Today was the first day of three commuting into London to work on-site on a client project. That might not seem like such a big deal at first glance, but when it requires over a two hour journey to get there, and longer on the way home, you get some idea why I might call it a big deal.
After a couple of hours spent desperately trying to stay awake while sat on a succession of trains this morning, my mind finally opened up while stood on the Circle Line eastbound platform of Paddington Station at 8:30 this morning.
I was stood daydreaming - as you do, when a face in the crowd on the opposite platform caught my attention - a girl in her late 20s with quite striking features, and dirty blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail. My mind was elsewhere as my eyes scanned the crowd, but the sight of her focussed it in an instant.
I had a friend several years ago that I’ve never really forgotten. Our lives took us in different directions, and we never really sorted everything out between ourselves. She is one of the “loose ends” of my past - and one that preys on my mind in the quiet moments. This morning the girl on the opposite platform could have been her. She wasn’t, but it just goes to show how many thoughts are really going on back there in the depths of your mind.
Quite bizarrely, I really did see her once - in a photo frame at our local photo processing shop. We were taking several films in to be developed, and while W stood at the counter, I browsed around the shop in a somewhat bored manner… and there she was - in a black and white print within a frame they were selling.
It got me thinking.
What if it had been her this morning? How would I have reacted? How would she have reacted? Would we have been glad to see each other, or would we have pretended that we hadn’t seen each other? Would I have forgotten about visiting the client for work, and spent an hour in a coffee shop at Paddington?
It’s a funny thing - time. While the world continues turning, parts of us remain at a point in the past, and never really leave. We forget we left them there, but sometimes the most unexpected events or situations will resurrect them once more.