New Year 2015 on the Clockwork Orange
So you tripped the light fantastic, turned cartwheels cross the floor? Ok, well you might have just ended up on your sofa watching Jackie Bird do her best ringing in the bells with a backdrop of increasingly inebriated locals ready to burst in to some kind of shenanigans. Its the danger factor that’s worth watching for, just in case someone finally has the bottle to pull a mooney.
Jules Holland aint got nothing on that!
Those heady days are now over and once again I find myself on the platform at Buchanan Street waiting for the train. The cattle herders have shoved us all along the platform and its a busy first day back for all those doing the commute. Strange steam like vapour rises above the punters in a flurry of scarf removing with an equal amount of huffing and puffing. The cold weather has finally given way to a sauna like underground station.
Its back to the subway with a bump.
I got that damp shoe thing going on. A puddle in winter is no match for those leather shoes and I wonder why I thought one pair of socks was ever going to be enough. I have grown soft and stupid overdosing on central heating.
The train pulls up and is suitably packed. There is always a fair interchange at Buchanan Street as the Southside mob depart and us Eastenders pile in. After a bit of pushing and shoving we all eventually manage to shuffle down the middle of the carriage. The guys on the doors get the customery bump on the head as they close and we are on our way to the West End.
Its that typical Monday and everyone is crammed in. Armpits and elbows and knees and ankles. The woman in front of me is not really comfortable holding on and there is some wearyness from those around that she is going to topple. Like Jackie Bird at Hogmanay I wonder if its all going to go horribly wrong.
The woman in peril grabs a seat with out any arguement from anyone else at Cowcaddens and the train clears a little. I glance ahead of me through this new open vista and a rare sight greets me.
There is a girl at the other end of the carriage wearing a christmas hat. Nothing too over the top, just a bit of fur and a bell. Now mibby this was her great act of rebellion or mibby she was just cold and had it left over in her handbag from the staff party, who knows. Today, this day, she was going to wear it to work and then sit quietly trying to not really stand out as the girl that was wearing the christmas hat.
It probably seemed a good idea at the time.
Well I just want to say christmas hat girl that you brought a smile to my face today. Just the briefest of moments of joy before I realised I was staring and about to start freaking people out.
I had a good christmas and new year with my family and you know what it will be summer soon and then the subway will smell like a sewer again. Life is not all bad.
Bobby Munro
Latest posts by Bobby Munro (see all)
- A fit in the Subway - March 10, 2015
- Back to the Subway with a bump - January 5, 2015
- Across the Aisle - July 10, 2014