Wednesday 14 November 2012

Seen on the tube - very early one morning

Central Line - Leyton to St Paul's
  • A young man, loudly chewing gum and trying to spike up his hair with the palms of his hands.
  • A teenage schoolboy asleep in a corner seat, rubbing his eyes occasionally.
  • Five builders in a row. Each wearing multiple layers of jumpers finished with a tatty grey hoodie, plus steel capped boots and shaven heads; each clutching a can of redbull and with a hard hat on their lap or by their feet.
  • Two women, heads together, handbags tightly clasped on their laps, whispering intently before one passed the other a wad of folded money

Dawn over Leyton
Leaving the house at dawn
 
The early morning tubes - before about 7:10 - are full of semi-asleep builders.  They are very peaceful trains, with an air of respectful pre-dawn camaraderie amongst the travellers.  I don't usually get a seat - even at that time - but I lean against a pillar, reading my Kindle and looking up occasionally to watch everybody else doze.  It's a surprisingly unstressful time of day to travel.

4 comments:

  1. I miss commuting a bit - so many opportunities to invent juicy backstories for the characters you encounter.

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  2. oooh intrigue on the tube! love these posts !

    on Monday Mr Driftwood came home with a commuting story where a fellow train passenger asked him to take his photograph with his headless torso so he could post it on twitter. we checked later, he really did #headlesstorso

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  3. I'm remembering my early morning commute, when the Northern Line had wooden floors, a window sill and tartan seats. Blimey, that was a while back!

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  4. Really like your picture. All eyes (planes and plains) head towards sunrise so beautifully.

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