looking out the window of a train (or random rambling)

Looking out of the window of the train, I see the looks people wear upon their faces. I wonder what is going through their minds; the blonde on the platform opposite (in the black and white, flower patterned dress; shoes heels but with a strip up the front, slightly gladiatorial) stands with her legs crossed in front, a face looking fixed with concentration, or maybe annoyance. I wonder if she saw me on my train, sitting, looking out the window at her. My face, I think, slightly more focused but generally happy – in spite of the stinking cold I’m carrying around with me right now.

Some of the faces you see show the same emotions. Maybe it’s something about rail travel, and the perpetual waiting for trains that have a tendency to turn up whenever they feel like it, rather than whenever it is they’re timetabled (of course, I don’t want to curse fate here; my trains have all been on time so far, touchwood, and all that); a curse that I’m all too familiar with. I bet that’s what it was, with this woman, that the train she was waiting for was delayed and she had far better places to be. At least when you’re on the train you’re moving towards your destination rather than counting down the hours being spent waiting for a train when you could be doing something far better instead. A curse that is only one way – the trains expect you to wait for them, but never give you an extra 30 seconds on that day when you’re running late and really need to get on board.

I find when I travel my mind wanders. Whether I’m walking, on the train, in the car, on a plane; it doesn’t matter the method of travel, but, when I’m by myself my mind will wander. If I start a journey with an empty mind, it is full by the time I reach my destination – and, fortuitously the opposite is true. When I start with a full mind, my thoughts empty and I find I’ve come to some sort of understanding about whatever it was that had been troubling me.

Sometimes I travel and I listen to music. Sometimes I play games, watch a DVD or read a book. Sometimes I stare out and let my mind wander.

I used to be one of the people on the platform, like the nameless blonde, who would be annoyed and upset at being kept waiting for a train that never seemed to arrive. Somewhere along the line though I changed; I became more at ease with the world and able to just relax and take it easy. Enjoy the waiting, or make better use of it than sitting and feeling rage building up inside of me. Rage that would have nowhere to go, and would effectively spoil my evening (I would rarely get upset at being held up going to work... well, I am only human!)

Sometimes, when waiting, I’ll sit and sketch; or I’ll do the things I’d be doing when on the train. Or I’d get take out and eat my dinner on the platform (typically splitting my take-out time between subway and McDonalds; of the two, Subway was always preferred – although I’d never venture further than the ubiquitous ‘Sub of the day’ – and always the 6” – typically overloaded with salad (I like everything, but, in particular love the black olives and jalapeños, I’m probably some sort of sub-freak-of-nature (I know I’m setting myself up there... never mind though, just one of those things. If you can’t laugh at yourself and poke fun at yourself, who can you?))

There are many things I believe in this life; one of the most important to me is that it isn’t arriving that’s the most important; it’s the journey you take to get there. (okay, sometimes the arriving is important too – but – shhh, don’t make me all time-stressed again; that ruins the whole thing!)

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Bath-ward ramblings.

A different route this time around, quite a bit quicker and easier (And cheaper – using a “buy a ticket to one point, then another from another” sort of wheeze to save about £15. Not that I didn’t try other things, but, me being too old for a “young person’s” travel card; too young for a “senior citizen’s” travel card, no children to travel with for a “friends and family” card – and not going the right way to benefit from the network railcard (seems to only work around London). So no third off my tickets, but still, a bit of creative purchasing and I’m on my way).

This is my second trip to Bath, by train, to visit my girlfriend. Using up a little bit of my owed time saw me leaving work just after lunch and it being a bit of a three-day-weekend-and-a-bit, what with the bank holiday and everything. She’s been suffering this past week, a bout of tonsillitis – I hope it wasn’t down to me and all the kissing we’d gotten up to the weekend before! (touchwood, I seem to not be suffering with anything – and I hope that nothing untoward comes on over the weekend; that would really suck (lemons?))

I travel by train almost every day (the notable exceptions being those days that I don’t; usually due to working at home or it being one of those rare days that I have off (not counting the weeks I take off when I go and visit my girls in the states)); but despite the constant travel, I still enjoy myself a huge amount. I love looking out the windows and watching the scenery fly by, often with music in my ears (today, as an example, sees me listening to a bit of Camera Obscura on my way down, but it varies so much from day to day – largely depending on my mood and how awake I am). One of the things that I like is the change between countryside and towns, cities as we rush through. Everywhere seems to have its own character – and I wish I was much better at geography so that I could talk with confidence of the places I passed; instead I’m limited to the rail stations we pass. This train, for example, passed as far as Gloucester before darting off in a different direction. When I was a student, and was looking for job experience in my gap year, I was sent to Gloucester for a job using Delphi (imagine visual basic for PASCAL – if you remember what that is!) and one of the few things I remember is the guy interviewing me telling me that Gloucester has some of the most beautiful girls in the country. (I’ve still not seen enough of the country to form a solid opinion one way or another, but I think everywhere has its mix of people (plus, I think I've found the most beautiful woman in the whole country))

As it was, I didn’t get the position; instead I wound up working at the University where I would graduate from, then fall into a position (I am a firm believer that things happen when they’re needed, people enter your life when they’re are meant to, etc. etc. etc. Kinda like fate a bit, but more a “fate, if you chose to accept it”) and find myself in a pretty good position after having worked for a number of years.

I wonder if I would ever move from my current place. If you don’t have time to do anything but commute, does it really matter where you live? I mean, at the end of the day, my house is just a place I leave my stuff and sleep (occasionally, I eat there too). I really don’t know. Maybe.

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