Travelling on the underground

I spent most of yesterday at my sister’s house apart from me going into London briefly. At one point I was at London Bridge station which is on the Jubilee line extension, so it has permanent barriers along the edge of the platform with doors that slide open when the train has come to a stop. While I was standing waiting for a train, a child was asking his dad why there were barriers and his dad replied, in all seriousness “It’s to stop people with mental illnesses from pushing people under trains”. Erm, right because that happens all the time on the tube.

Admittedly I can think of one instance, a few years ago, where someone who was mentally disordered deliberately pushed someone under a train. But did this man really think that London Underground went to all that expense just to stop people being pushed under trains? Also, what does it tell this child about people who are mentally ill? Probably most people wouldn’t think anything much of what he said but I have done quite a lot of work on mental disorder and unravelling the myths from the reality was quite some task and I did think it was a bit of an unhelpful answer for the man to give.

Anyway, don’t be paranoid about travelling on the tube, there aren’t loads of people waiting to push you under trains - unless you fail to queue properly or try to board before people have got off the train. But to be honest you deserve what you get if you are foolhardy enough to attempt either of those. The other instance where some instant punishment should be given happened on the way home last night. There was a chap who was sitting in the same carriage as me who was busily clipping his fingernails. I could just hear a constant clipping sound and had to turn up the volume on my radio to try and drown it out. Most unpleasant.

It has been a pretty good weekend so far. I am feeling remarkably mellow and relaxed, despite being really tired because my sister’s cats kept waking me up on Friday night. It’s always nice to see my sister, and we get on well even though we are incredibly different. That probably helps in some ways though, as we have never been in competition with each other. We don’t even look alike. Most people can’t believe we are even related. After my sister got married, I was there when the photographer came round to show the photo proofs and she asked if we actually had the same parents. We assured her that we did, I am sure our parents would have mentioned it if they had some legitimate way to disown me!

Oh and I have a new song that keeps going through my head. It’s “Love is in the Air” (which it isn’t). Fortunately I like the song but I blame 30-Something for this current earworm. Or maybe my brain knows something that I don’t...