Training

I really don’t know why I bother.  I made a real effort to leave in good time for my train home tonight.  Usually, it’s a breakneck charge through the rush hour throngs having left work slightly later than I need to to make all the necessary connections.   Normally I collapse panting on the carriage floor having thrown myself over the unimpressed guard and through the closing doors.  This evening I’d given myself an extra fifteen minutes on the Underground but we stalled just outside Euston.  The train in front had broken, half-in, half-out of the platform.  We waited.  The temperature climbed to levels that would have made Satan himself hop from hoof to hoof shrieking, “Hot, hot, hot!”  Except, of course, this was the London Tube during Commuter Time and any form of movement was out of the question: it’s dangerous enough to exhale because of the risk of someone squeezing into your depleted lung space.  It was too hot and we were too close.  Let’s be honest, there’s a period during physical contact when a bit of sweat can be quite a pleasant addition.  This wasn’t one of those times.  If there was a moment when we were a bit slippery, it passed as quickly as an attempt to hold a toad with wet hands.  We were quickly mired in a thoroughly disagreeable stew where our communal perspiration took the consistency of treacle and glued us together like toffee-coated sardines in suits. 

After thirty minutes, just at the point when claustrophobia and BO threatened to burst into hysterical panic, we pulled, unannounced into the station.  I missed my train by two minutes so had the station concourse to enjoy for another fifty-eight.  Still, it did give me the best part of an hour to scrape off the residue of my fellow passengers.

Comments

[The Boy Who Likes To]

That sounds awful. I'm moving down to London next year. Despite not living there, I do spend every other weekend down there and have see alot of over crowding on the tubes.
In fact only two weekends ago on a Saturday night of all times there was one person physically pushing a strange on to the tube so the doors could close.
If there was one thing Im not looking forward to its commuting. But unlike youself Im hoping to live with the tube area of london, dont think I could do with a 58 minute wiat for a train.