A World Without Music

Picture the scene, a cold Monday morning after a stressful weekend where W and I would much rather have stayed at home thank you very much. As mentioned in a previous entry, B had gone to stay with her Gran up in the big smoke. This didn't go too well with either of us as we both felt a little under the weather and we both missed B like crazy. To top it all, we both had to go and see 'The Lion King', a musical we wouldn't even send our worst enemies to. It felt like torture and by the end of the whole day, the fake smile on my face was beginning to look a little plastic. In fact, I think the only reason we both got through it was by making jokes about it.....'Circle of Strife' indeed! A packed train journey home and an absolute soaking on the way back to the car topped it all off nicely. Sunday night had its filthy little claws into us and I could certainly hear the faint cackling of Monday morning, already expectantly waiting and ready to pounce. There was no escaping it - no matter how hard the struggle. The weekend had passed too quickly and we were not happy about it!

So yes, Monday morning - the sort of morning when, by dragging yourself out of bed feels like you have accomplished a great deal. I had breakfast, got changed, made my way down the stairs and out the door (via a very nice goodbye kiss from W - the best part of the day). Fumbling in my bag for my bus pass and mp3 player as I made my way to the bus stop, something didn't feel right. It felt a little light. I convinced myself it was nothing - another incident of my shockingly poor start to the day.

I got on the bus, somewhat baffled by the fact that the Oyster card still said £1 credit, even though I was convinced that was what it said on Friday when I had carried out the same task. I sat in my usual seat, surrounded by the same vacuous faces and begun a more thorough inspection of my bag. The cold hard truth soon hit me:

"Oh bugger!" I thought, "I've left my mp3 player at home!"

Now, to some, that probably won't seem like such a big deal. It's only music, right? Well yes, but for the journey I was about to undertake and when you consider how much music means to me (future posts will reflect this and go into much more detail on the subject). I tried to convince myself that it wasn't a big deal. After all, I had a copy of the paper and the Su Doku would keep me busy (bugger, it's Monday - they're dead easy on a Monday). I thought I might take in the sights and sounds of the journey and reflect on them on these very pages. After all, every cloud has a silver lining and it was good to reflect positively on a negative experience. What follows just goes to show you that the silver lining in my specific cloud was obviously knocked up by one of those cheap, imitation places that shady looking chaps sell out of a suitcase on the corner of seemingly every shopping centre in the UK. So without further ado, meet the people who share the misfortune of accompanying me on my journey to work:

1) An obviously lonely old man gets on the bus two stops before the bus terminates when it would be just as easy to walk it. Most times he gets away without paying and proceeds to witter on at the bus driver about something or other - this morning football was the topic of choice. I don't know why this irritates me so much. I like football and I know if I were in the same position, I would welcome such charity. However, I'm not and so for the 50th time (or something), I contemplate writing to the bus company to tell them their drivers are letting passengers on for no fee. Infinite Lives, the scrooge of the internet!

2) The guy who talks too loud on his mobile phone, without a care in the world. Yes, I know we've all met this guy. However, when you can't blank out his inane ramblings and commentary about which stop he's at now one by one all the way to Horsham, it becomes a completely different matter. I'm just thinking how thankful I am that he doesn't go all the way otherwise I might have to rip his ‘mobee’ from his grasp and flush it down the on-train lavatory.

3) The Chelsea fan. An oldish guy, obviously a workman, wears a beanie hat and several Chelsea badges to go with the daily trawl through the sports pages of the Sun - not even of the intellect to read beyond them. Once the sports pages are done, it's onto his copy of the Official History of Chelsea book recently released. Well, Mr Ibramovich has obviously spent too many pennies in the transfer market so it's time to make poor working class fan pay the price by purchasing this obvious cash-in, shamelessly redesigned and released with the new club logo on it. My how I despise Chelsea! Mourinho I don't mind though - seems like a nice guy. Unfortunately, it's not the latter on the train sitting opposite me when I have no music to listen to.

4) School/College kids. The absolute bane of my journey, even when I can't hear them. Mostly, the train doesn't get too crowded, but somewhere after Horsham and culminating with an onslaught worthy of the final battle in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' when the train stops at Littlehampton. To think I was once one of these jumped up, self-centered know-it-alls makes me shudder with fear. No, surely I was never this bad. I couldn’t have been. They stare blankly at each other, sit on the tables, chuck random bits of rubbish at each other and smoke without a care in the world and in complete ignorance of the ‘no smoking’ policy. I only wish I were joking. So today’s subjects for conversation were the cheap holiday to ‘Lanzargrotty’ that a group of three girls were going on. They looked forward to meeting and shagging boys, sleeping in, meeting and shagging boys, idling around the pool, clubbing and last (but by no means least) meeting and shagging boys. Oh how I envy them!

This was only rivalled by the young chap who sat opposite. For the best part of three stops (20 minutes), was trying to convince his mate to jump in some river or other without any clothes on. My, how I prayed for leeches, really clingy ones at that!
Really, I could go on, but I may fling myself off the top of the building through the sheer desperation of it all. It fills me with fear and dread that I am bringing my little girl into this world. Obviously, a huge chunk of that statement is said with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek, but there is certainly a part of me that is fiercely protective of B. So, the morale of this story for me is to check, double check and triple check that I have my mp3 player AND sufficient battery power to last the whole journey. The day ended well, with a very nice girl at work lending me her iPod for the trip home. It was a really nice gesture and just goes to show that there are decent people out there if you look carefully enough.

Currently listening to: Nothing (sob).