Yesterday was a special event, an extremely belated birthday
present for Daughter. She chose the Harold Pinter play ‘No Man’s Land’ starring
the amazing Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart. Her birthday was back in March but this play was worth waiting for. What's more, we had front row seats in the Royal Circle of the Wyndham
Theatre - a real treat. There’s something magical about those small, highly
decorated Edwardian London theatres and Pinter certainly gave us lots to think
about afterwards. We continued to discuss the play throughout supper and during our return
journey to St Pancras Station, but I’ll talk about our analysis of the play another day, with a
‘spoiler alert’ in case you’re about to go and see it. Today I have a need to discuss the journey.
I don’t often
travel by train although I have recently decided that I can
no longer do long-distance driving and so am, unfortunately, going to have to increasingly rely on train travel. I say ‘unfortunately’ because, although I rarely use
the train, in the last few years I’ve experienced long delays on three
occasions due to someone committing suicide on the line. This happened last
night. It created chaos at St Pancras. All trains were stopped and although
they kept explaining the reason over the tannoy, it was cold, wet and late. I realise that somewhere, out there in the dark, a
family’s life had just been devastated but I wanted to sit down, to get home. I
was only thinking of myself.
The last time I experienced this kind of train delay I was
travelling to visit Sister down South. I blogged about it in May of last year but the point needs to be reiterated. On that occasion I got
talking to a member of staff who was escorting us on a detour back to London and she said
that it happens at least two or three times a week. Two or three times a week.
That is one of the saddest indictments of a civilised society that I can think
of. Our way of life is sorely lacking if so many people want to kill
themselves. Was it always this way? Or were people happier living in an
extended family situation, with fewer material goods on offer, with less
complicated job structures and less demanding work requirements? In which
direction have we, as a society, let people down?
Once more, I shall clamber down off my orange box and get on with my day, but the experience has left a cold, 'no man's land' of a feeling inside me. Tomorrow I'll blog about Pinter and the play.
