Personal Space people....get your own!

Riding the tube around London can be traumatic at the best of times, for multiple reasons, such as over crowding, its usually too hot, tourists, people who insist on getting on before others get off, rucksack wielding people, loud headphone music, weird people, people who smell (various combinations of people who are weird, smell, are loud and look funny), and of course summer under-arm nose-stuck-in syndrome. However, most...most... of the above doesn't bother me, but people in MY SPACE does.

I don't require much space and am not greedy about the space, in fact am usually the one willing to dive head first, screaming "pretend your a sardine" onto a rush hour am train. Seated though, now seated is a different story. When you have one of those coveted plushy velvety seats, that is your own 40 square centimetres of commuting heaven - foot area and head space included. Once I get this space and I find I become more territorial than a swan with cygnets!

I am not greedy about it either, as a reader I like to tuck my arms back but inside of the armrests. I willingly give my fellow commuters full armrest usage, are they grateful, mostly yes I would say. I keep my bags under my feet or on my lap.

So when you get the wide legged womb envy men or the squash bits with leg up men, you suddenly lose leg room. Me Peeved - indeed.

Then there are the, just how much more than over the arm rest can I go, you can almost read the thought bubble above their head as their elbows dig deeper into your arm. These people - oh yes women and men, young and old - get my bag pushed ever so politely up to the armrest to redefine the boundary of the armrest. The newspaper encroaching sorts; "ooops", up goes my book right into their paper, no "oh sorry" needed on my behalf, clearly their paper shouldn't have been there. The loud music players, staring them out works a treat, doesn't usually take them too long to work out why I am staring.

Am I insane, nope, just a normal commuter attempting to do so in peace in guidance with polite tube etiquette, that fortunately around 90% of people abide by. I just wish that such un-written etiquette, such common sense, would prevail for that 10% of people who lack, common sense.