Goodbye Charing Cross, Hello Piccadilly Circus by Adam Rutter

The train stopped. Everyone stood on the station platform. When the automatic doors slid open, the passengers were filing out like soldiers, climbing up the subway, back on to the busy streets above. The rest of us scrambled onboard like a flock of sheep. There was more room inside a penn than on the tube train. We were all squashed together like chickens in a battery hen. 

The constant click-click-click of fingers tapping on smartphones was relentless. It was like listening to the chickens clucking constantly. I have got room to talk. I was happily clucking away to my friend on WhatsApp, while my friend was cackling at me about being late. 

The tube train rolled away. Goodbye Charing Cross. Hello Piccadilly Circus. 

Once again, the doors slid open, and a young woman came aboard. Another addition to the flock.

Since we were under such cramped conditions, wouldn't it be easier to put us all in a sheep wagon? The only problem with that is we would have got stuck at the traffic lights. Oh well, it was better to put up with the cramped conditions. At least I was able to get to where I wanted to go quicker. 

The doors slid shut. And off we went, cutting through these metropolitan wormholes spreading out beneath the congested, bustling streets. The train stopped at Regent's Park. This is where I got off. 

A group of us filed on to the platform, funneling up the subway like a herd of bison trampling on the prairie. We dispersed once we had walked out of the tube station. I wanted to go to Regent's Park. Sure. But it turned out that I got off at the wrong bloomin’ station. I WhatsApp my friend. My friend was up in arms with my brilliant mistake, I don't think. And, it gets better. I arranged to meet my friend at Boathouse Cafe, which is on the other side of Regent's Park. I ended up in Primrose Hill. A path goes from there to Hanover Bridges, which is near Boathouse Cafe. How convenient. There was only one drawback however. The path was closed. I had to take a round trip - taking me an extra 10 minutes to get there. 

You can imagine what kind of reception I had from my friend when I arrived. I was supposed to have been there by eleven o’clock. I was three-parts of an hour late. We only had enough time to have a cold drink. As for having a wander around the park, that had to be called off. The quality time we spent together lasted for 20 minutes. I had to dash off to the tube station, to catch the 13.42 back to Charing Cross. 

What a disaster. 

Wish you were here.