Tuesday, October 31, 2006

The Journey Begins

I could never understand why regular commuters don't do anything on the train. They look out of the window, stare around them, play with their gloves. If they have no companion they do not seem occupied other than with their own thoughts.

Why no book ? Or a newspaper ? Pen and paper ?

The moment I hit the seat I go into a routine. The journey, although an hour long, is too short. Each minute requires some discipline, whether it is reading or presenting the ticket, getting off and buying the newspaper, boarding again and greeting a companion, arriving at the destination and walking to the office.

Other commuters don't seem to do anything. But are they doing something that we have no clue about ? Or do they see the journey as something that is endured and not enjoyed ?

I have been blogging for over a year now and find it a real alternative to television.
Nearly all my creative thinking and chatter takes place on the train. At one point it became the vehicle of angst which found expression in a defunct blog called My Travel Blog of Woe. This was designed to vent my frustration at the appalling antidiluvian method of ticket selling and inspection on my train system. My frustration vented after I discovered the GNER to London which stopped at my station, Motherwell. My other blog of course is Down on the Allotment, my hobby and pastime for the past two years and a source of fun. For eight hours a day my work is accounted, reported, recorded and filed. But what should happen to the rest of my day and how will those stories and accounts of the past, present and future get put away where they can be found and shared ?

This question was answered for me ten days ago on the journey home. Two colleagues were asking me about Michael Marra, whose review had appeared in the paper that day. In the space of five minutes I had recounted my story about him and how I first met him. You should put it in your blog, my colleagues said.

And so the idea took to seed. And this is the result. And this is the beginning.

There is no objective other than to have a depository for stories and links which to all other purposes might be a diary. But no, this is a journal of daily ramblings. Ramblings on my daily train of thoughts, conversations and links to the information and stories that nail me to the mast.