We all have that one person that you never ever want to lay eyes on again. Well the other morning I woke from a train slumber to find myself staring right into the eyes of that one person.
I literally felt sick.
Luckily this was at the end of my journey – so I did what any self-respecting, nonchalant and confident woman would do…pretend I hadn’t seen him, hide behind the people standing in the aisles and dashed off the train as quickly as possible so not to make any more contact, eye or otherwise.
This got me thinking about the way tubes and trains force people together and how actually I’d been pretty, lucky given the chances, of not running into him before in eight years. Furthermore, imagine how much worse it would have been if we were in rush hour stuck together in a confined carriage?
So I suppose I got off lightly.
Remember the couple of began their romance having met on the tube only for the man to propose, all singing and dancing, on the very same tube train years later?
Remember the community spirit showed during the Olympics, of tube carriages cheering the driver’s announcement of gold medals won?
Most of the time when you see someone you recognise on the tube, it’s really not that bad. These are mainly colleagues or random business acquaintances, either on the way to work who you really don’t want to engage in conversation, preferring the last precious moments before you there kept to yourself. Or on the way home, not knowing how long you’ve got to make polite conversation. But how bad is it really?
So while I’ll fret for another few weeks about running into this person again before I forget about it and relax, it’s much more likely that I’ll see someone I want to, or witness a nice moment or, at worse, be stuck talking to a colleague politely for 20 minutes. And that’s not so bad, is it?
Laura King is the author of The Little Book of Tube Etiquette, published by Gibson Publishing, available in paperback at Waterstones, WH Smith and most online retailers.
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