Day 25... Nothing Funnier than Folk!

While sat on the train after having a brilliant day shopping with Ross, we decided to treat ourselves to a bottle of wine and some snacks for the journey home.  My feet were killing me, after walking for hours around the shops.  I wasn’t shopping today, Ross was and unlike me, a quick and off the cuff buyer, Ross is the complete opposite.  Every shop has to be explored and then he starts buying.  I never learn, wedges and high ones at that may not have been the best footwear however after three hours in I resigned myself to the fact that I’d just have to put up with my burning feet!

The train was packed with other shoppers and trying to get 2 seats together was a challenge.  Anyway we finally found a seat and waited for the train to pull away before we opened the wine.  It was then when a family of 5 walked down the aisle of the now slowly moving train.  Ross had nipped to the loo which meant the seat next to me near the window was free and so was the seat Ross was occupying facing me.  There were enough seats to accommodate only 4 of the 5 family members, however there were 2 young boys who looked under the age of 5; perhaps they could have shared a seat? Or one of them maybe could have sat on their mother’s knee, as Dylan has done may times before, in situations like these.

The mother of the family told me abruptly that we should move and let the family sit together, which I believe we'd already done. In the next breath I got accused of not being fair, for wanting to sit in my seat. I had moved already for her middle son who now sat next to the window, she had a seat facing her youngest son, and the dad and daughter were sat in the row behind.  Ross and I still were sat together – happy days or so I thought?

Unfortunately that was not the case

And so the rampage of abuse started about how selfish I was, how rude and what kind of person would not allow a boy to sit near his mother.  It was totally unnecessary for this woman to be saying these things however she did and the train watched on, before I knew it, I was obviously the bad person. 

I had a decision to make and that to either respond in exactly the same way as the woman was responding to me or do what I believed would have the best outcome for everybody.  At the end of the day we were only talking about another simple switch of seats.  I chose to ignore the woman completely, which I think ruffled her feathers further, and chose to ask the boy if he would like Ross’s seat instead of being sat next to the window? He chose to sit in Ross’s seat and I moved again to accommodate.

The woman tutted under her breath and shook her head.  Baffled by the whole situation, I decided to let it go. The one thing I gained from this situation is that sometimes no matter how hard you try to be of help or show kindness it is not always recognised and can, at times be totally ignored or over-looked

I chose not to make a fuss and allow the woman to get what she wanted.  However I did chuckle afterwards as the boy within 5 minutes of being in Ross’s seat chose to sit on his mum’s knee.

As my grandma said “there’s nothing funnier than folk!” 

I'd have to completely agree.