Monday 12 July 2010

Day 5 - Monday, 12th July 2010

The Body isn't a Body

It was very warm all weekend and the heat didn't dissapate at all over Sunday night. This morning dawned bright and sunny and very warm at 05:30 already. This time I thought I'd try something New and Revolutionary. Instead of pulling on my jeans and stuffing my skirt into my basket - I thought I'd give Cycling Wearing a Skirt a go. It went quite well so I think I'll ditch taking a skirt to work and just wear the skirt from the start. Next: cycling in high-heeled sandles.

My train departs Erkelenz at 07:18 terminating at Duisburg, the one before it goes at 07:09 heading to Düsseldorf. But for some reason this morning it seems that the 07:09 train hadn't turned up because there were twice as many people getting on my train as usual. This offered exciting opportunities for checking The Body out. And indeed, it was there, but in deference to the hot weather this time it sported a short sleeved shirt and sleeveless jacket, but the headband was firmly in place over it's eyes. The change of clothes suggested that either someone at the train company takes care of the body and puts it in seasonal clothes - perhaps that person was on holiday last week and unable to carry out their Body Clothes Changing duties.

But what happened? We pulled out of Mönchengladbach as usual, and thankfully most people had got off there and I managed to get a seat affording me a great view of The Body. I rummaged around in my bag for my book (Molesworth, this week) and when I looked up again: the body was taking off the headband. He examined it carefully before folding it and putting it in an inner pocket. Then he took out some reading glasses, removed his feet from the opposite seat, took a newspaper out of an inner pocket and began to read as though nothing was more normal.

So on the one hand - I'm glad that I haven't been sharing a carriage with a body. On the other, it's vaguely disappointing... After that highlight the rest of the journey was uneventful apart from the fact that I met one of the guys from work (who lives in Mönchengladbach) when we both got of the bus. He imparted a little nugget of knowledge that could cut the number of my morning buses in half. If I get off one stop earlier (Viesen) I can get the 71 bus from there (instead of faffing about changing at the church bus stop) directly to our office. I may try it one day when I'm feeling brave about finding the bus stop.

At lunchtime the sky went an ominous shade of Extremely Dark Grey and the trees outside the office started swaying alarmingly. Suddenly it started to rain, and I had the misfortune to be outside at the time (having borrowed a car so I could have a lunchtime session at the gym). I walked about 50 metres and by the time I got to the car I looked as though someone had chucked two buckets of water over me.

Apparently in other parts of the state there were huge storms and winds (there was some talk on the radio of a tornado) but it wasn’t until Chef called me from Düsseldorf station to say that no trains were running that I realised just how bad the storm had been. Erkelenz, it seemed, had been right in the middle of it all. Luckily for me I have a colleague who lives not far from me who kindly dropped me off at Erkelenz station to recover my bike.

Chef wasn’t so lucky. There was a distinct lack of information at Düsseldorf station, and he had settled down for a long wait. After a few hours of this he recognised a couple of other people from his train and they clubbed together for a taxi. EUR 20 down the drain but as far as we know everyone is still sitting at the station waiting to leave...

For tomorrow morning, who knows what will happen. However I’ve scoped out a bus from Erkelenz to Mönchengladbach station and there’s a bus from there to quite close to my office. It’s very exciting!

The Perils of Lipgloss

There was another learning process this morning. As I've already explained I wear sunglasses while cycling, to keep the flies, pollen and whatever else is flying around out of my eyes. It works quite well - I have my normal glasses for if the sun goes away again.

But I'm also in the habit of applying lipstick before I leave the house. And since I'm a modern type of gal, I have been using the very shiny, very sticky lipgloss that is so fashionable right now. (Oh yes - the 80s are back with a vengeance)

And it is absolutely perfect for trapping little flies, ladybirds and whatever else is flying around. Yum.

2 comments:

Linda Harley said...

Lots of protein in those little bugs!

Sho said...

Perhaps we should recommend it to those SAS types. I know they already take tights out on exercise (and operations) with them if it's cold weather, a bit of lippy won't harm their reputation much more!