OOF

 Out of office. Love you all. When you stop looking. You will find. Much to share. 

from R's rue https://ift.tt/PsvyrFk

Reservations

When you book your advance tickets for intercity train travel in Britain, you are automatically given seat reservations without charge. Consequently, when Shirley and I boarded our London-bound train we headed straight to Coach C and successfully found our seats there.

The train was full and following some hold-ups  and a cancellation, it became even more full by the time we reached Derby.  The guard came over the tannoy, announcing that all reservations were now cancelled in order to accommodate the extra passengers. It was now standing room only.

Further down the track, we arrived in the city of Leicester where plenty more travellers were waiting on the platform. Our carriage was pretty quiet so all could hear the conversation between a young woman who had just boarded and an older woman who was sitting in the window seat across the aisle from me.

YOUNG WOMAN Excuse me. You are sitting in my seat.

OLDER WOMAN  All seat reservations have been cancelled. The guard announced it at Derby.

YOUNG WOMAN But I have paid for that seat. Could you leave it now. It's mine.

OLDER WOMAN I'm not going anywhere. Someone was sitting in my reserved seat.

YOUNG WOMAN You are refusing to get out of my seat?

OLDER WOMAN  Yes. That's right. I'm not going anywhere.

YOUNG WOMAN I can't believe it. I paid good money for that seat. You selfish bitch!

The young woman paused for a while, staring at the older woman but after a few moments she left our carriage no doubt looking for somewhere to stand on the last hour of our journey to London.

I continued to read my book but five minutes later the young woman, minus her baggage , returned to the situation. This time she was filming it all on her phone.

YOUNG WOMAN (voice raised) I am telling you again. That's my seat. Get out of it now!

OLDER WOMAN No way.

YOUNG WOMAN So you are still refusing to leave my seat!  I can't believe it. How can you do this?

OLDER WOMAN (No reply)

YOUNG WOMAN  I hope you're happy with this. Look at you smiling! It's not funny you ****ing cow! **** you! (And with that, the young woman exited stage right - no doubt returning to her baggage. We didn't see her again)

On the train home a somewhat similar situation occurred when a tall young man boarded the train at Peterborough. At the window seat across the aisle from us, another young man was sitting. He had, by the way, been talking to someone on his smartphone all the way from London.

Politely, the new passenger made his challenge, showing his seat reservation to the interloper. However, this time  there was no big drama. The interloper offered to give up his seat but the new passenger said, "No, it's okay man there are one or two spare seats down there. You stay where you are." And with that the brief meeting between two strangers was over.

It was interesting to witness these incidents at close quarters and not that it makes a ha'p'orth of  difference but I note that one of the four characters was Asian - of Indian heritage and another was Afro-Caribbean. The other two players in these scenes were white English. Happily, that heritage element played no obvious part in the dynamics of these two encounters.

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/McF0wfp