Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Shoe Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely.

Today was one of those Mondays.

I had trouble sleeping last night - something which I NEVER have to worry about. I love my sleep. I don't think there is such a thing as too much sleep. I get quite sad when I miss out on sleep. So suffice it to say that wanting to sleep and not being able to actually do it? Super frustrating. I tried all sorts of things. Hot milky chai latte. Random block games on my iPhone. Playing with the cat. Reading. Sitting at the window at 2am and watching the cars drive by. Nothing worked! Couldn't sleep.

I managed to get about two hours of shut eye before my alarm went off (an alarm in the sound of a yowling cat at 5:30am - even I can't sleep through that one) and so began my day. I forgot about an appointment and ended up being late to that, which is another pet hate of mine. There was light snow here in London again, meaning my trains were chaotic and the weather was gloomy. I had to go the long way home because of signalling failures, and I was tired. Oh so very tired.

But the last straw? I nearly lost my shoe during the tube journey home.

Peak hour. It's just another perk of public transport in Central London on a Monday evening. As usual, we were all squished into our carriage like sardines. Some guy had quite literally squeezed himself through the doors as they were closing, and very thoughtfully dumped his backpack onto my feet, so as the train approached Notting Hill Gate station, I got ready to hoof it across the carriage to the exit.

Well, hoof it I did. With just one shoe* on, in fact! The guy's stupid bag had trapped my shoe. So what do I do? I stand there hopping on my one good foot, as a wave of other departing passengers push past me to get off the train. And what did the bag man do? Nothing. He stood there reading his newspaper and not paying me any attention what-so-ever.

I got a bit panicked then, and quite literally had to bellow "YOUR BAG HAS GOT MY SHOE!" at the top of my lungs while standing on one leg, and praying that I'd get out of the door in time. (Keep in mind that all of this happened in a 20 second timeframe - though it felt much longer than that!) He kicked his bag aside and I managed to hop over to my shoe and rescue it, throw him a filthy look and then RUN out of the train as fast as I possibly could without making any eye contact and trying desperately not to lose my shoes again.

*Typically, the shoes that I wore today were the oldest, crappiest black flats that I own. And typically, due to the aforementioned damp weather conditions and a pair of wet tights, my shoes were fairly whiffy.

Is it Friday yet?

10 comments:

  1. "Your bag has got my shoe!" Oh so very, very, classic. (And I know you don't really sound like one of the ladies from "How Clean is Your House" but that's totally how I heard it in my head.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hahaha I am impressed you actually managed to get off the subway at the right stop with your shoe (and dignity) intact. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a day!! At least your shoe story will make for funny stories later in life ("there was this one day kids when this man's bag ate my shoe").

    Here's hoping tomorrow is better!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think yesterday was sucky for everyone.
    What a crappy twenty four hours. I hope it's over.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yeah, yesterday's commute was a world of rubbish. Luckily, I didn't have any disruptions, but I'm still adjusting to changing at Bank, and taking the Central line, which are both a bit rubbish. Still, I'm glad you managed to rescue your shoe from the depths of the man's bag, and escape at the right stop-- hope this morning was better, and you're feeling better.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I had a bad sleep last night too - I went to bed at 11pm but stayed up watching a movie until 1am! Then I kept waking up every 2 hours, it was a nightmare. I could really do with going to bed right now but at 3pm, it might be a bad idea...

    ReplyDelete
  7. That sucks, but in retrospect it's kind of funny. No?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm glad you got your shoe! Hopefully Tuesday was better for you :).

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love that you said "your bag has got my shoe" - it makes it sound like the bag's alive and grabbed your shoe. Maybe it's an evil bag?

    Hope your week is going better now. I agree with the whole sleep-is-awesome thing. I hate missing out on sleep too - it messes with me for the whole next day.

    ReplyDelete

Spare a thought?