smooth bit of miles davis in my ears contrasts with the unbounded hassle of the journey. who said international travel is glamorous? fire on board train cancelled delay disgruntles, stood in line for ninety minutes. my head is clear though. a strange state of affairs as I’d normally have a few numbing beers under these circumstances. the train is comfortable enough and the staff remarkably cheerful. a contrast with the station staff who had to deal with hundreds of annoyed passengers and who themselves didn’t look to possess the natural ebullience of the girls on the train. blackness outside as we race through the presumably Belgian countryside. stop in a town. Lille. mademoiselle. my head nods rhythmically to beat of the double bass. trumpet dances. around me people eat the tasteless cardboard fare dished out on the eurostar. I’d need to be hank marvin to do the same. had a burger at Gare du Midi. we are stopped next to neon blue Carrefour sign. presumably the train staff have nipped across to get some shopping in. this delay is not encouraging. I have 27 minutes to swap trains in London. It’s just a walk along the platform, down the moving stairway, out through customs and across the road to kings cross station. simples, in theory. before me sits an empty plastic drinks container. I hesitate to call it a glass. diet coke. not my normal tipple but these are not normal times. a small bottle of vittel sits upended in the cupholder awaiting my thirsty pleasure. top on obvs. been going 50 minutes now fwiw. my right heel has been constantly bobbing up and down. just made a conscious effort to stop it. had a productive day in Ixelles. actuellement comme on dit 🙂 bloke sat opposite has just taken his shoe/boot off and found one of those paper tubes of sugar in it. how’d that get there? couldn’t make it up. he is reading “a gentleman in moscow” by amor towles. wonder what amor’s real name is. looks like a crappy novel. I don’t do crappy novels. he has two young sons in tow. they are engrossed playing child minding games on iPads or simlar. in front of me the vanity mirror is open. I am resting the phone on its cover. old geezer with a collar and tie walks back and has to wait in the aisle whilst the staff do their stuff. clearing up after the silver service plastic airline food. I await a second cup of coffee. we are apparentelement still on time for st p. innit. we may now be underwater, so to speak. the ambient noise beyond my bose phones just seemed to change although I hear very little outside the jazz. a very gentle conversational murmur. two aged gentlefolk opposite doing the times crossword. not sure whether it’s the cryptic one or not. can’t quite make it out. don’t think so. not that I doubt their capacity to do the times cryptic crossword. probably already done it. that or keeping it for last/best. john coltrane is on sax with paul chambers on base. red garland on piano and billy joejohn. not sure about that last one. the old bloke has walked past again. weak bladder or something up. the whole family opposite have earphones in. me too of course but it does feel a bit strange that they are all in their own zone and not communicating with each other. I suspect I’ll be wide awake when I get home and not able to sleep. drinking more coffee here. it would make sense for me to get some work done when hanging around for hours on these trips but you can’t really get the enthusiasm or energy to do it. that’s despite not imbibing. if there was beer involved it would be a no hoper. where there’s life there’s hope. there is life. moved on to bill evans