Sunday, August 06, 2006

Welcome back to me....

... appologies for my major lack of communication recently, have been very busy as I explained, but at least now I have the Internet working again (thanks Tim!) So here I am again, thought not for long, I'm going to Stage Fright tomorrow, somewhere near Lincoln. Woohoo exotic or what?! But actually I am really really excited about seeing everyone again. So that'll be fun, I have a nice big bag of dressing up clothes at the ready, so be waiting for plenty of crazy photos!

Last weekend I went with Tim to Chester to visit a school friend who's there doing an engineering placement thing, and it was really fun, but I had an interesting train journey there, just something I thought worth writing about. I have mentioned I know before about the Great British public (or is it that great British Public..?!) and certainly I experienced something of what my mother terms "the World War II Spirit" on the way. I hate train stations, I don't mind trains as much, but I really hate train stations. People are rude, and unfriendly and far too wrapped up in their own selfish worlds to ever acknowledge anyone else. But then make something go wrong, and suddenly everyone works together! It's bizzare!

In my case the 'something to go wrong' was a cancelled train. My stomach dropped right down to my toes when I heard that dreaded announcement... "the 11.34 train to Llandudnoe has been cancelled" full stop. No appology, no alternative.. it's just cancelled, vanished in to thin air. Great. Anyway, after discovering a few other people in my same predicament we all worked out which train to get instead and it was fine. But the atmosphere changes so dramatically as soon as anything goes wrong. People chat to each other, find out where they're going, talk about the one thing they have in common at that moment in time... the rubbish English train system...

I guess that's the point really isn't it... a random sea of faces at a train station have nothing in common. But a group of people all trying to find a cancelled train do have something in common. They have two things in common, a common need and a common hate! This is what my mum means by World War II Spirit, people open up and work together when they are faced with a need or danger. Of course I'm not comparing the experiences of a World War and a cancelled train! Simply drawing a parallel between the way people react to adversity, no matter how small it may be. And again I'll say it, I am glad to be British. Obviously not all the time... and I'm certainly not proud of alot of things associated with us and our country. But in essence it's not a bad place to live!

3 comments:

Nicola said...

Hey Kat! I had a bit of a fiasco at the train station the other day, I didn't have enough cash to get a return ticket, the single was more expensive, the cash machine wasn't working and they don't accept visa electron cards! I was actually really lucky the train was delayed, it meant that my mom could come and bail me out! she works v near the station so she came to lend me some cash! just on big bro's brain they were talking about where bonds form and why, it's just a human trait to bond over shared situations like a cancelled train or a late bus or getting soaked by rain etc! Anywho I'm off to bedfordshire (not on a train on foot! *groan* lol!)
Sweet Dreams
Nic
xxx

Ffi said...

Daaaarling! so nice to catch up on ur life! glad ur ok, hope stage fright goes/has gone ok! Ive just got back from my camp...im dead on my feet but it was awesome! its now 7pm and im off to bed! tra my lovlie xxxFfixxx

Amie said...

Hi Kat...

Did I miss something, what's all this about stage frigth, who are you going where with?

Anyway, Hi Hunny, it's nice to read a bit of a catch up on your world!!!

Amie