Lets try and make this train journey uncomfortable for EVERYONE involved, eh?

[Little Retail Rabbit]

Before I start...I am perfectly aware of the fact that when kids are little bastards, generally speaking their parents should be controlling them, and that while all kids are incapable of being angels 100% of the time (by that I'm saying that to expect kids to be perfect all the time is unreasonable), I simply have little patience for them. But jeez louise...in this particular instance, it seemed almost as though the parents were actively encouraging annoying behaviour >.<


I took a shopping trip to London yesterday (the trip was absolutely fabulous, spent several hours in Camden buying awesomely lovely gothic clothes and with eyes like this = *_* ) and to save costs, I travelled via the so-called "number 2" station, London Victoria, which is right in the West End where all the theatres are located (for those of you who may not be familliar with London or the UK in general). Travelling via the biggest station, London Waterloo, takes generally about an hour and 20 minutes in a fast service from the town I was departing from, but is about £10 more expensive. As I wasn't in a particular rush, I decided to travel via Victoria to save myself some money. That journey is longer.

I was travelling from a town outside the naval city Portsmouth (I normally just say Portsmouth), and my journey to London was a bit long, but otherwise...mostly ok. It was an hour and 45 minutes, and unfortunately for me, got a tad busy from Chichester onwards, where I was joined by a smelly man who had obviously not bathed in days. He got off sometime before me, but the smell was rather unpleasant, and made the journey less comfortable.

The trip was marvellous, yadda yadda, at the end of the day, I return to Victoria, get myself some dinner, and board the train. Now the train bound back home was due to divide in Horsham- the front half of the train was to back home, but the second half was going on to Brighton. I have slight travel anxiety, so I put myself on the very first carraige to be sure. That first carraige was slightly crowded, with several children, but the second had no tables (I didnt want to eat off my lap, especially as I was anticipating that it would get busier after we set off) and was busier still, so just praying the kids would be well-behaved, I picked an empty table pretty much at the front of the carraige, a fair distance away from the families.

I was joined by a young lady and a lovely Hebrew lad with whom I had a very intelligent and interesting conversation until he had to disembark, and enjoyed my dinner. The train did, as expected, get busier, and after my two neighbours left, they were replaced by a guy a few years older than myself, who set up his laptop and and beer on the table and settled himself in. He was to become the first sucky thing about the journey.

I contented myself to watching the beautiful English country side whizz past me while I listened to heavy metal on my MP3 player. I normally keep the volume low for the benefit of my long term hearing, but as it was a tad noisier, with at least 5 kids in the carraige, I had turned the volume up. I was losing myself in a particularly lovely song when I realised I could smell something very unpleasant.

It didn't go away, and thats when I realised the guy sitting opposite me had now kicked off his shoes and stuck his sweaty, smelly feet on the seat next to me

I didn't know what to say! Don't get me wrong, on a long journey, I understand trying to make yourself comfortable. But it was a rather busy train, and they frown on putting your feet up at the best of times, not to mention this was NOT a long haul airline flight! (I do plenty of those!). And as he hadn't gotten on at Victoria and got off LOOOONG before the end of the line, there wasn't really any need. I ended up texting some people some opinions...one said "yeah tell him he stinks!" but by that point he had replaced his shoes. Being rather unobservant and possibly tipsy, he thought he had missed his stop, and had put his shoes back on and was running about in a panic. Transpired that the next stop was his, but I think he had learned his lesson about to being too complacent Despite being an anxious person by nature, I had little sympathy for him.

Shortly after this, the noise from the children began to slowly rise. We were not even halfway through this 2 hour journey at this point (more stops on the way back) when it started to really annoy me.

One particularly chavvy looking family had 3 maybe 4 kids, all being very rowdy. It started to become particularly annoying when they all started ringing handbells very hard and loudly. Did I mention I was listening to heavy metal? They were fucking drowning out Iron Maiden man!

Then they started shouting and run up and down the aisle. Shouting all the while. This is when I got to see the age range. None were younger than 5, in fact I think the youngest was probably about 6 or 7. The oldest was about 12, and she was shouting, and running, and ringing a bell like a fucking toddler like the rest of them. None of the adults in the family seemed to care or notice the racket.

There was actually another family, with 2 toddlers. They were very quiet until the last third of the journey. I suspect that their little boy, who was no older than 2, was tired and stressed out by the incessant racket the other older kids were making, and started to squeal and cry.

Difference was his parents took turns in picking him up and taking him for little strolls to other cabin or take him to the toilet/nappy-changing. They were trying to keep him quiet where they could.

And it turned out the chavtastic family were bound for the same station as me. As I stood to disembark, as the train was slowing, one of the kids was crawling around on the floor by me and being a nuisance. her mother started to scream at her "WE HAVE TO GET OFF THE TRAIN NOW GET OFF THE BLOODY FLOOR WE'RE GETTING OFF!" I mean, she shrieked it.

I understand kids get bored, but for about an hour yesterday, I had to put up with a bunch of brats- most old enough to know better- acting like a bunch of zoo animals.

I'm using contraception for a reason, but it doesn't help me escape the little buggers indefinately >.<

Oh, and the smelly feet thing- just damn inconsiderate.

On the upside, Camden fucking rocks

[AnaKhouri]

There is absolutely NO REASON WHATSOEVER to take your shoes off in public, EVER. And even less reason than that to prop your feet up on a chair or table in public.

I go barefoot in my own house and yard, and I am not particularly grossed out by feet like some people are, but that's inexcusable. Even at the bookstore sometimes people prop their feet on the tables while they read, sometimes completely bare, and it always send me into a Hulk-rage.

As for the kids...well, the most inconsiderate parents usually seem to have the most of them. Since having my own kid though, I have developed the ability to tell off any kid I see misbehaving with no qualms. Although I hear chavs can become violent when their self-esteem is threatened (American, so we have no chavs in the wild here).

[raudf]

Gonna focus on the chav parents. I only have one question for them and it involves, "Why the ever loving hell did you have to chose handbells?!" Unless the parent's completely deaf, I can't think of a single one that would tolerate a handbell for five minutes of constant ringing before they snapped. Geeze, give the kids a DS or something QUIETER!

[rose_metal_nz]

My reactions (short n sweet)
Sock Guy: ew ew ew ew ewwwwwwwww!
Chav family: *rageeeeeeeee*

[Pixilated]

Good grief. The running and screaming would've been bad enough but ... handbells?! Shame they couldn't kick the family off, although perhaps all that would've done would've been to profoundly annoy people on another train.

As for Mr. Shoeless ... I've seen people take their shoes off on VIA Rail trains. However, they generally rest their feet on the provided footrests, or tuck one or both feet under them. On a few occasions I've seen people (shoes off) curled up across two seats, snoozing, but only when the cars are relatively empty. Under those circumstances I don't really have a problem with it, especially on a long journey. But putting your feet up on a seat right next to somebody else ... ugh. Even if you don't have smelly tootsies, it's still inexcusable.

[MoonCat]

F*CKING HANDBELLS???

ON A TRAIN????

Oh. My. God. I would've committed murder.

[ralerin]

Now you're making me sad that I sold my Iron Maiden CDs.

I thought we had chavs here; or the bastardized American version of them. "Homies" or "thugs".

[Kogarashi]

I will admit, I've taken my shoes off on long flights before. But only when I'm wearing sandals, so it's slip-off, slip-on-again and not very sweaty/stinky (if at all), and I'll sit Indian-style with them tucked under my legs instead of sticking them on a seat next to a random stranger. The guy in the OP was just ewwwwww.

And I'll agree with the "Handbells? What were you thinking!?" sentiment. Good on the other parents who acted responsibly and considerately.

[SongsOfDragons]

You're closer to me than I thought!! I could have sworn you were in the Midlands or something ^^;; shows how much I read!! :bag:

On that train...I'd've wanted to fetch the Guard. I'd like to hope s/he could have sorted them out...

[NotAlBundy]

My friend John is from Portsmouth! (Sorry, he always asks me to tell any customers I have that are from UK that I have a friend from Portsmouth and now I do it all the time.) He works for Google now and lives in California, though. And I don't live in either place

[mariamousie1]

I love to think that I would give one of the kids 5 dollars (or the British equivalent) for a handbell and go and ring it next to the parents ears. Of course I wouldn't, but I can be pretty evil in my own mind.

[Victoria J]

Sticking my nose in to recommend a cheap ticket for Southern Trains - the Southern Downlander. Book online 2 days before and print your own ticket, £12.50 for all day travel (after 10am on a weekday) on all Southern trains, will get you from Portsmouth to London. £10 for the South Coast without coming near London.

I have a compulsion to tell everyone about these things, as they are brilliant and no one has ever heard of them. Half the time including the train staff. I think I'm now responsible for about half the sales of the things because I tell so many people about them.

I use them all the time for day trips, all down the South Coast. Last time I took my sister, I think to Hastings, we had similar problems re. bad parenting. Only the ineffectual middle class version. My sister didn't understand why I only criticised the parent and not the child, but if the woman had been looking after me I'd have behaved badly. You have 2 children who are fighting you do not move them together to different seats you sit between them. You do not tell them that their father might not take them out tomorrow when he hears how terrible they have been you actually take responsibility and lay down clear consequences yourself. It isn't that difficult. Someone actually moved to another carriage because of them. I was sitting there with my sister who must have been 9 or 10, but looks about 3 years younger, as she quietly wrote in her notebook the whole journey (it is such a bonus to travel with a child who looks younger because you get a kind of boost to their behaviour and manners because it exceeds expectations, but she is pretty well behaved and even not being a parent I can make her behave if needed).

Hoping to go to Chichester for the day in a couple of weeks, and then get the bus to the sea from there. (Those train tickets are pretty much my summer plans...)

And also to nitpick - neither Victoria nor the theatres are in the East End of London. I think you mean the West End, which is central London with most of the theatres. East End is more cockney than that.

Victoria J. (In the East End)

[Little Retail Rabbit]

Victoria J, OOPS I MEANT WEST! *edited post*

My dad told me about that actually, believe it or not he and a group of friends used the same tickets the very same day. But I was having relationship issues day prior to the trip and I was uncertain whether or not I wanted to go. They were resolved the night before, and so I went XD

But thanks, yes, I will use it in future