The train's on time! But bouncy WAGN stock, so picking out the words for this blog on my PDA is a very hit and miss affair (literally); we've bumped so hard that the man next to me with the laptop loudly uttered an expletive. It felt rather like the sort of aircraft turbulence that would get the 'fasten seatbelts' signs on.
What I really planned to write about this morning was the news report on BBC Breakfast this morning about commuting being more stressful than flying a jet fighter.
Apparently, a scientist has observed that stress levels rise markedly while commuting on buses and trains (no surprise there), and that parts of the brain switch off. Ignoring the rich but obvious opportunities that this presents for a swipe at my fellow travellers, the suggestion is that we abstract ourselves - we are day-dreaming. I presume that this is a mechanism for coping with the crowds and the stress.
My personal experience is that unless my mind is actively engaged, sleep soon follows - and I snore. With nothing to engage my mind, I can (or more accurately, used to) get on a train at Blackfriars and be asleep before City Thameslink. With a book I could hold out for longer (say, KX Thameslink). This blog requires more than passive engagement, so I'm awake the whole journey. This blog is my therapy.
It's all about coping with difficult and unpleasant experience; who knows what the long-term mental and physiological effects of commuting are?
However, I see that we are on the final approach to St P International, so time to switch off electronic devices, stow luggage under the seat in front and prepare for the rush to get through crowd control.
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