Waiting to get on the Southbound Northern line train at Waterloo. People stream out of the train. There is a group of us poised to push onto the train the moment no one else is getting off so that we can either get a seat or find a spot between the seats to stand in where we won’t be crowded too much by icky, nasty strangers.
A woman steps up to the doorway, but doesn’t step onto the platform. She blinks. She looks confused.
We wait for her to move. “Step onto the platform or move,” we think.
We wait.
and
wait.
We wait a very long time.
Five seconds at least.
An Englishwoman in front of me says. “Er, Ex-cuse me. . .” right when I bellow, “ON OR OFF!” I sounded every inch an obnoxious American.
She scuttles onto the platform and we get on the train finding seats, which in the middle of rush hour is lucky, then again the train was only going to Kennington, which was not lucky.
I know I should feel guilty for yelling at the woman, but I don’t. I have zero patience for people who decide to fiddle with the luggage the moment they get to the bottom of a crowded stairwell without moving to the side or people that decide to do their taxes at the ATM when there is a gineourmous queue and I can now add to the list for people that stand in the door of a train during rush hour not knowing if they want to leave or not.
I usually don’t let the urban bitch out however. The New Yorky, “HEY! I’M WALK’N HERE!” vibe cause, well. It just isn’t very nice. But it does have its place.
It certainly worked a bit better than the Limey, “Er, excuse me. I say, do you think, perhaps, it might be possible for you to move out the way, perchance?”
January 30th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
I don’t think that you sounded like an obnoxious American, just someone trying to get somewhere being held up by someone being stupid and /or inconsiderate. I’m just as impatient with people arsing about but usually blame it on people being Londoners or not. Maybe it’s about people who can live in cities versus people who can’t or shouldn’t…