venta

I got back into Ealing Broadway around midnight last night on the train. Ambling up the platform and vaguely patting my pockets to make sure I hadn't lost something, I became aware of some shouting ahead and looked up in time to see a bloke dropping down between the train and the platform.

It was clearly deliberate - he was lowering himself, not falling - and my first thought was that he was going to retrieve a dropped phone. This is in the gap between the platform and a train which is due to depart at any moment. Surely, whatever you've dropped isn't worth that...

( This story could have had a much worse end... )

Many years ago, my father construed for me the Latin phrase in loco parentis. With hindsight, I'm not sure his classical languages are all they're cracked up to be. I don't think it does mean "my father's an engine driver".

( However... )