Trains, Tubes, and a Serious Lack of Autmobiles

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I have been way behind on my blog post so I have decided that while the family is away I’ll have to do a blog post per day.  Which I probably won’t end up doing since they’ve been gone for three days already and I’m just sitting down to write blog post number one.

 And here it goes . . .

Taking the Train to Cambridge
The only real way to get around here in GX is by the train number one, and than after that you have the tube when you get into London.  There's no car to be had and I've spent the last two months not driving at all!  Riding the train instead of taking a car can provide a person with unlimited amounts of observable entertainment.  First our entertainment begins with the Asian crowd. I'm sitting in my seat and to my left I can view four Asian girls talking rapidly together. As I try to rest my eyes for a second, the constant clicking of their Nikon cameras is enough to drive me nuts. I open my eyes, look over and on almost every picture they take they're holding up the typical peace sign. As we make several stops on the way, two moms and her 3 kids board. Now I don't mind kids for the most part, but sometimes when they won't stop making ridiculously noises, fighting, or are just loud, I draw the line. Which are most children all the time so maybe I really don't like kids. Who knew?  The guy stuck by the window who is now surrounded by all three children looks like his grandmother just died. I think he wanted to jump up and get out of his seat bad.  5 minutes later that's just what he did. Meanwhile, I try to lay my head back in order to take a nap again when the boy in the seat in front of me starts making train noises. I already am hearing train noises because, guess what? I'm on a TRAIN! I don't need to hear train noises coming out of an 8 year olds mouth! I was so incredibly annoyed. Than after you have the Asians and the three kids there's always a cackler.  You know the type. The woman or women who like to sit and laugh and who not just laugh; they cackle. It sounds like they're scary witches who came out of a horror movie. It doesn't help when you're trying to sleep. Oh the glories of riding the train. Now the three kids are having a coughing competition.  Let’s see who can cough the loudest.  Seriously? Who does that? If loud coughing isn’t annoying enough, when you have here kids competing who can cough the most and loudest it just gets right under your skin!  This all happened on Leonie and I’s way to Cambridge.   


Seat Hog
On the way back the train was absolutely full going into King’s Cross Station in London.  We both had to stand for about an hour train ride, and there was this really rude guy who was taking up a whole seat for his bag.  He had his headphones in and looked half asleep.  So I leaned over and said, “Excuse me.”  Absolutely nothing.  No sign of life in the kid.  So I said it a little louder this time, “Excuse me, Sir.”  Nothing again.  This time I had a whole crowd of onlookers watching me because the train was completely full, and like I said before, train riding provides and exorbitant amount of entertainment.  Well after the second excuse me, Leonie and I were laughing so hard.  I just had to take a picture of “Mr. I’m going to Take up Two seats while Women and Children are having to stand for an hour on a moving train.”  He finally woke up and moved his bag on the ground after seeing all the standing people of which I gladly plopped my tired legs down and rode the train into King’s Cross Station.  
 

Our friend Don
Although we had some great train experiences on our way to Cambridge, none can compare to my friend Donald, Leonie and I met on the way back from London. He was a real gem.  It all started when I dropped a 2£ coin under the seat in front of me.  Due to the starting of the Olympics, for some reason Marylebone Station was closed so we had to take a completely different train out of Paddington Station of which I’ve never ridden before.  We sat down and I was by the window while Leonie had the aisle seat.  I was trying to put my train card back in my wallet when I dropped the £2 coin under the seat in front of me.  So I nicely ask the man sitting in the seat if he could get it for me.  That’s when Don in the corner pipes up who has been sitting diagonally across the aisle from us talking to the man who picked up my coin.  The first thing he asks me is if I’m single.  Now normally that’s a weird way to introduce yourself, but it’s even weirder when you’re about 65 years old with gray hair and don't really fit the mold for flirting with twenty something year old's on the train.  So you can see why I was a bit put off.  He then asks me a bunch of other questions about how old I am, etc. etc.  He then tells me that I need to get with his friend Adam here.  Adam is the guy that picked up my coin for me.  Come to find out Adam is 18.  He was a nice enough kid, but 18 is a little bit too young for me seeing that’s younger than my baby sister.  Just weird.  Come to find out Adam had just met Don on the train as well.  I thought they were best buds by the way they were talking to each other earlier.


Poor Embarrassed Adam
Anyway, Don keeps pushing and pushing and pushing me to give Adam my number and I try to be nice at first and laugh it off, but he just won’t quit.  So I gave Adam my number who than gives me his.  We made Don happy so I thought he would be quiet and leave us alone.  Nope!  Not the case.  He then started on about how I have to go to Adam’s for tea and have crumpets with his family.  Just weird!  We then start asking him questions about himself and that’s where he clams up and gets weird.  He told us about his 10 properties he has all over England and how rich he is with his millions of pounds.  He then starts talking about how he’s going to die and who he’s going to leave his millions to.  It was BIZARRE!  Leonie was just laughing the whole time, meanwhile Adam and I are just thinking about the fact that this guy is off his rocker.  I checked out his fingernails and they were caked with dirt and I smelled a funky smell coming from his direction.  Not really the makings of a millionaire but I guess they come in all shapes and sizes.  Finally it was time to get off the ½ hour train ride where the three of us got off the stop at Gerrards Cross and just looked at each other like, “What just happened in there?”  I got pictures of both Don and Adam because Don asked me too.  Haha…Seriously the train is an interesting, interesting place. J







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