Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Contrite

The tube on the way home last night was very busy. All the seats were taken and then a man stood up right next to where I was standing to get off the train. I moved the very small distance to sit down in the seat and this arm reached round the (admittedly quite large) man who was disembarking and put a rucksack on the chair. Then the owner of the bag “appeared” and I said a somewhat dry “thanks for that”. He looked at me and somewhat contritely and humbly said “Sorry, I didn’t see you there. I’m not that mean.” Then he moved his bag and let me have the seat. I then felt somewhat rude, but being a typical Londoner, just took the moral high ground and sat down in silence. I did rather feel that the man was probably a very nice chap and thought that he was somehow going to end up in a confrontation over a seat (which he wouldn’t have with me). I think he had been rather cheeky, but I did feel rather bad that he had been so sheepish.

4 comments:

Kahless said...

He lied to you.

If he hadnt of seen you then he didnt need to put his rucksack their.

Dont feel bad; he wanted you to feel bad.

Random Reflections said...

Kahless - I hadn't thought of that. But he did seem like a nice man - and clearly on who is good at guilt!

Soup said...

Don't feel bad. There are rules on the tube, including always stand on the right on escalators and seats are for bums, not bags.

Random Reflections said...

Blue soup - thanks. Perhaps he wasn't a local. He'll learn.

I hope things are looking a bit brighter for you.