Anguished Commuters Unite

Rush Hour! Gr! How we all hate it! We bottle the rage, the thoughts and emotions and just hope that we don't snap at the stupid man with the protruding rucksack or the women with the constant hair flicks.
Packed like Sardines, grabbing on to anything that stops you from falling over.. the price we pay to get paid!

Luckily for me, I rarely have to stand during rush hour but from the comfort of my warn seat I see the other commuters snarling at one another, biting their tongues. Tonight was slightly different.
There was vocal rage! The train was 10 min late, the train had half the carriages it was suppose too. Cries of CAN YOU MOVE DOWN PLEASE were repeated over and over with bangs on the glass from the platform.
Generally most commuters are considerate, we move down, we make space etc... and tonight the train had considerate commuters. This however did not satisfy the ones who could not get on.

At Blackfriars, a voice bellowed; "Look, will you just move down, I KNOW you can!"
To which a lady, calmly responded.
"And to where would you like me to move sir?"
Heads emerged from papers, heads turn to look at this women.
She continues... "There is no where to move to. There is nothing to hold on to. So please, where would you like me to move to"
The voice never responded to the lady's questions. his head hung ashamed, however this prompted the ladies around her to laugh at the request to move down to and lightened the mood for just a few moments.

The next station was worse, London Bridge, people squeezed their way off to be replaced by more huffs and puffs and requests to move down. Mumbles of "this is ridiculous!" and "there's a space there" were heard.
The doors slowly closed like you trying to zip up the flies on that extremely tight pair of jeans you own. Big Breathes in by everyone and then..the mood breaks


[Cockney Accent] "I'm s'pose to be goin' Ally-Canty [Alicante] Mate, this is F**king Bollocks!"

Fantastic! A laughter erupts. The cockney geezer continues to engage in banter and those around make small talk. I find it amazing, that how that one vocal opinion in that confined situation and space, unites our anguish us as we feel what each other feel and think what each other think ...
Out Loud

Rantsville

So at the moment I feel like Carrie Bradshaw, sitting in bed with a cup of tea writing away.
However I’m ill and have no voice.
This week has been very very strange. I am still reeling from a potential mistake I made when drunk last weekend and on Wednesday, well my morning began with many rants. Maybe that’s why I now have no voice!

Anyways, I wanted to share my rants with ‘you’.

Rant Numbero uno began on the bus. Now if you’re reading this and you are from London, you would have started to notice the recent Modernisation of our Buses. These include automated voice announcements for the next stop, new and improved CCTV, which you can sit an watch if your on the lower deck but the most recent modernisation that I have encountered is Automated Announcements asking us to ‘move down’.

So Wednesday, I boarded the bus to take me to the train station. Each stop after the one where I got on, this ‘Move Down the Bus’ announcement was played. At first you obeyed and then after a while it just got ridiculously annoying that you are being told what to do... BY A RECORDING!
1 stop before I was due to get off, the bus driver would not move until everyone had moved down the bus. I had moved all the way to the back of the bus to stand but there was nowhere else to move to yet, he kept playing it. ‘Move down the Bus’
‘Please Move down the Bus’
‘Please Move down the Bus’
‘Please Move down the Bus’
‘Please Move down the Bus’
In the end me and this other man sat in these two available seats at the back of the bus, that we didn’t want to sit in as we were getting off at the next stop.
We look and sighed at one another as the bus moved.
That look and that sigh said a lot. It said that we don’t want to be pushed around by an automated voice. We’re our own people god dammit!

So this leads on to RANT 2. Due this stupid bus driver, I missed my train. So I had to find my self an alternative route to work. I boarded the next Rush-hour Express to London and I stood next to this couple who were seated. I like to people watch but there was something annoying about the girl in this couple that I couldn’t take my eyes off.
So there she was bored and fidgety. He was asleep. She kept picking up his ipod and looking at it. About ten minutes later, he stirred from his sleep. And she ripped the headphones from his ears and took his ipod!
I couldn’t believe what she did. He tried to protest but she’d already plug the headphones in her ears smirking!
She caught my glare and I gave her a really disapproving look. Like the ones your mum used to give you when you stole a sweetie from the pick n mix.

That my friend is the kind of behaviour I can’t condone in a relationship. That man needs to grow some balls.
So cue Rant 3…. A short one. About the tube. Because this bus driver made me unnecessarily sit down before moving the bus, this made me miss my train and witness a bloke clearly under the thumb, which meant I had to get the tube (which I don’t normally need to do to get to work). Now I am considerate commuter. Admittedly, yes I do storm passed dawdlers and try and get on carriage before others but at least I don’t invade personal space and hit them.
Oh yea.
You guessed it
I got hit. Hit in the head!
This dude who I was squished as a sardine against decided mid journey to change arms and as he did… he hit me in the head!
No Sorry. No acknowledgement! Nothing! Ignorant F**k!

Rant 4 is about a really stupid client I am dealing with at work and my contact started with her the same day that all this crazy ranting started. This lady calls wanting a quotation. When I am taking an enquiry I have to obtain as much detail as possible to ensure we are the right venue for what they want. Every time I tried to ask her something she would give me more information but not what I asked for and insisting on sending me an email. I agreed this was a good idea, because by this point she was getting on my tits! So I gave her my email address and direct line and tried to finish the call by telling her I was looking forward to receiving her email.
She responded to this with well, I’m not going to send you the email unless you have the availability. I expressed that I did have the availability as I had already previously advised. Yet she still carried on giving me details. After much to-ing and fro-ing the call ended and she was sending me that all important email.
That email never reached my inbox until the next day and an hour into my day she was hounding me for a reply.
A few hours later I sent her a quotation and she called me shortly afterwards.
Now I have to try and be respectful to my clients but this woman is a total idiot. She wanted me to total up all the costs as another venue had done so.
Seriously, what the hell! Can she not use a calculator! I mean how hard is it to times the number of people by the price!
Honestly! People like this I do not have the time for!
*sigh!*

So all in all this week was manic:
Monday started with feelings of guilt

Tuesday I was let down by an estate agent who can’t make appointments correctly.

Wednesday was the day of ranting! Although I did have my annual review that went particularly well. No pay rise though due to this pigging recession!

Thursday, nothing amazing happened really besides some general good flirting and banter on MSN with my subject of guilt (see above and Monday)

Friday... went out locally with two of my best mates and ended up drunkenly snogging a 22 year old! Eeeeeek! (He’s my brothers’ age, it’s just so not right!) And I started to loose my voice!

Saturday... well the voice was getting worse. Weekend in with Hot Drinks, Cough Mixture & throat sweets

And today… No voice! Just about getting out a whisper!

So all in all, a week of pretty strange events!