As you can imagine moving countries means having to make a lot of changes to the way you live, mostly they’re small changes things you hardly notice and occasionally you’ll come across something BIG, which reminds you that you are a FOREIGNER!
Public transport, an essential part of getting around London was a very new concept to me when I first arrived in London, I had used busses during my tertiary education in Pretoria and the occasional “gamble your life” mini-taxi… they were much cheaper than the municipal busses, but contrary to popular belief don’t actually stop everywhere and so for me a lot less convenient than the busses. But those experiences had faded behind years of private car ownership, especially in Pretoria’s large deep green suburbs where everything is kilometres away, and even for the walkable things, why would you? Walking doesn’t come with an aircon!
So the new boy in London, got friendly with public transport, at first it was novel and it was pretty cool being in a driverless train on London’s DLR sitting up front where the driver would be, with the raised tracks sometimes making it feel a bit like a roller-coaster… don’t get excited it NEVER goes fast enough to actually be a coaster. Then there’s the famous tube network that crosses the city, which if you travel with Johann goes by in a blur of platform changes so fast and slick that you sometimes feel like you just went through the spin cycle in your washing machine! It is an efficient way of moving around the town.
The concept of public transport grew on me, it is safe to say that I was a fan and I paid little heed to those who tutted at my exuberance, those who wisely pointed out that I had not “Done Rush Hour” yet, besides how bad could it really be? Well not that bad actually, I even managed to maintain my blissful ignorance during my first year of work, by quickly learning what times to travel and with us still living in the Docklands I led a somewhat charmed life by London standards never really having to deal with the heaving masses.
Eventually the call of countryside/suburbia was too strong, well actually Johann changed jobs and we needed to move westward, as it turned out the best compromise for us was to live in a nice town in Surrey called Woking. For me it offered a fast and convenient train service into Waterloo station where I could catch a single tube into Bank station in the heart of The City, all in all it promised to be almost as painless as my previous arrangement.
How wrong I was. The train portion of the journey can be a little crowded, but it is the mind boggling volume of people who move from the trains down to the tubes and on to the Waterloo & City tube line that provided some stark reminders that I’m not of this land. What? Women first! It still grates me every time I “push in” front of a woman, but I’ve learnt that at least during rush hour on the tube chivalry is dead! Not that I think there’s anything more sinister to blame than the sheer volume of people, it would be impractical to always make way for the fairer sex and the ladies have had to learn to give as good as they get if they are to survive, of course where space and time permit I do still stand back, as do most men but that is the exception. Even so, because I’ve never experienced similar situations back in Africa it really made an impact on me.
While it’s true that there are other things that remind me I’m not of this land, the daily “Free for All” on public transport is a constant reminder.
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