Silence is a dangerous game...
Mar. 10th, 2005 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaLast night, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wimble and I pottered down to London to see the second half of the His Dark Materials stage play (of which a proper review will be fothcoming when I have some time.)
The journey home raised a strange question of what kind of behaviour is acceptable on trains.
As the train waited in, then pulled out of, Paddington Wimble and I were chattering vaguely about some stuff he was working on. We continued to chatter vaguely about a range of things as the train trundled into the night.
A little before Didcot, a bloke sitting near turned to me half-turned his head towards me and growled "<.mumble>... had to put up with an hour of this already". The three other people sitting at his table laughed in an agreeing kind of way. Being a paranoid sort, I leapt to the conclusion that he was sick of hearing a conversation about database queries, Bourne shells and the like.
Now, I don't think that, if you're eavesdropping on someone else's conversation you really have the right to complain about the content. Anyway, I thought, he probably wasn't referring to us at all, I'm sure it's just paranoia on my part. Wimble and I continued to prattle about various things til the train reached Oxford.
By this time, us two and the table of four were the only people remaining in the carriage. As we stood up to wait for the doors to open, one of the other four said "Let's go this way [ie towards the other door], they're still talking".
"Can you believe it ?" replied another. "They're still talking."
They sounded actually quite pissed off about it, too.
Now, I don't believe we were talking particularly loudly. We were just chatting, normal volume, like you would do on the train to pass the time. Is this particularly unusual behaviour ? Being able to maintain a conversation, on a variety of topics, for around 70 minutes doesn't strike me as particularly arduous.
If I get on the tube - the bastion of silent travel - with someone, I chat to them. No one seems to take this as terribly amiss. Sometimes I talk to strangers on the tube, which scares them, but that's mostly why I do it.
And now I'm confused. I know I'm talkative. I'd actually regard that, mostly, as an asset. And I'd regard the other people on the train as rather rude and unreasonable. After the first remark, I paid vague attention to them, and they were making occasional remarks - certainly nothing like the sustained conversation we were pursuing.
In general, would you get annoyed by people near you on a train, or bus, or in a queue chatting ? Am I unintentionally pissing off thousands every day ?
wimble and I pottered down to London to see the second half of the His Dark Materials stage play (of which a proper review will be fothcoming when I have some time.)The journey home raised a strange question of what kind of behaviour is acceptable on trains.
As the train waited in, then pulled out of, Paddington Wimble and I were chattering vaguely about some stuff he was working on. We continued to chatter vaguely about a range of things as the train trundled into the night.
A little before Didcot, a bloke sitting near turned to me half-turned his head towards me and growled "<.mumble>... had to put up with an hour of this already". The three other people sitting at his table laughed in an agreeing kind of way. Being a paranoid sort, I leapt to the conclusion that he was sick of hearing a conversation about database queries, Bourne shells and the like.
Now, I don't think that, if you're eavesdropping on someone else's conversation you really have the right to complain about the content. Anyway, I thought, he probably wasn't referring to us at all, I'm sure it's just paranoia on my part. Wimble and I continued to prattle about various things til the train reached Oxford.
By this time, us two and the table of four were the only people remaining in the carriage. As we stood up to wait for the doors to open, one of the other four said "Let's go this way [ie towards the other door], they're still talking".
"Can you believe it ?" replied another. "They're still talking."
They sounded actually quite pissed off about it, too.
Now, I don't believe we were talking particularly loudly. We were just chatting, normal volume, like you would do on the train to pass the time. Is this particularly unusual behaviour ? Being able to maintain a conversation, on a variety of topics, for around 70 minutes doesn't strike me as particularly arduous.
If I get on the tube - the bastion of silent travel - with someone, I chat to them. No one seems to take this as terribly amiss. Sometimes I talk to strangers on the tube, which scares them, but that's mostly why I do it.
And now I'm confused. I know I'm talkative. I'd actually regard that, mostly, as an asset. And I'd regard the other people on the train as rather rude and unreasonable. After the first remark, I paid vague attention to them, and they were making occasional remarks - certainly nothing like the sustained conversation we were pursuing.
In general, would you get annoyed by people near you on a train, or bus, or in a queue chatting ? Am I unintentionally pissing off thousands every day ?
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 02:45 pm (UTC)In Capacity of UKC Pagan Society President (nice title huh?) I'd escorted 12 jubulant and terribly excitable pagans on the train to and from Canterbury/London. On both journeys they were happily entertained by doing a quiz- I read questions, they giggled and heckled and then read answers back/bartered for points. The journey up there were a fair few people in the carriage but all gave us cheery looks and seemed utterly unperturbed and one bloke seemed to be doing the quiz as well. The guard even liked us so much he let us do a 'shout out' over the tannoy -very exciting that! (but we had bribed him with Lollies!)
On the way back there were 4 carriages, all very nearly empty. We were in the last one and continued our Quiz bartering until an irate American woman came storming over (from 2 seats away) to complain that 'y'all need to shut the 'ell up, this is a public place ya know'. We weren't making much noise, we weren't drinking, using mobiles or playing crappy ringtones, being raucous etc and were generally being model citizens bar occassional giggles and chatting not-very-loudly. I responded apologetically and promised to be quieter as a group but then found a small mutanty of irate pagans to contend with who felt I should point out in VERY forceful terms to said American that it was indeed a PUBLIC place and thus talking was totally acceptable. To be fair, she could have easily moved to another carriage if it was bothering her excessively or moved more than 2 seats away from us.
I think it was because she didn't know the answers. But let it be known, if a 'Pagans stab Bush-ite in wilderness of Kent' takes place, I know who to blame!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 02:52 pm (UTC)a small mutanty of irate pagans
they were so angry that they grew tentacles ?
< impressed >