People have weird tendencies in this world and I never thought I would be one of them until I sat down and thought it through the other day. I guess everyone has their own lil issues - perhaps it is their insecurities, them being depressed or having mood swings, a warped sense of humour, emotional upsets and sometimes even just having too much spare time can bring out the wackiest in people. Sometimes superstitious beliefs may bring on what others would claim to be 'weird' rituals. Just take 'knocking on wood' as an example. Let's just hope one day the wood doesn't knock back at them. That will really freak them out. Maybe Michael Jackson started an epidemic because it seems weird tendencies are all the rage. And if it isn't weird tendencies that people have, it may just be moments of pure insanity, annoying habits they possess or irony that occurs now and then in their lives.
Just catch a train on any line in Melbourne and you will see weirdness in all of its splendour. On my way to uni I seriously used to keep a tally in the front of my diary of how many weird people I would come across. Without fail, pretty much every day I would come across someone who was either doing or saying something extremely different to what one would say blends in with the 'norms of society'. What is it with trains though? Trains attract all walks of life. They walk, they are weird and boy oh boy are they wonderful. The weird and the wonderful come out to play. I used to claim that I hated catching trains however I think deep down I was always fascinated with my journey. The 'unknown' factor came into it with each ride. Whilst waiting on the platform in the morning I would secretly wait in anticipation for my train to pull up. Thoughts would rush through my head as to whom I would come across that day. My eyes would dart, palms sweat and head twitch in excitement. Well maybe not, however now that these days I am a non-train commuter (and now a disgruntled road-raging traffic hating environmentally damaging pollution making driver) I have more time to reflect and make it out that my train journeys used to be fun filled, dangerous and exciting. I guess they were in a way. Maybe my life is nowadays somewhat lacking the thrill of public transport. With that thought in mind, maybe I should catch a train into work tomorrow.
As to my adventures on trains, I think the worst case I came across was a lady who was in a cult who was quoting Captain Cook and his discovery of Australia. She didn't stop there. She also asked me if I thought she was crazy because she could see "men in white trench coats". She decided to sit right next to me (she said she loved my uni bag), as her eyes literally rolled around in circles as she snapped in and out of consciousness. Hmm. My mother taught me an important lesson whilst catching trains. She told me to make sure that I got on carriages that had some females on it rather than an all-male carriage with me being the only female. That played through my head a fair bit. One day I was day dreaming (as usual) then looked around the carriage to find that I was the only female on that carriage. The men looked safe enough - not a piercing or tattoo in sight yet my mother's words always outweigh any bright ideas that my mind is able to brew up. Thank you my dear mum for your sweet words but for the first time ever, I soon realised - she was wrong. I changed carriages, jumping on a carriage where there were 2 females. The carriage contained just these 2 teenage girls, myself, and the sound of my heart pounding out of my chest. The girls were talking when I got on the carriage yet as soon as I sat near them they fell silent. I was looked up and down by these girls - they eyeballed the shoes I was wearing, my jewellery and my clothes. I knew they wanted to take something off me because their dirty eyes told me so. I then did the unthinkable (or the 'thinkable!') and went against my mother's words (God forbid!). I got up in a hurry and headed back to the carriage full of men where I felt safe and sound!
There were also the many cases of people that enjoyed talking and even fighting with themselves. The sight of a one-man fight is something I would pay big money to see. It is extremely entertaining! Who needs to watch the movie Fight Club? Not me. Even if it does mean I miss out on seeing Brad Pitt, *sigh*. Trains are the real deal baby. Or the loud nutters that felt the need to introduce themselves to the whole carriage. They then went on to pick on some poor souls sitting and minding their own business. Constant questions were thrown at those poor buggers and out of sheer politeness each question was answered. It was a stranger bonding session at the least. No more stranger danger fears! These random get-to-know sessions made me feel like I knew these strangers better than I knew myself. Fortunately I wasn't picked on in that particular instance. In general though, it was like these people were drawn to me. "She looks like an easy target...why don't I sit myself next to her and rub some of my weirdness off on her?!". Well congratulations train people, it took a while but...Mission Accomplished.
I do have my own wacky tendencies, yet for the moment, I will keep those to myself :)
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