas?!

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Color Houston red then.

Seriously, where outside of Texas do citizens brandish firearms at each other at gas stations?

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

I was only saying it existed, not that it was any good :-).

[caffeine-fairy.livejournal.com]

There was a woman like that on the (overground) train when I used to commute. She was sitting in the seat by the door and tutted and slammed the door everytime someone walked through it. Eventually she actually tried to hold the door closed to prevent anyone else getting on - this was the 5.30 from Victoria southbound, bear in mind. She was horrified when someone stodd by her and even more horrified when someone stood in between her and me on the opposite seat. It was hilarious.

[fencingsculptor.livejournal.com]

You should have sneezed very loudly as she passed to see if you could make her jump !

[ladkyis.livejournal.com]

all you veterans may laugh but for someone like me, who can count excursions to London on the fingers of one hand - that's lifetime count - travelling in a hole in the ground (I am claustrophobic) can be very stressful. We in the sticks tend to talk to people on buses and trains so sitting in a carriage full of silent people who do not allow eye contact - all the way from victoria to Whetstone was both intimidating and scarey. Think on you superior travellers, that snooty passenger could be just plain terrified but desperate to get to her very sick grandchild. Course you'll never know cos talking on the tube is not allowed

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Ah, but in this case it was clear she didn't like being around the hoi polloi.

The only way anyone could get wrinkles around the mouth the way she did was to spend 50+ pursing them in disapproval. A life time addiction to sucking lemons would do it, too...