Excitement! Adventure! Ramsgate Station!
Last night, after a brisk walk I arrived at Ramsgate station with about 6 minutes to spare before the last train. Not entirely to my suprise I found that my train was delayed; somewhat more unusually, every train was delayed, with no expected time, just the word "delayed". A small child explained the situation to me.
"A drunk man hit a guard and ran off down the tracks! When he comes back I'm going to kick him in the nuts."
"That sounds a bit extreme" I said to the child[1].
"I wanted to kill him, but Grandma said that would be bad".
A member of station staff broadly confirmed the child's story, explaining that he'd run off into the yards and they'd had to cut the power to all the tracks. Eventually he was arrested and, after several minutes rebooting the trains and shuffling them from platform to platform we were able to get on our way.
The child didn't get a chance to chastise the man, but I have to credit them with my new idea for a Parker episode; Snakes on a Train.
[1] A moment waiting at Ramsgate station, especially as I had sweets, water bottle, notebook and current novel, is as much a moment to be experienced as, to take some random examples, a moment flicking through the TV channels at home, or a moment floating down the channel on an inflatable wrestling ring.
"A drunk man hit a guard and ran off down the tracks! When he comes back I'm going to kick him in the nuts."
"That sounds a bit extreme" I said to the child[1].
"I wanted to kill him, but Grandma said that would be bad".
A member of station staff broadly confirmed the child's story, explaining that he'd run off into the yards and they'd had to cut the power to all the tracks. Eventually he was arrested and, after several minutes rebooting the trains and shuffling them from platform to platform we were able to get on our way.
The child didn't get a chance to chastise the man, but I have to credit them with my new idea for a Parker episode; Snakes on a Train.
[1] A moment waiting at Ramsgate station, especially as I had sweets, water bottle, notebook and current novel, is as much a moment to be experienced as, to take some random examples, a moment flicking through the TV channels at home, or a moment floating down the channel on an inflatable wrestling ring.
