swimming with rabbits

Somehow the power was cut to some railway signals at a key junction, so on Wednesday evening all the trains were cancelled.

All a bit galling, as my normal train was the last one to leave on time, but I had already missed it, picking up some watches that I had dropped off at a jewellers for new batteries.

First of all we all got on a train, then we were told to get off, but a replacement train was on the departure board without a platform associated with it. Then that too vanished from the board. Figuring that nothing much was going to happen any time soon, I got a hot pie for dinner, and picked up a complaints leaflet. Someone I worked with appeared, then headed off to catch a bus home. Still nothing much happening, trains appearing for departure but with no associated platform, then when they were due quietly vanishing from the board.

It was a wonderful sunny evening, which always cheers you up, so I just hung about waiting. I suppose I could have got annoyed, and to be honest if the assembled multitude had decided to start a riot, I probably would have been in there somewhere at the back, but I just found somewhere quiet to stand and let the time pass. A young drunken couple came by squabbling so I moved position, and someone asked me where I was going, and as we were both heading in the same direction, he was keen to share a taxi. The conversation quickly attracted a few other interested parties and by the time that we had got the the taxi rank there were five of us, ready to split a taxi fare, taking us in our various directions. Probably not a cheap option, but we were getting dangerously close to when The Apprentice started, and different people had plans afoot to pop the cork on their different bottles of wine and watch it.

So we chatted about the Apprentice, and one of us was a engineer from Canada, and painting when you have children, and swimming with sharks, though I preferred the idea of swimming with rabbits. And all in all a pleasant ride home, with people I had never met before and probably won't again.

Delighted that something so unexpected and enjoyable could be plucked from such circumstances, impressed by the person who had the confidence to gather us altogether, and surprised how much we all had in common, people who would silently commute past each other without a comment, none so different from each other, but all our own humour and stories.

And the lesson of this all, if you can be at all times relaxed and approachable, then opportunities will arise when you least expect them to. A smile can take you further than the stoutest pair of shoes.