Aside from the fact that it connects every part of London with every other part of London, and ignoring the maintenance (I think people should just pay attention to the updates) the Tube can be pretty cool at times. Here are three little things which have happened to me since I moved here which made me smile while using the Underground.
Boombox
Just after I'd moved here, during the time I was struggling with the new job and settling in, I was having a really bad evening. I was on the tube on the way home and there was music playing. Not background-y shopping centre lift music either, but 80s power ballads. At first I thought I was on some sort of awesome new train, improved for the modern, night-life loving age. Then I began to wonder if anyone else could hear the music, or if insanity was finally finding its way into my brain. Eventually, after staring long and hard at the ventilation to make sure the sound wasn't coming from there, I looked down to see a rather untidy man with missing teeth and a rucksack on his lap, out of which was poking the corner of a silver Bose speaker, which I deduced must have been battery-powered (which accounted partially for the size. Most of it will have been filled up with C batteries with the odd 9V grafted in for good measure..) Either way, after a day which couldn't have been much worse, the upbeat, not-too-loud-but-definitely-noticeable tube music made me smile.
Charades
Yep. This happened today. After a good day at work I was heading home on the Piccadilly line and a group of work colleagues in the other half of the carriage were playing charades. I tuned in part way through to the phrase "The _____ Story", staring in wonder as the actor was gesturing wildly into the distance and a girl was guessing, 'The Long Story.. The Really Long Story.. The Tube Story?' While another man (presumably the one who had set this challenge) was laughing hysterically to himself. He looked at me as I started laughing. 'Do you know it?' He called down the carriage. 'Of course, I've hardly been listening and I recognise it.' I replied. 'If you guess it, you can have a go!' I couldn't resist that one. 'The NeverEnding Story?' Rapturous applause and an invitation to join them followed. I said I didn't have long, so they started me off on Top Gun; an easy mime, though the girl guessed 'Top Shoot?' before anyone else could get a word in, which made everyone laugh. Then after I ousted the next guy with the clues of 'three words' and 'third word: jacket' (Full Metal Jacket) he handed me Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. And insisted I use the full title. It was a challenge, and I enjoy challenges. I won't reveal how I managed it, but they got the full thing before I got to my stop. I left the guy after me with Cabin In The Woods and would have loved to have heard the guesses, but alas I had to switch trains.
Moron
A wonderful word, 'moron'. It aptly describes so many types of people and yet is completely child-friendly. It was especially amusing when used on my second tube journey of the day. The scene is as follows: a young man hops onto the train as the doors are closing and stands next to me, flicking through his Evening Standard - I noted a story about a film showcasing a daredevil sky-jumper's fatal fall which I reminded myself to look up when possible - and when finished with flicking, he moved to dispose of the paper on the back of a seat, as one is inclined to do on the tube. The gentleman on the seat, a man past his prime but as confrontational as ever, seemed to take some sort of offence to this - possibly the intrusion of personal space, or maybe something about his back, I couldn't hear properly - and started giving the young man a heated lecture on somethingorother. At which point a middle-aged man, who had been standing between the youth and the older man, told said older man to do something akin to 'put a sock in it' and reached over to retrieve the paper the young man had just put down. This further infuriated the older man, who then had two targets to aim his aggression towards. Amusingly the younger gentleman immediately - if sarcastically - apologized and ignored the rest of the bickering, which involved the use of the word 'moron' from the eldest gentleman, and a classic retort from the middle-aged man. It may have gotten more heated were it not for the 4-year-old sitting across from them both, or the passengers around them (myself included) starting to giggle.
So the tube isn't that bad. It brings rare moments of unrivalled joy, mainly because said joy is in such an odd and generally dreary atmosphere. Next time you're on a not-too-busy tube, why not start your own game of impromptu charades?
No comments:
Post a Comment