8417/21336
I got a call just as I was about to do Park Run at 9am saying that they'd found an engineer who was travelling from North London to Hertford and could pop in to us at lunchtime.
The power of Substack and complaining to the right person and not taking no for an answer strikes again. A very nice guy came round at 1pm and fixed the problem. He was strong enough to do it on his own as well. He also pointed out some features on our washing machine that I didn't know about.
When they tell you there's nothing they can do, make a fuss.
The kids were at their grandparents today and we went into town for a party and to have a spot of dinner. On the train home I became aware of a bit of a ruckus behind us. Someone was shouting aggressively. We were sitting with some families with kids, returning from a night in London and everyone went a bit quiet as we waited to see what would happen.
The man causing the disturbance then staggered drunkenly into our carriage and started talking incoherently to a nice couple standing by the door. He was small, but looked like he'd been in a few fights and looked quite tough. He was a bald white man, not to stereotype, but just like you were imagining. There was a threat in the air and it was unpleasant, but all the adults had experienced stuff like this before and we tried not to catch the drunk man's eye.
The couple departed down the carriage so he turned his attention to others. He started moving into the personal space of a couple of younger men. The younger men were not taking any of this and suddenly the tension escalated as they both got to their feet and told him to back off. I assumed the men were together, but they were strangers united (as we all were) by hatred of this stupid man.
The young guys were probably drunk too and it really felt like things would kick off. People started moving away with their kids. I suggested to Catie that we might want to get out of there, but she was chillaxed about the whole thing. I was just aware that if a fight broke out, people sitting nearby good easily get hurt by accident or design.
It was a long journey from Finsbury Park to Stevenage as the fight nearly got going, the bald man telling the others to come at him, the others very nearly doing so, but managing to control themselves, aware enough that they shouldn't throw the first punch, but also making moralistic points about not crossing a line and thinking of the kids. It was a real piece of theatre, with the added drama that it might become interactive.
At one point it seemed like the bald man had been won round by the argument and he told the younger guys that he respected him and moved away and they sat down. Then suddenly he was affronted again and the doomsday clock moved closer to midnight.
Other men were keeping an eye on it and one came down the carriage to tell the boys not to get involved and that it wasn't worth it and that the man had thrown a sandwich at him and he'd still kept his cool.
Comedy and tragedy were walking hand in hand. A potentially serious situation, which had also involved a sandwich being used as a projectile, but this guy being man enough to not rise to the sandwich. And I am not mocking the guy who got sandwiched. He was brave and noble and saying all the right things. He helped keep those younger men in their resolve not to get involved.
"Come on, let's dance, let's dance," taunted baldy. I wondered if I got up now and tried to dance with him whether that would diffuse the situation. Might full on comedy be the solution to this and all wars?
I decided not to risk it.
Occasionally the other passengers would stifle a laugh at the ridiculous fighting talk of this inebriated slaphead. I tried to make Catie stop because what I've learned in my life is aggressive drunk men do not like being laughed at. I was once kicked in the head by one and I wasn't even laughing at him.
When we arrived in Stevenage things moved fast. The men who had been keeping an eye on all this moved into action and one of them approached the drunk man and told him to get off and when he was reluctant to do so, added some momentum to the situation and helped him out the door. The bald man staggered and tripped over a low yellow box on the platform. Another man had got out and alerted staff who intervened. The two young guys who'd just about kept their cool sat down. There was a smattering of applause from the passengers for those that had dealt with this situation. Everyone had done everything they could to avoid confrontation, but several men had been ready to step in if they were needed.
The guy who'd been most
Catie commented that what she'd loved about it all was that men were the heroes in this. I asked if she was including me in this and she said "What for suggesting we get out of the way?" We were both joking, but she did acknowledge that I was being protective in my own cowardly way. My concern had been mainly for her and only partly for my own beautiful face.
She pointed out that in so many scenarios that we see online the men are the baddies (and admittedly one was in this situation), failing to step in when a woman is being harassed. But in tonight's reality the proper men had protected us all and dealt with this unpleasant, slightly comic, potentially bloody mini-emergency. One of the younger men who'd nearly got involved commented once it was all over, "I wanted to fight him, but I am working on myself."
One of our Christmas goodies went up today. It's Ally asking me some Christmas Emergency Questions.
Listen here.
