I'm sincerely glad I'm not pregnant. Apart from the huge amount of press attention I'd undoubtedly attract as the world's first pregnant man, I don't fancy some of the less obvious but still unpleasant effects.
K___ emailed me on Thursday to say that she had had a bit of a 'mare on the Docklands' Light Railway. Rather unusually, when we'd got onto the DLR platform at Limehouse my train came in first. I air-kissed (still got that lurgy) K___ goodbye and disappeared. At about twenty to ten, her email arrived and I immediately got on the phone.
There had been some problem at the city end of the DLR. Normally, K___'s line, going via Canary Wharf, has far more trains than my service going to the less salubrious area where I work. This particular day, there were three trains in a row after mine had pulled out going to the same destination. Needless to say when a train for her distination did arrive, it was packed to the gills. It wasn't possible for K___ to get near the seats and she had to stand in the area near the doors.
After a couple of stations where more and more people had forced their way onto the train, K___ found that she was a little more tightly pressed than she would have liked. She says that the bump wasn't being crushed or anything but she started to feel claustrophobic. After a bit of this, she was starting to feel a bit freaked out. Eventually, she started to cry, and to her chagrin drew the attention of a few of her fellow passengers. They were very nice to her and by the time she got off the train her eyes were dry again. She says herself that it wasn't a normal reaction. She doesn't like feeling trapped even when not pregnant, that's certainly true, but she thinks that the situation was very much exacerbated by the pregnancy.
K___ emailed me on Thursday to say that she had had a bit of a 'mare on the Docklands' Light Railway. Rather unusually, when we'd got onto the DLR platform at Limehouse my train came in first. I air-kissed (still got that lurgy) K___ goodbye and disappeared. At about twenty to ten, her email arrived and I immediately got on the phone.
There had been some problem at the city end of the DLR. Normally, K___'s line, going via Canary Wharf, has far more trains than my service going to the less salubrious area where I work. This particular day, there were three trains in a row after mine had pulled out going to the same destination. Needless to say when a train for her distination did arrive, it was packed to the gills. It wasn't possible for K___ to get near the seats and she had to stand in the area near the doors.
After a couple of stations where more and more people had forced their way onto the train, K___ found that she was a little more tightly pressed than she would have liked. She says that the bump wasn't being crushed or anything but she started to feel claustrophobic. After a bit of this, she was starting to feel a bit freaked out. Eventually, she started to cry, and to her chagrin drew the attention of a few of her fellow passengers. They were very nice to her and by the time she got off the train her eyes were dry again. She says herself that it wasn't a normal reaction. She doesn't like feeling trapped even when not pregnant, that's certainly true, but she thinks that the situation was very much exacerbated by the pregnancy.
Am I just terribly naive...why was she left standing? Does no one give up their seats on public transportation any more?
ReplyDeleteI can completely empathize with crying in that kind of situation, hormones do seem to make things more difficult!