Déjà vu

As I walked down the steps to the Circle Line Tube at Baker Street I was overcome with a feeling of déjà vu. I remembered thinking the last time I was here how much I love the old architecture of the London Underground stations, like something out of a Harry Potter film.

A month or so ago I blipped about a dog called Teddy that I met at this station while we waited for the train to get a green signal. Yet again, another déjà vu moment as I sat on the tube today (yesterday actually as I write this a day late) waiting for that much-needed green light.

I wondered what Teddy was up to now and hoped that he is still making friends on the tube as he travels across London with his owner. I can just imagine him wagging his tail and thinking about lapping the wind as he travels in his owner's vintage motor car at weekends.

Another déjà vu moment on Thursday was being held up on the country lane to the train station - again. The difference today was it wasn't a tractor or horse but a gaggle of cyclists on modern-day Penny Farthing bicycles!!! Thank goodness I still made the train....of all the excuses to miss it that would have been unbelievable!

As I wrote this blip with pen and notepad on the train home, due to leaving my phone charger at home again (yet another déjà vu moment), I thought about what I'd seen and heard that day and giggled as I remembered the passengers sitting opposite me on the train this morning.

Mr and Mrs 'Posh' were talking loudly and I was just about to plug in my headphones when I decided to look out the window and listen to their conversation for a bit of material for my novel that I still haven't finished. I tried not to chuckle as their plummy discourse went from the sublime to the ridiculous....

First topic was weighing up the pros and cons of pre-booking a dining car on the train and how it's hardly worth it for a 70 minute Charing Cross to Headcorn journey and I quote: "Honestly darhhhhhling one has hardly digested the fois gras before the train arrives in Sevenoaks!"

I had to lean into my pashmina to disguise my amusement as I thought, dining car? I'd like to know which train service they are travelling on!! The conversation digressed to the wonderful preservation of the English Railway Stations and the 'blasted' RSPB and preservation orders blocking the development of a Waitrose site.

Not for the first time it occurs to me how varied in culture and education backgrounds I've come across in my travels up and down to London on the train. I am reminded that I simply MUST finish my novel. After all with so many déjà vu moments and so much material with these unusual characters like Teddy the dog and Mr and Mrs Plummy-Smythe the book has practically written itself.