A Different Kind of Jubilee

Recently, the Queen celebrated her Diamond Jubilee. With loads of pageantry and such, it was truly a spectacle and a once in a lifetime thing to witness. We, on the other hand, are celebrating a different kind of Jubilee. Specifically, the Jubilee Line on the London Underground. We’ve written about folks on the bus and folks on the tube before, but we have, of late, been riding the Jubilee Line a great deal and have some new highlights to regale.

Dude! You spilled your beer!

One early Saturday morning, on the Jubilee Line, on our way to Stratford for Debbie to go to a Saturday morning rehearsal and Jon to the coffee house to catch up on some work, we sat across from a “gentleman” who appeared to be just coming home from his Friday night. He was sitting quite slouched with one leg perched at the ankle on his other knee. Next to him was his plastic bag full of little bottles of Jack Daniels. In his hand was a full Kronenburg (pint of beer in a can). His grip on the can was less than ideal and he kept nodding off/passing out. Through 7 stops we watched him nod off and tip the beer ever so slightly one way or the other. Between stops 7 and 8 he fully passed out and we knew the full pint of beer was not going to stay in the can much longer. The tube came to a bit of a jerky stop and the beer departed his hand to the left, pouring out all 20 ounces on to the two seats next to him (one of which had a 20-something girl sitting in it – her leap from the seat was Olympic). Our passed-out friend had no clue. So we together kicked his foot off of its perch on his knee and Debbie says “Dude! You spilled your beer!” His response was as expected – kind of a “I did? Wow. Neat. Zzzzzzz.” Hilarious!

Please do not use your pram as a doorstop

Coming home from Stratford one night after a late rehearsal, we jumped on to the Jubilee just as the doors were closing and barely survived the potential smashing (those doors do not close lightly or slowly). As we sat, the conductor comes over the loud speaker and says “Attention Ladies and Gentlemen. Please do not use your pram as a door stop. There are plenty of trains from this station and you need not put your child’s life in danger just to make sure you get on the train. It is bad for the train and even worse for your child. Again, please do not use your pram as a door stop…This means you, you stupid woman.” Really? People need to be told this?

You’ll have to excuse me, I’ve been drinking

While on the Jubilee Line one day, Debbie was enjoying her 30th book while living here in England. The bookmark inside the book, was a gift from her friend Yasmine, who brought it back from Turkey. The woman sitting next to her asked her a question about the book mark. It went something like this….”blahioeksblashkibookmark?” Debbie said “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand what you said”? The lady said “You’ll have to excuse me I’ve been drinking.” It was 10:00 in the morning!

.....Best wishes for your own Different Kind of Jubilee!.....