hey Life, wave at me through the window

Trains.

Hmm.

The public community, that is to say, the majority of the public community, probably find trains are just a part of their lives. An inescapable part. How else do you get anywhere? Sitting in the soft neutral seat of an Oscar train, you don't feel the need to associate yourselves with the inner workings of a train network.

To me,

Trains seem like the beginning and the ending of a journey. When you stand at the edge of an underground platform and wait for the train, a deep rumble echoes through the hollow as the train approaches and it reverbrates through you, blasting a jet of cool air. The doors open; your first step aboard the new journey.

When you send off your friends or relations from a train station. They step aboard with a faint smile on their faces and you can feel your own childish urge to follow them, unwilling to let go just yet. But then the doors slide closed, the connection cut. As you watch, the train slowly accelerates into the darkness, they wave at you as the light rapidly passes. Seconds pass, the wind blows and you find yourself alone, surrounded by an almost silent crowd awaiting their next journey. It feels like a strange tugging sensation pulls at your insides and you just wish someone else were there. Someone you can laugh to distract yourself from this disconcerting feeling.

The train goes where it wants to go.

As you sit, staring out the rough reinforced windows, the wheels thunder against the tracks, mimicking the thud-thud-thud-thud of your own heart. Disconcerting is a nice word.

At night, the atmosphere is soft and quiet, commuters are sleepy and the mood lighting of the carriages soothe you as you try to rest. Lethargic. Tunnels full of mystery and sleep. City lights shatter and disperse into an illusion, bright colours mirroring like a kaleidoscope, rendering you hopelessly confused, but too dreamy to fight the sensation. Heading further into countrylife, the image fades away into an eerie pitch black punctured only by the sounds of the rail tracks beneath you, the light cricket chirps in the distance and the flickering globules of fluorescent carriage illumination. It's Owl Time.

By day, all the sights are visible, hidden only by shadows of the sun and clouds. You feel awake but dreary. It's boring...almost. The train speeds up and slows down, a greeting. Wake up. A cloud shimmers on the horizon. The sunstreams glisten on the morning dew. A Millenium shudders on the tracks, sending commuters stuttering where they stand. Uncomfortable Sardine-Trains.

Goldfish Bowl.

That's what it's like.

Riding in a train is like riding a horse. You never know where exactly you'll disembark on the firm ground again. Is it that end of the platform? Or this end of the grazing meadow? Sometimes the journey will leave you weary, sometimes energised. Sometimes you may be thrown unawares by an unprecedented occurence . Delays. A Giant Caterpillar.

Trains.

a metaphor for the tragedy of human life brought to modernity.

Seeing Signs

Just some amusing but strange things I've seen around train stations. : )

classic horror movie. NEXT STOP: Empty Train. D:

"Display Settings"? Are you using Microsoft Windows? : )