Thoughts On A Journey Home

28th February, 19:25 London Midland service to Hereford

   I, like many other people who attend uni, need to get the train back to my home-town for weekend visits and the like. Now, compared to others, my one hour twenty journey seems like it should be a relatively uneventful trip, but on a train that's almost always full regardless of the time of day I find I still have stories to tell - from a girl with a budgie to the ticket woman who liked to lie across the tables because she thinks no-one can see her.

   Mostly, although I'm not particularly fond of public transport, my journeys are perfectly normal; people get off, people get on, not a lot happens. However I still cannot escape a few pet peeves. For example (and I think a lot of people can sympathise) there's always those annoying people that sit in the isle seat seemingly reserving the seat beside them with a jacket or, I once saw, a newspaper. Now I understand that your jacket needs somewhere to sit, but really? There are overhead shelves for that. And there's no need to roll your eyes at me when I ask to sit in the blatantly unoccupied seat (that is, unoccupied by any human). We'd all rather sit alone, but I'm afraid sometimes that's just not possible. 

   My next pet peeve on trains is mobile phones. I know, the majority of us own them, but there's always one person, in my experience, who just shouldn't be allowed one on a train. Like my journey now, for instance; if I hear the samsung message tone one more time I think there's a good chance I might throw their phone onto the tracks. Yes, whatever you're texting about may be important, but all phones have a silent function. Please learn to use it.

   Furthering my dislike of noisy phone users would be the bearded man currently sat in my eyeline. After his dire ringtone invaded everyone's ears, he then proceeded to answer with 'where have you been? It doesn't take a fucking hour to get home'. Delightful way to answer indeed. It was then revealed, between more swearing and angry sighing, that he only knew the caller was safe because they were online on facebook. Oh the wonders of social networking will never cease. I think the people sat near him, and the caller, were very glad when we entered a tunnel.

   I know, my journey could be worse, and now I'm pretty much alone in a carriage, but these little things are sent to try us. Or certainly my patience.

How to waste time

   As a student, I’ve recently found that if there’s something I’m good at, it’s wasting time. Of course one way of achieving this is just sitting all day on twitter and facebook, continually refreshing the pages until something interesting miraculously happens, but there are far more productive ways of wasting time I have encountered.

1.       Find a new TV series to watch, and watch every episode back-to-back. By far the simplest way of wasting time: watching TV. But, instead of channel-hopping, just find an entire series you’ve never seen before and watch every single episode. Although, if you chose lost, make sure you literally have nothing better to do because you will be sat around for a long time.

2.       Practical jokes. Let’s be honest, if you know the person will find it funny, it’s always a good way of spending time. For example, in halls last year I spent an evening putting cling film over my flatmate’s door whilst he was out. He said he especially loved the use of clear tape.

3.       Cooking, because even if, like me, you’re terrible at it, it’s still fun to experiment. And it’s an excuse to google stuff.

4.       Re-arranging things. You know how it is, when you walk into a room and think how something would look so much better in another place. Well, it probably would. Just like how everything in your cupboard in the kitchen would look much better with a little variation.

5.       Finally, the best way of wasting time, invest in the Sims 3. By far one of the most addictive games. Good-bye, degree.

   So, there are many ways of spending time without actually doing what you should be doing. You’ll kick yourself later, but it’ll definitely seem worth it at the time.