Mind The Gap

I'm back on the tube, riding the London Underground, during peakhour again. I'm attending a series of second and final interviews in the city so I get to pretend that I'm going to a real job. Despite signal failures, security alerts and the occasional suicide attempt I still manage to get to my final destination - eventually.

The surge onto an already dangerously overcrowded platform at Victoria Station is frightening. The gentle breeze, which drifts through the underground network, turns into a gale as the tube train arrives with such suddeness that it startles the uninitiated.

Getting to the platform is much easier than getting off it and onto the train. When I was much younger and less inhibited I would throw myself into the ruck. Clinging grimly to anything or anyone solid enough to support my weight, I would squeeze myself into the train carriage, just as the doors slammed shut....and spend the next 6 stops with my face either pressed firmly against the glass doors or cowering under the smelly armpit of a fellow traveller. Nothing has changed - apart from my motivation.

Getting off the tube can even be far more difficult than getting on. Wedged firmly, mid-carriage, and faced with an over-crowded platform at Oxford Circus is like entering a moshpit during the second encore of a thrash metal concert. As the train shudders to a halt and the doors fling open, we spew out onto the platform and climb the stairs into grey daylight....and an even bigger crowd of tourists and shoppers in one of the busiest cities in the world.