Thursday 10 August 2017

Are we going to your place? No, it wasn't a proposition!



It sounded like a proposition, I grant you, although it definitely wasn't and the man who thought he was being propositioned reacted loudly - and dramatically - to assure everyone else (who might have overheard) he was having nothing to do with it.

Let me explain. I'd travelled over from Windsor to Twickenham to see a copywriting client and so was dressed for a business meeting (decent dress, good jacket - that's significant.) Had popped in to see a friend and during our chat had noticed a few 'whizzies' flying around my head but hadn't mentioned it to her and she hadn't noticed anything different in my demeanour.

I arrived back at Twickenham railway station to catch the 16.22 to Windsor & Eton Riverside but as the train pulled in, the seizure - that I now realise I'd been warned about as I was talking to Marilyn - finally happened: but not as most people know it!

I was sitting down and turned to the man next to me, who I suddenly thought was my other half and asked if we were getting the train to Windsor. He said he wasn't getting that train because he was going to ********* (I don't remember the name of the place) and I asked if I should go with him.

He shouted that he'd never seen me before in my life and jumped up as if to move away from someone who seemed seriously diseased. The shock somehow brought me out of my daze and I managed to tell him I'd had an epileptic seizure. To be fair to him, I remember him asking if I needed medical help and I said I didn't.

He scarpered, the train pulled out and I was left sitting on the platform bench for 30 minutes in total silence. Nobody who witnessed the event asked if I needed anything - even if it was just to make sure I knew the time of the next train since confusion was my only 'crime'. I looked a well-dressed businesswoman, not a hooker and there wasn't the slightest smell of alcohol on my breath. Nobody had any excuse for not trying to help but people aren't good with 'odd' and matters of the mind.

The reality is, if I'd tripped and made a mess of my leg I would have been inundated with offers of help. People are good with plasters!







I have to tell you something - I don't drive

We live in a completely car-centric society and sometimes I don't know what's more of a challenge: telling people I have a for...