Salocin

Christmas Travel

I feel like I live on the Eurostar these days. That I'm getting really used to it. I have never seen it like it was this morning though. I arrived 30 minutes before departure, as you're meant to, but the departure hall was completely choked up with hundreds of passengers trying to get past security. I made it to my train with 5 minutes to spare, and I'm fairly sure that a large number of people were not so lucky.

I'm on my way back to Belgium for 4 days over Christmas. As usual, I'm quite productive on the train, and I've written Christmas Cards (yes, I know it's the 24th, but they'll get them not long after New Years and know that I was thinking of them) and now I'm writing this. I also had a spooky how-did-I-know-you-were-going-to-say-that moment with the girl in the restaurant car.

Yesterday was the Christmas party for my department at my new employer. It was nothing grandiose, and it had to be done over lunch for various logistical reasons, but seeing everyone outside of the work environment gave me the opportunity to get to know them a bit better, and based on the people, my first impression is that I think I've been very fortunate in terms of where I've ended up.

I stayed with friends in London (who are terribly indulgent and let me stay in their spare room every time I'm passing through) and then got up in good time to make it to the Eurostar. I'm pretty good about travel, I don't get upset or stressed, and I plan reasonably carefully, so I felt that while I was cutting it a bit thin for the Christmas period, I'd be fine to catch the train.

Then I saw the crowds at Waterloo station. A lot of people had arrived late for the previous train, and were being pushed to the front of the line so that they could go through security first. Unfortuantely, this was making everyone else late for their trains too, despite the fact that we had all arrived on time. I spoke to one of the Eurostar representatives early on who assured me that we would be called when our train was about to leave, and so I left it at that, figuring that whether or not she was telling the truth, we were all in the same situation so there was no point in pushing and making it worse for everyone else. Another representative told us later that our train would be delayed 20 minutes. Since in fact we left exactly on time, I think he just told us that to calm people down. What he really meant was, "You're quite likely to miss the train, and may have to wait for the next one, but if I let you go ahead, I'm just screwing someone else, so I'm just going to say something to make you miss your train calmly rather than stressed out". Dirty liar, but I see his point.

It's remarkable that despite knowing there are metal detectors ahead, and that everyone is in a hurry, and having 20 minutes to prepare as you line up, most people arrive at the metal detectors totally unprepared, and then have to fish lots of metal things out of their pockets and put them in their bag, or struggle out of their jacket at the last minute despite the sign that says, "take your jacket off before you pass this point" some 3 metres back. Under pressure, people seem to become quite incredibly obtuse, dense and slow. Then they insult the security guys as though it's all their fault. I wished them a happy Christmas and their faces went from severe to friendly in under a second.

I made it to the Eurostar, and had barely put my stuff in the overhead rack that they announced the doors were closing.

I've written 10 Christmas Cards (I'm missing 2 of the addresses though) and bought myself a breakfast. While I was ordering the [not very appealing, microwaved ham and cheese compressed bread-like substance that makes up a Eurostar] breakfast, I asked the girl who was serving me if she found it tough to have to work on the day before Christmas, and she immediately said, "I was absolutely sure you would ask me that". It was a bit weird. Maybe everyone's asking her that, but that's not the impression she gave me. Anyway, she was very friendly, and she said she had to organize a dinner for tonight because she was having guests around. I hope her dinner goes well, although I can't imagine why I care - must be the Christmas spirit giving me lots of empathy for my fellow man.

So to all you random surfers who drop by from time to time, have a great Christmas and New Year, may all your dreams come true, all your wishes be fulfilled, and all the other cheery things we're supposed to say to retain our karmic score over the commercial festive period. Now get off the bloody internet and go hug someone you care about, it's not the time of year to be staring at a computer screen. Go on. The real world beckons.

Posted by nlvp at December 24, 2004 07:11 PM