Thursday, July 24, 2008

No book + Delayed tube journey = idle inspiration

Stressed and without reading material but determined to make the most of a delayed tube journey, on Wednesday evening I found some pleasure in discovering the following:

1) A book with an online trailer
The Last Exile (trashy looking book) tube carriage ad implores the reader to watch the trailer and buy the book at www.borders.co.uk. Very occasionally I've seen books advertised on TV but since when did books get online trailers? Am sorry to say it's completely impossible to find when you go to the Borders site, however - if you're throwing yourself into multi-platform madness you better get some decent information architecture behind you.

2) A man with odd shoes on the platform at Camden
Odd as in mismatched, but not wholly; same style but one black, one white. I was impressed by his simple fashion grab but have decided it's not a look for me despite it necessitating extra shoe purchase, something I'm always on the look out to legitimate. He was Spanish - anyone know if it's a Spanish thing?

3) The first person (matching shoes) I've ever seen using a tube Help point.
He just asked when the next Edgware train was and why there was a delay, which prompted a platform announcement with explanation. I always thought those big round things were reserved for blood-spattered crime victims so was starting to doubt his sanity when I saw him approaching it without any obvious source of distress. Then I noticed the blue "information" button under the green "emergency" button. Good on you nasal-voiced, check-shirt man, you've taught me something new.

I can't help wondering whether I'm late to the party with all these observations, however, my bookworminess rendering me a public transport Rip van Winkle, awake to my surroundings for the first time in years.

Ultimately I was most inspired by the bold use of the help point on the platform and then decided that I would like it to be a source of any information I might want when on that platform - like an AQA type of thing you could ask "Where's the best kebab shop nearby?" or "When's the next lunar eclipse?" etc. - that definitely would have made my delay even more bearable.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have seen a young couple, each wearing one of different coloured pairs of Converse trainers (ooh that was a difficult sentence to parse, and I'm not sure I've done so correctly).

This is the economical solution, but does, of course, necessitate finding someone with the same size feet as you to fall in love with.

I may have found someone with whom I can comfortably share jumpers, socks, and should an emergency require it, pants, but I failed on the shoe front.

Louise Brown said...

Did they look Spanish?

I have found someone who, much to my annoyance, comfortably shares my socks and jumpers despite being considerably larger in both departments. I may start to wear his shoes in protest.

Paul Murphy said...

Clothes sharing in our house is dependant on who gets up first.

I like the sound of the odd shoe thing though, all it necessitates is buying two identical pairs in different colours as you say. What I wonder is if you wear out one combo (left-black, right-white) before moving over to the other or if you try to alternate?

I have a mismatching pair of Stan Smith Adidas - one is a different shade of white to the other - but that's becasue it was on display in the factory Outlet store in Stalham, Norfolk for several weeks while the other lived in a shoebox in a backroom.