The one thing that has always made me curious, from the time way back when I was commuting from Loughborough to Nottingham, to now with my journey from Northampton to London, is how some people can sit there and do absolutely nothing day after day.
I mean I can understand someone on a bus or a tube, on a journey they occasionally take, just thinking about things in silence for a while, but commuters make the same journey everyday. Sitting in a chair with no paper, music or anything else, for anywhere up to an hour (or more in some cases) on a mainline train, every single working day must be unbelievably dull. It’s not like they’ve just dashed for the train to go on holiday or for a trip, they do it twice a day!
I never get on public transport without at least my iPhone (read: iPod) so I can listen to music or watch video podcasts (although Epic Fu hasn’t worked on mine since new year) but I usually take a Manga tankobon (read: book) or my PSP with me too, especially since I’m commuting between 4 and 5 hours a day at the moment, which is torturous enough… I think I’d start to go insane if I had nothing at all to do for that long each day of the working week…
Right, time to get some sleep, since there’s a strike on the mainline tomorrow and I’ll be lucky to even fit on the train at 7am. If it’s anything like the Piccadilly line at Kings Cross during rush hour then it’s going to be hell.