I
received the most wonderful present from my beautiful, loving wife this
morning; I wonder if you can guess what it is? It needed no unwrapping, no
setting up or configuring as a piece of technology might do, no cooking,
heating, cooling or storage. It’s probably almost invisible too, perfect
you might say, yet it is full of frustration. We will return to that….
Speaking
of frustration, on a return train journey from Doncaster today, I witnessed the
best and worst of human-kind, showing itself in raw frustration and heartfelt
emotion in equal measure. The wonderful staff at Doncaster station
arrived to show me to my train and explained that every train going to the
north of the UK on this line had been rammed full of passengers today due to
what is known in parts of the railway fraternity as a “one under”. For those
uninitiated such as myself, this rather descriptive and absolute phrase
translates as a suicide which took place outside one of London’s main line
stations, impacting all trains going north up the west coast mainline.
All passengers heading to Scotland on one of the busiest days therefore headed
for the east coast line, so explaining the overcrowding.
The
platform was exceptionally crowded, so many passengers overheard the explanation
I was given. “Why did the fool have to pick a weekend?” one was heard to
say. “I just don’t get it; so, inconsiderate,” said another. As I had a
few minutes to wait for my train, I occupied the time by thinking I have those
minutes, I would be going home, maybe someone was getting the news none of us
wants to ever get and how could people think about moments of delay caused by
someone feeling so low they had to end their life. Inconsiderate yes for sure,
but to anyone who knows them, not to a few passengers who might get to their
holiday, work or home a little later.
So, back
to my present, have you worked out what it is yet? Maybe a couple more
clues will help. In this case, I hope it won’t last that long and I
actually don’t want to share it either. I’m sure I heard someone in the
United States get it right, France, maybe someone in Canada or Australia…
A sore
throat. Thank you my loved one!
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