The day I lost my temper with a stranger on the tube

First things first – I never lose my cool. Faced with most kinds of problems I can usually see both sides, weigh things up, shrug my shoulders and when in doubt, walk away. I've been practising yoga for seven years, so heck, you know, that makes me kind of zen. That’s not to say I’m a pushover and when I have a point to make, it gets made, in the nicest possible way. So that’s me, usually laidback and generally calm.

Now forget all you’ve just read because on Saturday night I lost my temper with a stranger on the tube. Not only did I blow my top with the homophobe who was giving a young gay couple a hard time in a packed tube carriage, I stood up to him, with full eye contact blaring and left him, I hope, in no uncertain terms about how very out of order he was.

This all happened on the way home after a wonderful day in central London at Pride 2009. From pride to shame in thirty minutes flat.

Comments

Steve said…
The shame isn't yours, my dear, you did the right and brave thing in my opinion. Pride indeed.
7:13 PM
diane s said…
Oh well done. Steve is right, you should be very proud. More of us should have the courage of our convictions in this way - to *my* shame, I don't think I would dare. xx
11:20 PM
Clippy Mat said…
I think you should be proud of yourself for standing up to someone who sounds like a complete eejit.
Well done.
:-)
2:40 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Clippy Mat Making at Beamish

Image
Researching for my novel Pearl of Pit Lane I spent the day at Beamish Museum on a clippy mat workshop. And if you're wondering what a clippy mat is, it's also known as a proggy mat or a rag rug. The BBC puts it like this: Proggy mats were a common sight in working-class homes in the North East of England until the mid-20th Century. Made from old sacks and recycled fabric they were an economical option to keep feet warm and toasty in an era before fitted carpets were the norm. I remember my grandma had proggy mats in her house and I also remember her making them, but I was never interested back then in learning how to make my own. As Ione of my characters in my novel makes proggy mats, I could have read about how to make them or even watched on YouTube, I wanted to discover for myself what the process felt like, smelt like, sounded like. And so I booked myself on to a workshop at Beamish Museum, a place I love to visit. There were six of us on the proggy mat workshop...
Read more