Categories: life-and-musings
Date: 08 December 2008 17:10:11
Ever been in one of those situations where you can tell, right from the get go, that something is just not going to end well?
I was on the Tube yesterday, and two women got on, one wearing a very lovely, full length, white wool coat. The sort of coat that I look at in the shops, stroke, adoringly, and then put back, with a firm “you spend a minimum of forty minutes a day on public transport, this is practical how?” pep-talk to myself, and then go and buy a nice brown one.
The other woman was laden down with a suitcase, a couple of shopping bags, and a Belgian waffle covered in chocolate sauce. On a paper plate.
I looked up, thought “erk,” and was just about to offer to help suitcase-and-waffle-lady with getting settled, when it happened – the thing that everyone’s seen coming since opening this post.
She dropped the waffle, and the plate it was on.
The plate and waffle described a graceful, parabolic arc and dropped, with impressive accuracy, chocolatey-waffle-side down (of course) on the left breast of the gorgeous, white wool coat, and then slid down to about waist level before falling off and landing with a sad little “splat!” on the Tube train floor.
There was a collective intake of breath from just about every woman in line of sight, and a mass scramble for tissues and napkins in handbags, while white coat lady just stood there, possibly paralysed with shock, and the other woman started gabbling apologies and hunting through her purse for money for the cleaning bill.
I didn’t see how it ended – the train arrived at my stop, and I ran away (Mass at the Cathedral, yay!), but I do hope the chocolate came out without bankrupting either party.