on the right track

OK so I’m typing this whilst at a table on a train about to leave London Euston station. I’m about as surprised I’ve ended up here as the next person!

Firstly I’d like to congratulate myself for successfully making it down to London, using the tube, and finding my way to the offices without mishap. My talent for creating a calamity is superb and my track record with public transport is exceptionally poor (my parents have received plenty a distressed phone call) but I managed it. I almost placed myself on the train to Brighton, but realised my error in time to leg it around to the other (correct) platform and eventually the correct train. Go me. 😀

So with that speech of pride out the way… still gotta keep hush-hush about what I’m actually here for but I can tell you it’s rather (very!!!) exciting.  Life takes you some pretty cool places and it’s fun just to go with the flow.

Anyway, I thought I’d share my wonderings from the train journey down because my brain was in a hyperactive mode and I thought writing down ALL THE THINGS in my head was a good idea.  After I’d given up on doing some drawings for textiles because the train was wobblier than I’d remembered and was those drawings weren’t gonna be my finest.  Stupid idea in the first place really.  I’ll know for next time.

Lily Wonderings:

— I wonder how the ticket guy chose with this job?  He looks pretty young; straight out of uni age maybe.  I wonder if he thought ‘you know what, I want to be a train conductor when I’m older’.  Not that there’s anything wrong with being a train conductor or that it’s not worth aspiring to, but nevertheless it seems an unlikely profession to have in mind.  Most professions probably are.  I bet more than half the people here aren’t doing what they imagined they’d be doing when they were 17.  That’s if they even had any idea back then at all.  Funny how most people just drift into jobs. I’m doing exactly that.

— How much of England is just fields?

— I wonder what the guy infront of me is reading on his iPad/Kindle hybrid thing. He’s read from chapters 57 to 67 in the time I’ve been observing EVERYTHING around me. He’s also zoomed in on all the dictionary definitions and read them intently. What about?

— Perks of height and an exceptionally long body: can see over the top of everybody’s seats.

— Soooo many men in suits and glasses and earphones. They all look like my high school maths teacher.

— I wonder if I’ve ever been the subject of strangers’ thoughts?  I wonder if anybody else here is actually wondering anything about their surroundings, or if everybody else has done this enough times not to really notice anymore.  I wonder if anyone else is a rookie disguised as somebody who knows where they’re going when they step off this train.  Probs not.  I bet I’m the only one doing all this wondering.  But yeah, I wonder what they (hypothetically) would wonder about me?  I’m a young girl wearing smart-ish trousers and bright red lipstick, who 5 minutes ago was drawing pictures of lingerie in a tiny sketchbook and has now brought out another notebook and begun fiercely scribbling away.  What conclusions would strangers draw from that one?

— Taking a selfie on a moving train isn’t easy.  No, I don’t have shame.

— Ahh, passing through Crewe station.  Not-so-fond memories of train related tribulations in this place.

— People are brave going to sleep when they’re on their own.  I’d be nervous of not waking up in time and finding myself in Glasgow at 10pm.  This sort of trick isn’t exactly unheard of for me.

— Will I look like a knob if I wear sunglasses on the train?  I’m squinting and it’s giving me a headache.

— Graffiti under bridges – how the hell do graffiti artists reach all these inaccessible places?  HOW?  I feel like graffiti is something that just appears.  We’re used to seeing it around, but rarely see or hear of it actually happening.  Still baffles me how they paint a train tunnel without being wiped out.

— Wow that is a lot of eyeliner for this time in the morning.  That’d be halfway down my face by lunchtime if I wore it.

— Am I being judgemental? Nahh.  Being observant isn’t judgemental.  I’m not saying anything, just watching and wondering.  Nothing wrong with that is there?

— I’m hungry already and it’s just gone 8am.  Lunchtime, Y U so far away?

— Cracking my neck like this probably looks mighty odd.

— Going somewhere unfamiliar on your own is fun.  I want lots of this in my life.

— I should probably be nervous?  First day of a job and all that.  I’ve been told it’s gonna be super relaxed, but still, I feel like nerves are part of the ‘new job script’ and my brain isn’t following it.  Hmm.

— My dad just sent me virtual emoji coffee because I said I was thirsty and forgot to bring water.  Oh, life.

Then I stared out the window for a good while to avoid the dreaded travel sickness, before hopping off at Euston to follow the current of suits and briefcases and small trolley suitcase thingies out of the station.   I made it on the tube and whatnot in one piece, and a very fun day ensued.  And before the journey home I became One Of Those People speed walking along the pavement in clip-cloppy loafers because I HAS A TRAIN TO CATCH AND OMG IF I MISS IT I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’LL DO.  Whilst trying to act perfectly composed and not stand out like a sore thumb as a newbie to this whole commuter business.  Simultaneously hating myself for being One Of Those People pedestrians hate, and finding it rather thrilling to be caught up in this crazy city.

AND THEN I realised I’d typed 1000 words and was feeling ever so slightly light headed and began chatting to the guy opposite me at the table, about rugby of all things.  No idea what his name was but he seemed cool.

I’ll stop now.  Life is good. 🙂

lily kate x

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