This Is This

Being on a train last week reminded me of something I used to do. About three years ago, I worked for a company who had an office in Leeds so I would go up there for the day as often as once a week.

Like London, Leeds has its own edition of Metro, which in case you didn’t know is a popular free tabloid newspaper and events guide aimed at commuters. You can pick them up from the piles at train and tube stations and catch up on the latest regional sport, local and national news. Both editions look identical, except the articles have sections relevent to their own particular city.

After my meeting in Leeds, I would grab a handful of papers and take them back down with me for the return journey. When I arrived back in the Big Smoke, I would put them on top of the pile of London editions in King’s Cross station.

The thought that some commuter would pick up the Northern edition and get the wrong news made me smile. I used to wonder how long it would take then to realise why their What’s On guide covered the Corn Exchange instead of the West End, and why there were articles about the big match of Leeds versus Bradford. Five minutes? Ten? Half a (tee-hee) hour? I wondered if they glanced over at their fellow commuter’s paper to compare and try and figure out why they were reading news about Yorkshire instead of London. Would they even notice at all?

It appealed to the benign anarchist in me. I wondered if, as I returned to London at the same time most weeks, it was the same guy picking up the Leeds editions every time and did he have conversations with his friends about the deep mystery and would they think he was making the whole thing up.

I was doing this when I was 30 years old! This is the first time I have mentioned this to anyone! It still makes me laugh!

I am sooo easily amused.

Also on This Is This
Herbie Goes Sideways
The Love Bug takes time away from a mundane and unfulfilling life to embark on a well-scripted tour of the Californian vineyards. Don Knotts stars.
Read this post...

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 14th, 2005 at 10:04 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, or leave a comment yourself.