People watching
I went to London for the day at the weekend.
The train there was delayed by 2 hours, which for a 2 1/2 hour journey is ridiculously long. they claimed someone vandalised the signals (?!). and there were about 6 trainloads of people on one train. since i was on from the start i had a seat, so was quietly wedged in the corner eavesdropping and reading the 'review' part of the guardian weekend (i'd brought it only as an afterthought) cover to cover, which i never do. the table opposite had 4 lively ladies at it. two were friends and the other two were individuals travelling separately. the last one got on about halfway through the marathon and instantly enlivened the carriage by producing a pair of sparkly red vertiginous heels - the so-high-they're-s+m type. she told them all about how she'd stuck all the crystals on herself. and how they were her red shoes for being dorothy from the wizard of oz. and going to torture garden. with her boyfriend dressed as toto, on a lead, on all fours. at which point one of the other ladies said 'oooh that sounds a bit risque'.
Later I was wandering around in Shoreditch in the rain. Not heavy rain, but heavy enough to get wet, in spite of it having been a beautiful morning. I had an umbrella (another afterthought), so it was OK. A man walked past with a dustbin-sized plastic bin inverted on his head: an alternative approach to waterproofing.
Still later, near Liverpool Street, Martha and I were walking along when a man ran past. His backpack was open and he hadn't realised, and something fell out. We saw it, he didn't, and M rescued the escaped bag contents as I chased after the man. I caught up to him just as I realised that I'd only seen a plastic bag, maybe it was just rubbish. He was running for a train, he said, and he'd probably missed it, but he did say the plastic bag had important stuff in it.
The train there was delayed by 2 hours, which for a 2 1/2 hour journey is ridiculously long. they claimed someone vandalised the signals (?!). and there were about 6 trainloads of people on one train. since i was on from the start i had a seat, so was quietly wedged in the corner eavesdropping and reading the 'review' part of the guardian weekend (i'd brought it only as an afterthought) cover to cover, which i never do. the table opposite had 4 lively ladies at it. two were friends and the other two were individuals travelling separately. the last one got on about halfway through the marathon and instantly enlivened the carriage by producing a pair of sparkly red vertiginous heels - the so-high-they're-s+m type. she told them all about how she'd stuck all the crystals on herself. and how they were her red shoes for being dorothy from the wizard of oz. and going to torture garden. with her boyfriend dressed as toto, on a lead, on all fours. at which point one of the other ladies said 'oooh that sounds a bit risque'.
Later I was wandering around in Shoreditch in the rain. Not heavy rain, but heavy enough to get wet, in spite of it having been a beautiful morning. I had an umbrella (another afterthought), so it was OK. A man walked past with a dustbin-sized plastic bin inverted on his head: an alternative approach to waterproofing.
Still later, near Liverpool Street, Martha and I were walking along when a man ran past. His backpack was open and he hadn't realised, and something fell out. We saw it, he didn't, and M rescued the escaped bag contents as I chased after the man. I caught up to him just as I realised that I'd only seen a plastic bag, maybe it was just rubbish. He was running for a train, he said, and he'd probably missed it, but he did say the plastic bag had important stuff in it.