Tube Bloop

The tube was packed full.

None of us got a seat except for my youngest who was comfortably sitting in his stroller from the start and this doesn't count! Everyone who didn't trust themselves not to sway and tumble tried to grab hold of the yellow coloured beams available inside the train. We were standing next to the doors, Mr S was standing beside me and my eldest was standing right in front of me, holding on to the stroller and the beam next to it while the underground train sped to the next station.

I was looking at the beam of hands in front of me when I saw Mr S's fingernails. They were long and albeit they looked clean, were haphazardly cut - typical of Mr S's nails, I thought - he doesn't know how to clip his nails in a smooth and rounded line. They were really quite, quite appalling.

And so I couldn't resist.

I gave his hand that was holding the beam a little slap and shouted above the din;
"Eii... Panjangnya kuku!"

(We always speak Malay when we go out - obviously so that other people won't understand what we're saying. This poses a little bit of a problem however, because my youngest doesn't really understand the language or at least, he acts like he doesn't understand - so we always need to revert back to English whilst speaking to him. Anyway, back to the story..)

And then he looked at me, his eyes dancing, "Tu bukan tangan aku lah!"

And there was another pair of eyes also looking at me - to whom the hand I just slapped belonged to!

Just then, the train slowed down to stop at a station and I quickly looked away, my face hot, and moved around to give way to other people who were leaving or coming in.

Mr S stifled his laugh until we reached our station which was the next one and then he burst out laughing, to my utmost annoyance.

"That's something you should write in your blog!" he said, laughing.

So here it is..