Tales of a Stitching Commuter - Part the Sixth

I learned a few small things about my fellow travellers this week, boisterous and loud can be a negative thing on those around you or a positive thing. It depends on your attitude and the attitudes and needs of those around you.

I catch the same train into work most mornings - the 6:00am departure from my local station.  Each afternoon though,  I catch a different train depending on when my meetings finish or I get a logical break between work tasks.  You know the story.

Anyway I've discovered never to sit in the downstairs of the third carriage of the 4:30pm departure train.  There are a group of men and women who gather there each afternoon and even though alcohol is prohibited on thee train they pull out the cans of beer and bottles of alcoholic mixed drinks shortly after leaving the last major city station and they drink and are boisterous the rest of the trip.  Usually I can sit back and put my head phones on or immerse myself in a book and forget all around me.  Not with these people. Their voices are so loud and so raucous and strident that they bore through your skull!

They aren't intentionally malicious towards other passengers but they do accost other passengers into "joining in" by offering beer or asking people around them answers to questions they don't know "who played the part of the British PM in that movie, you know him, he was in that movie with the blond!"*

The problem here is that the rest of the carriage is composed of people like me - we've had a long day and just want some quiet time before we get home and most also have to cook dinner for their families etc.  I had an underlying feeling that if you upset these drinkers they would turn nasty very quickly.

I had run into group once a while back.  I ran into them again on Tuesday afternoon.  I discovered Wednesday afternoon that they do this *every* afternoon!  I spoke to the train official when I got off at my stop on Wednesday night and was informed "oh let them be - they'll do it anyway and at least this way we know where they are - they do no harm".

I suppose my reply of "why not paint the carriage in gaudy colours and call it the Party Carriage so all the other people who need to be too drunk to get off the train unassisted can all congregate together.  You know the train that specifically says in every carriage "alcohol is not to be consumed in the train" was delivered with a touch of sarcasm.

The train official insinuated that I was party-pooping wowser trying to deny anyone having a bit of fun and relaxation.

Thursday night I caught the 4:45pm train. Another passenger's mobile went off.  She answered it and settled into a good long talk at the top of her voice.  Even worse I recognised the conversation !!!!  She was speaking with the drunks 15 mins ahead of us !!!!  She missed that train, so they rang her so she could be included in the conversation!!!!  AAARRGGHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thankfully we have some tunnels and other black spots in mobile coverage so she gave up an hour into the trip :)

On Friday afternoon I caught the 4:15pm train and was merrily stitching away when at the second stop out of the station a group of African women got on board.  There were no free whole seats so they all sat in the aisles seats in a cluster, including the seat next to me.  They were speaking a language other than English (I wont even pretend to guess what it was - only it was some form of African dialect and wasn't the clicky one - I've heard that one before).  The were loud and talking over the top of each other but each of them was wreathed in smiles and they were laughing.  They were so cheerful it brightened up the whole carriage.  I looked around and everyone else in the carriage was smiling indulgently at them .... was it because they were speaking a different language (we don't get many African people here in Australia) or was it because each woman radiated happiness and joy? Or was it simply because it was Friday so the other people around them were more forgiving?

Then they all went quiet.  Suddenly all the African women stopped speaking.  Being a curious sod, I looked up from my stitching and looked around and they were all looking at the dragon blackwork I had on my hoop.  They were all staring at my stitching!  Not me, the stitching.

So I picked up the chart and handed it to the lady next to me.  It was handed around all of them and there were excited murmurs between the ladies.  So on an impulse I parked my needle and handed her my hoop too.  My stitching was handed around all of them - all of them touching it and running their fingers over the stitched threads and looking at the whole layout of the pattern.  It was eventually handed back to me, none the worse for wear and I was asked by the girl next to me if I was making it into a cushion or pillow.  I said, I don't know yet ... I'm still thinking about it - I just like the design .... she translated my words to all the other ladies and they all looked at me and smiled and nodded and then started speaking amongst themselves again and again it was raucous and load but it sounded friendly and there was no tension in the air although it was a very noisy trip all the way home.

I guess being loud isn't in itself a problem.  Its how you are loud that affects other people.  Are you strident and complaining?  Or are you smiling and laughing with each other with no meanness evident in your tone or body language?

On a stitching front this week I tried desperately to work on Hilary's Zodiac cats.  I was beset by whole swarms of frogs!  Ponds of frogs? Aha according to here it is an ARMY of frogs !!!!!

On Wednesday night I gave up and used my dice and started a new project called Water Dragon by CherryTree designs.  A simple little blackwork piece, I threw it in my bag to work on during the train ride.

I worked some more on it each night and finished the kit yesterday!  Pic is in my finished folder .  And this finish specifically is here.

Other CherryTree designs can be found here.

I think I might throw the companion piece "Fire Dragon" into my bag for next week's train travel.  Or I might let the dice decide .....

Meanwhile I'd better get off this computer and get back to Hilary's cats ......






* The answer was Hugh Grant and two movies referenced were Love Actually and Bridget Jones' Diary.