Sunday, August 12

Rant III or IV ( I'm too lazy to check)

In order to completely understand what I am complaining about you must know the following facts. I have a holiday job. This job is with the Belgian railways. Everybody and I do mean every single person that works at the Belgian railways receives a fluorescent yellow vest (available in the sizes small and extra large so whichever you choose it won't ever fit no matter how much weight you loose or gain) upon signing contract. This is because everybody that works at the Belgian railways (or so they make you think) must occasionally walk between the tracks and must then for everyones safety be as visible as possible.

The yellow vest now is so much associated with railway personnel that I cannot stir in it or I am asked questions on how come the train is late (note that this is the same train I have to take to get at the workspot in time), if there is nothing we (probably meaning the belgian railways) can do about all the people standing up in the train, by lack of seats (forbidding grandmothers with 3+ grandchildren going to the sea on pain of being branded out an eye with a red hot poker sprang to mind, but I managed to keep my mouth shut), if there is more than one train going from Blankenberge to Antwerp per day (seriously who wants to go to Antwerp? Then again who wants to be stuck in Blankenberge, it's bad enough to work there.) etc, etc, etc. This I do not even want to complain about, jobly hazard or something.

But today, still sporting my yellow vest I arrive at platform 7 whence my train leaves at 16h33, I get seated leaving one chair between me and my neighbours on either side. I take off my vest and start folding it in order to put it away. Barely has the man on my left (of course it had to be man) spotted the fluorescent yellow or he comes closer and starts telling me about his day and his job and yada yada yada. By nature I am a curious person, I want to know everything, whenever and whatever people tell me intrigues me and I always wonder about what they aren't telling me. Provided that what they are telling is something I don't already know, can't guess myself and isn't being breathed into my face alongside the not so pleasant smell of cheap beer and soggy yet smoldering cigarettes. And incidentally, yes just-together couples can be very cute but not when they are practically undressing themselves and eachother on the platform and he keeps whispering (or whatever the softest still audible 12 yards away voice is) in her ear how much he would like to make love to her. And even if they were cute, there is no need to point this out to someone who is very busy not falling in love again.

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