"A funny thing happened to me on the way to work this morning......

My tube blew up."

As Neil's just said above, we are trying to get back to normal with the blog as for people who aren't our usual visitors we try to provide a commuter's view of travelling on the London Underground and look at the tube from a lighthearted/funny/wacky/weird/alternative and sometimes trainspottery perspective. So it's pure co-incidence that I came across the first "first person account of the London bombings" that made me laugh. It's a long post but well worth the read - informative, funny, moving and strong.

The brilliant thing it shows is how those split decisions that you make about which carriage to get on can literally change your life. We've seen the film verison in Sliding Doors where there are parallel versions of Gwyneth Paltrow's life and what would have happened had caught the tube she missed by two seconds.

There's even the Way Out Tube Map which shows which carriage to get on in order to be nearest the exit, my copy is so well worn it's falling apart. We all have our strategies for getting seats on the tube or standing on the platform to be near the opening doors.

As Dave Taurus from Triforce says: "I like to sit in the first, frontmost carriage, because that�s where I�m most likely to get a seat. ..... It�s a bit like a game of chicken: how close can I get to the first carriage before the beeps go to indicate the doors are closing and the tube is moving off. Whenever I�ve played it in the past, I�ve always just pussied out and got on to the nearest carriage. Today, for some reason I decided that if I didn�t get on the first carriage, I�d just wait ten minutes for the next train. At the very last minute I nearly just jumped on to the second carriage, but I kept going, and reached the first carriage, where I moved further towards the front to get a comfy seat between two women (who take up less room than fat old men)......... I will be totally haunted by the slender line of fate that separates those two carriages."

So please read this amazing post, as Dave says: "try to bear with me through the boring bits � you�ll eventually get to a Hollywood-style explosion with a hint of post-apocalyptic fallout."

We're not going to be beaten by terrorism, we are going to carry on as normally as possible, we're going to deal with this with the usual London cynicism, humour and above all strength.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Sunday, July 10, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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