h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Time of incident - 08:47: When I get the train down to work I very rarely sit down, instead preferring to stand because it's only a couple of stops until I get off - usually about a 7/8 minute trip. This morning, however, I decided to sit down at a table as I had been out the night before and was still feeling fragile.

That was a mistake.

At the table was a woman (probably about 25 or so) talking on her mobile phone and telling the entire train about her life. I mean she was talking loud enough for life on Mars to hear her - people were staring at this girl shooting daggers with their eyes, people were tutting, but she either:

a - didn't care that people could hear that Michael didn't buy her flowers for Valentines Day.

or

b - didn't realise how loud she was being.

I tend to think it it was 'a', simply because she never looked up from staring down, which I tend to think means that she knew fine well that people could hear her.

4 minutes after I got on the train she ended the conversation she was having and, without pausing, proceeded to ring someone else and, after saying 'hiya' in a booming voice that God themselves would be proud off, stated the magic words:

'Nothing, I'm just on the train.....'

She looked up at this point - simply because my laugh was as loud as her voice, but (I do want to stress this) I'm not a rude person so didn't say anything else.

Then, thankfully, I came to my stop, having just endured around 7 minutes of hell because someone couldn't cope with being on a train and having to sit and content themselves for a while, which in itself made me feel a bit sorry for her.

I like to think of train journeys as a chance to relax, maybe read a book or listen to some music - I don't see them as a chance to ring up friends and tell them that i'm 'on a train' and have nothing to say to them (what made her think that the person she was talking to remotely cared about that or wanted to talk to her if she was 'on a train'??) just to help me pass some time.

Or maybe I'm alone in thinking that?