To expect someone on a crowded commuter train with their 8 or 9 yo NOT to read out loud in a booming voice all the way into London...

[CountessDracula]

grrrrrrrrrrrr

Surely he can bring a book to read himself, she was bellowing out this bloody book god knows what it was all teh way in

I hate thoae people sitting by themselves at the tables on trains who spread out enough food for an army over the table so you can't put anything down on it. And FFS, you're only on a 2 hour journey, and you're not going to outer Mongolia. There will be shops selling food when you get there you know!!

Mulls ... I wonder if overground trains are worse than Tube in this respect. More territorial, or something. Ds was telling me (this was before the Jericho thing) at long length the very involved but rather wonderful story of his dream (chemicals, witches, secret codes - climax was getting said witch so furious she self-combusted, which I thought was quite efficient) and there wasn't any hint of any huffing, even by the large smart man effectively boxed into a tight corner by ds's huge school backpack.

I have a 3 hour train journey with ds on saturday. He chatters the whole time. W I be unreasonable to plug myself into my MP3 and expect him to entertain himself?

Overground trains are much quieter so you can hear every bloody word

On the tube it usually rattles and squeaks so much tha tthe sound doesn't carry

Yes that makes sense - "white noise" on the Tube. I guess also the large smart man knew he wouldn't be stuck for too long.

children definitely have a place on commuter trains. the other day my carriage was treated to a wonderful conversation between a 3 year old boy with a voice like croaky honey and his dad who was clearly torn between glowing in the knowledge that his son was utterly adorable and not wanting to look like a twat. both father and son made my day.

Boomer, on the other hand, sounds hellish. And i know there might be any number of rational explanations for her being like that but I strongly suspect CD's is the correct one.

If you change the protagonists from annoying loud middle class woman and son to almost anything else it sounds horribly un - pc to even comment on it let alone find it annoying:
Chav son and loud Chav mother
West Indian son and loud West Indian mother
Polish son and loud Polish mother
pakistani son and loud Patkistani mother

Is it National PC Week

I knew there had to be some advantage to living in the sticks and always travelling in (lovely, silent) car

I'll raise your Boomer with a Woman Eating an Egg Sandwich.

I ask you.

On a fairly busy train which, for some reason, seemed to have its heating on.

The smell made me feel like hurling the whole way back.

I think that is Eggist

middle classist [trying it out tentatively]

I am Eggist.

You've outed me. I just can't help it. Everywhere I go, I deliberately try and avoid anyone who looks like they may have an egg sandwich on their person. It's very hard work you know.

boomerist ?

I once sat opposite a woman who ate an entire chicken.

It was quite mesmerizing.

And horrid.

But I couldn't stop watching her

was it cooked?

bloomerist
both if eating egg sandwich in a bloomer or if said child in bloomers

was it cooked?

oo!

Cooked, and still warm

And plucked.

She wasn't totaly barking mad.

But a whole one. On her own.

The grease dribbled down her chin as well. She was a real corker!

I sat next to someone on the train the other day who had a bowl - a china bowl not a tupperware - of salad to which she proceeded to add a tin of mackerel. she ate it with a knife and fork - metal of course. I too was mesmerised. am not judging (though mackeral pretty smelly imho) I had just never seen such a thing...

lol WW

my pet hate is people popping gum

ooh mb, that's made me really hungry for chicken. What a very odd thing to do on a train.

Think I could eat a whole chicken now .

Nandos does the most divine mild peri peri whole chickens .

I luurve nandos chicken ,mmmm