Jottings of a Traveller (Slight Return)

Two uncannily similar tube incidents. The first is undated, but I guess would be sometime in the Summer of 2008. Both were on the Victoria line en route to Victoria station.

It's one of those days that of which we get maybe four or five in a year. Perhaps a little cluster of three in a row without a cloud in the sky, temperature pushing 90 (that's 32 for my Aussie and American chums) not a wisp of a breeze. Good cricket weather.
Of course, everyone is moaning. People are looking at each other, sweat cascading from their brow and armpits, out of breath, panting, scantily dressed, sighing, raising eyebrows to strangers, damp sticky clothing. Someone will make comment along the lines of 'I'll be glad when this is over' or 'Terrible, isn't it' or simply, 'It's too hot'.


I long ago made a point of not moaning about good weather, however uncomfortable. I have had too many cricket matches ruined by rain, and there is nothing worse than standing in the slips on a freezing cold day. An awful July day on a cricket field in Norfolk, wearing a vest, shirt, and three jumpers c.2001 is indelibly etched into my memory.
So, I'm sat down thinking about my uncle Mac, who worships the sun, and indulging in a little bit of people watching, when I am rewarded by a sighting of an amazing creature. Stepping into the compartment at Oxford Street, is an old black man in wrap-around shades. When I say old, he's in his sixties, not really old. A little bit of whiskery grey stubble. Cool enough. It's his outfit that sets him apart, however. For this gentleman proves himself the coolest man in the Kingdom on this hottest of days for he's dressed in a World War II leather flying jacket - the sort that Julian Cope and Douglas Bader used to wear - the ones with fur collars. Designed to ward off temperatures of minus twenty at 4,000 feet. He tops off the jacket with a Russian fur hat, black leather trousers and gold coloured winkle pickers.
Respect due.

29/4/10
A tall, very tall, slim, black man, age maybe 30-35 with a white top hat and black, silver-tipped cane with mother-of-pearl orb head steps on to a crowded tube. He wears a silver signet ring and black velvet frock coat. I think he may be missing a trick by the lack of a carnation buttonhole, but otherwise,  he knows he's got a pretty commanding 'look'.