Another pet hate: Looking

As frequent visitors to my blog will have noticed, I do like to complain a little. To add to my series of pet hates about commuting didn’t have to think very long and hard about something that I have to put up with virtually every day that gets right on my nerves. Today’s pet hate is: looking.

In particular… where to look. I always try to keep myself occupied when on the train just so that I don’t have that awful dilemma of where to look on the train. But even then, occasionally I have a little look round and then catch someone’s eye. Some people will quite happily gawp at you without any shame, remorse or embarrassment at all. It’s almost as though they boarded the train with the intention of people-watching. Others will try to be sly about staring, by staring in between the seat headrests or through the reflection on the window. Either way it is very annoying and it makes me seriously consider buying a car.

I sort of empathise with the people who stare at me though, because they are in the same position as me. They don’t really know where to look. It only takes a few moments where they need a break from their Soduku or if they forgot their book or their iPod batteries are flat and they find themselves in the horrible situation of people-watching. If I could I would wear a hood and a mask so that people couldn’t stare at my face, but I’m worried that would make me a bit too conspicuous. Rant over. Peace out.

Pet hates: The ticket inspector

You may remember the other week I posted my pet commuter hate in a little rant on my blog. Well I didn’t think that I would be following it up so soon afterwards to be honest, but I suppose needs must. So my number two pet commuter hate is: The ticket inspector.

I appreciate that it can be a tough job being a ticket inspector. There probably isn’t much job satisfaction unless you like upsetting people and being verbally – or sometimes physically – abused by members of the general public. However this is part and parcel of that particular job in my opinion. Therefore if it’s not your thing, then don’t do it for a living. Just because you don’t like your job it doesn’t mean you should be a complete moron to everyone you come into contact with. Fair enough if someone is rude to you then you don’t have to like them, as long as you’re professional. However today I witnesses nothing but one-way sheer rudery from a ticket inspector towards a young mum who clearly doesn’t use public transport much.

I don’t know the full ins and outs of the story but it seemed as though the mum was going to some sort of appointment with her 1 year old son and they almost missed the train. It arrived before she had chance to purchase a ticket at the machine at Marble Arch, so she just jumped on knowing that an inspector would be able to give her a ticket on board. That he did, but it was for a considerably longer journey because she should have bought a ticket in the inspectors words. I swear they must be on commission or something. I bet if the young mum was a 6ft tall body builder the inspector wouldn’t charge any extra. Rant over for today – and it’s only Tuesday! I’m off to The Train Line now to book my tickets for the next month. Peace out.

Commuting pet hates!

As you may have read before on my blog, I am now a fully-fledged commuter. I spend at least 2 hours of my entire working day travelling to or from work. I don’t really mind it though, but that might only be because I haven’t been doing it for very long. I expect that after 10 or 20 years of commuting I will probably have lost all of my hair and will walk around with a permanent scowl on my face like many of the older commuters seem to have.

As I said though I don’t mind commuting, but there are a few things that do really get my goat. Just for a bit of fun on this hot Friday afternoon commute back home I thought I’d begin an ongoing list of commuter hates, starting with my number one and thing that has really annoyed me this afternoon.

People who eat. I am all for eating and drinking on the train as a small amount of food or drink does break up the journey, however smelly cooked food really gets on my nerves. There’s nothing worse than someone boarding the train with a smelly, greasy pasty or sausage roll. Not only does it make the entire carriage smell like a chip shop, but it also generates quite a lot of mess. The mess itself doesn’t bother me personally as I usually already have my seat or standing position, but I don’t like it when people are inconsiderate enough to leave their mess on a train. Fair enough you can’t really pick up flakes of pastry but that’s all the more reason to not eat things like that on public transport.

That’s my rant over for today, so have a nice weekend and I will be back in due course with my next commuter pet hate. Peace out.