Long Train Commutes
April 29, 2009 | Filed under Uni/Work
Encountered on the train today:
- A schoolboy wearing two pairs of underwear. He was stretching, his shirt rode up, and his pants were low enough for me to see two underwear bands sticking up over his waistband – Bonds and Jockey.
- A guy wearing black tights, a purple plaid mini-dress, grey bomber jacket and a grey fedora. He was tapdancing on the train.
This is perhaps the one benefit of having a long train commute into the city for work – the characters you see on public transport. They enliven what would otherwise be a mind-numbingly dull hour-long commute.
I try to make good use of the time by doing readings for university, but sometimes the trains are so crowded that you’re practically having clothed sex with the people you’re squashed up against. In those circumstances, it’s hard to pull out a big folder and start highlighting sentences in dense readings, especially if you don’t manage to get a seat. The only option open to you is really to just listen to your iPod and stare blankly into space without making eye contact with anyone. Unproductive, but the only option.
In other news, it’s been cold enough this week in Melbourne to warrant me wearing four layers. Today for example, I’m wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt under my long-sleeved pinstripe shirt, under a black cardigan, under my black and white wool herringbone coat. That’s more layers than I was wearing in the United Kingdom in the depths of winter. There’s something wrong with this situation.
10 Responses to Long Train Commutes
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I think the 27 degree temperature we had at one point today is more wrong than your having to rug up.
It’s coming into winter, not summer. At least your weather is more acceptable at this time.
Darnielle on April 29, 2009 #
I agree with this train thing. I love staring at strangers, although I try not to do it much because people will catch me! Sometimes I quickly sketch people too.
Melinda on April 29, 2009 #
Maybe the boy was so cold that he decided to wear 2 pairs of underwear ;)
It actually sounds like you made a trip to Amsterdam, you see people like that all the time, dressed up in weird outfits ect and it’s considered normal. I even saw a guy roller-skating down the road naked once in the middle of winter (for us, it was near Christmas time) and no one was bothered by it.
Chans on April 29, 2009 #
It was snowing here well past spring. Classes were cancelled.
I think the Earth doesn’t know if it wants global warming or an ice age.
Stephanie on April 29, 2009 #
Wow, sounds like Austin. You get the weirdest people here, especially on the buses.
It’s starting to get insanely hot here. It’s already 73F and it’s not quite 9:00am. Fortunately it’s the rainy season, or it’d be getting into the 90s every single day.
Becky on April 29, 2009 #
Could be worse I guess – 2 pairs of undies is better than none!
Rebekah on April 30, 2009 #
@Rebekah I dunno about all that ;)
Stephanie on April 30, 2009 #
I love train trips. Especially in Melbourne.
I spent this morning listening to one 14 year old ream out another 14 year old for still being a virgin! “Like OMIGODDDDDDDDDD!”
nadine on April 30, 2009 #
I’ve never taken public transport services before…other than once or twice on the subways in Washington D.C. And I didn’t get to meet anyone who had a weird sense of fashion either, just boring people.
Merinn on April 30, 2009 #
haha sounds kinda fun, though I’ve been pretty much completely derived of public transport. I think i’ve really only used it when I was in other countries, but then people were probably looking at ME oddly.
marilyn on April 30, 2009 #