Train things!

Seriously you guys, you just won't keep up at this rate! Well anyway, this will be a shorter one, I just thought now that you're up to date with my life, I'd give you a more random blog update - this is full of things that made me smile on the train on the journey home!

1) The cat on the ledge

They're quite silly little things, but still! There was a cat on the ledge on a building we travelled slowly past, and it was walking on it's back legs, with it's front legs against the wall, ninja style! Very cute, and made me laugh a lot! 

2) Kite flying

I saw at least three kids flying various forms of kites out of the window. One looked like he had a pretty good kite, one a reasonable one, and the other was purely a plastic bag on a string. It made me smile to think that no matter where you are in the world, and no matter what your financial and social standings are, you still want to do the same things as a kid. I however, did not want to fly my kite whilst standing on a train line, but I think that might just be a slight difference in education between the countries! 

3) Multi-coloured houses!

It honestly looked like balamory out of my window sometimes - the most amazingly coloured houses ever! It was awesome!

4) Things to sell on a train

 So on Indian trains, they constantly have people wandering up and down and selling things to you. Normally these are things like coffee, or chai, or biscuits, or some other type of snack. But occasionally, you get a real gem! Things I saw being sold: 

- colouring books

- hair ties

- earrings

- pencils 

Why would I buy these items on a train?! 

Also, at some platforms, when you pull up, they have sellers on the side of the train, selling food, and I love these, they come up to the window and pass food through the window to people who want to buy it! They have properly uniforms on, so I trust these people a little more than those who just wander up and down the train, but I wasn't hungry in either direction so I didn't try any. 

5) The spam on my phone

Ok, this isn't directly related to the train, but it did make me laugh... I get spam to my phone a lot, often trying to sell me things like "Improve your English" or "Do our unlimited maths quiz" which makes me laugh anyway, but I had some of my favourites on the train on Sunday..

- "Do you like or dislike picnics with your colleagues? Click OK to answer"

- "Parenting advice: distract your child with a small toy to avoid temper tantrums" (to those who understand, this is also known as: look at the wood chip!)

- I also had a text trying to sell me Waka Waka as a ringtone, which was a real highlight because that is a song we listen to A LOT in the programme room while we're working. I still declined though!

6) The price of trains

The journey from Pune to Mumbai is roughly the same distance as the journey from Durham to Leicester, a journey I've done quite a lot over the past few years. It's about 4 hours, depending on which train you get. Durham to Leicester cost me, on the day £50, in advance, it could vary from £11 to £30, and that's one way. Pune to Mumbai cost me the grand total of 99 rupees, so around £1.20, and the way back cost Rs. 76 so around 95p... On the Indian trains, I was guaranteed a seat, and I got my actual seat preference (i.e. window seat), no one grumbled if they were sitting in the wrong seat and someone asked them to move, the tea on sale cost round about Rs. 3. The trains were on time, give or take 5 minutes (which India does as standard). There was no overcrowding, the windows opened, it was a generally pleasant experience! British Rail - what are you doing? Take note and step up. 

Well that was longer than expected - until next time mes amis! (this is me using my French to please my mum!)