Tube to Heathrow

THE TUBE TRIP FROM LONDON TO HEATHROW

You are probably wondering why anyone would want to write about something so routine and boring. It was a trip where we were in the presence of a true “British eccentric,” or as we say in Oz, someone who is one snag short of a barbie.

 With his luggage, an older gentleman, wearing a John Lennon cap, leather sandals, battered jeans - you get the picture - was sitting silently in the corner. The rest of us were silent and in our own worlds, especially the middle aged German couple, opposite were trying ever so hard to not pounce on each other in their rising passion.

Then suddenly out of the silence our man with the suitcase piped up in a perfect British actor type accent: “Are any of you flying across the Atlantic?”

 An interesting conversation opener at other times, but not with a carriage load of total strangers. …. No reply. … Heads dropped further into what we were doing, all of us hoping someone else would answer him, Julie writing on her ipad, me gazing at the floor, and the Germans trying to merge into each other.

 “Depends which airline,” snapped a man who obviously had much more important things to do on his laptop without looking up. “Air Canada,” replied our inquisitive friend with perfect enunciation. “Terminal three.” snapped the other man back, still not looking up,from his laptop. “What about American Airlines, United and such like? ” “If you want Air Canada then it's Terminal three,” barked the other man back, still with his fingers flying over his laptop keyboard. By the tone of his reply, the matter was closed, no further correspondence entered into.

 Silence returned for the next twenty minutes. Then, the terribly British dulcet tones of the lady on the P.A. System announced that we had arrived at the platform for some of the Heathrow terminals.

"If you want Air Canada you get off here.” said the man , continuing his keyboard pounding without looking up. The Lennon man waited for a moment, saw that there would be no further conversation, rose, and got off.

Once Lennon man had got off, the keyboard man looked up, gave Julie and I a very warm and amused smile, and joked, “They shouldn't be allowed out should they!”  Julie nodded in agreement.