Housekeeping

UPDATE #1

I spent so much time writing this morning's post that I missed my train by three minutes and had to shell out £31.50 for another single. I took the 10.58 Overground from New Cross Gate to Canada Water, which was actually delayed until 11.02. I had arrived at the station and collected my tickets at about 10.45, but the 10.52 train to London Bridge had been cancelled. At Canada Water I changed from the Overground Line to the Jubilee Line. This is one of the quickest changes you can make; the design of the station has been praised by the CEO of Hong Kong's MTR metro system for its efficient use of space. I caught the westbound Jubilee Line train at around 11.12, at this point all but resigned to missing my advance-booked 11:30 train from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads. I boarded one of the middle carriages through the double doors, walked a few feet forwards and then turned to face the doors through which I'd entered. On a square-shaped train carriage I would have leant against the opposing set of doors, but as the Jubilee Line trains have curved carriages, I hunched over a little while reading some documents related to my imminent job interview. I would have preferred to stand right in the middle of the carriage where I can stand fully upright, but a man had boarded behind me and occupied this space.

At London Bridge, Steve Coogan boarded the train with a male companion. He was wearing a dark grey suit with faint, thinly spaced pinstripes, very similar in design to my own, as well as sunglasses. His companion was shorter and wore a beard: I did not recognise him. Steve Coogan did not move far from the door - rather, he tucked himself into the small space left of the train door, near the button that opens the door.

He faced the door of the train, thus using the aquamarine column that hosts the door-open button to obscure his face to anyone standing or sitting to his left. His companion stood to the right, in front of the door, thus largely obscuring Steve Coogan's face to anyone standing or sitting to his right. The only people in a good position to notice Steve Coogan were me and the man who had boarded behind me and was now occupying the central part of the door space. He had his back to Steve Coogan, however, and was thus providing him with extra cover to other potential onlookers. 

The train stopped at Southwark, and the man got off. I moved slightly closer to Steve Coogan, stretching to my full height in the middle of the carriage and continuing to look down at the documents I had with me. As the man got off and new passengers got on, Steve Coogan turned his head away from the door as people boarded the train, brushing straight past him. His companion tilted his body so as to subconsciously manoeuvre new passengers away from Steve Coogan. I was checking the expressions of the new passengers faces to see if they had registered Steve Coogan's presence, but they did not seem to. Steve Coogan and his companion repeated this tactic at Waterloo with the same results. They spoke in low voices throughout the journey, I did not pick up a single word.

I now believed myself to be the only person in the carriage aware of Steve Coogan's presence. This felt to be something of a responsibility, as Steve Coogan had obviously taken such care to remain unnoticed. I shifted my posture very subtly, under the guise of the natural movements of the train, to further conceal Steve Coogan from anyone over my left shoulder. Finally, Steve Coogan disembarked at Westminster, three stops after London Bridge. He stepped to his right and seemed to pause, half-facing the train, as if to allow the passengers a glimpse of his face now that he was safely off, and then continued right towards the exit. 

UPDATE #2

The interview went fairly well, I don't have a special feeling about it but the whole thing felt comfortable, I wasn't lost for words or anything. The people seemed pleasant, one of them used to work at my old company, although we didn't overlap. I was worried that a really bad interview would leave me stewing all during Brazil, but this was perfect - it made the future feel more concrete without unsettling me. It was also great to physically visit Bristol (on an amazing day for it as well) and go through Bath on the train, I felt very calm and happy about being there. I even had warm feelings about being on First Great Western trains - I'm suddenly noticing their "Be a Great Westerner" ads everywhere in London.

UPDATE #3

I just posted a really banal tweet on Twitter, which may seem to break one of the Five Nevers. It was purely for the benefit of the people who just interviewed me, who are probably googling me. From now on, you should basically assume that my Twitter feed is my Linkedin page. Don't judge me. What a terrible world, though, that I would feel the need to do this.