Tag Archives: Laugh

The Youngsters

Posted on by

I’m traveling by train each day and I’ve seen and heard lots of weird things on my way to work back and forth. Lately I’ve noticed that young people these days tend to speak annoyingly loud. The concept of privacy and/or private space of others is either something they’re not aware of or don’t seem to grasp at all. They also lack a serious amount of courtesy and show no respect for others. Pointless chatter by one or two of them seems to be the standard morning ritual. Utterly annoying and most of the time extremely loud. They don’t seem to have a clue about the fact that everyone is overhearing their conversation or when they’ll start bragging about things which makes it even more annoying and ignorant.

The other day I was on the train back to Amsterdam when I girl next to me was talking so loud to the person on the other end of the phone connection that all six people around her where sitting with an expression on their faces of total disbelief. The girl was exposing her so-called problems to the world around her in such a way she probably wasn’t even aware of. The woman opposite of me started grinning at some point and had to put her hand before her mouth to cover her laugh. I saw her face and was grinning as well. We were all spectators of the utter drama of a 20-something-year-old.

The woman opposite of me even asked her to lower her voice which she did after staring at her for a while, unfortunately it didn’t last long as within three minutes the decibels were back on the same level as they were before the remark. It wasn’t just the loudness that was causing us six to chuckle it was also the total absurdness of the conversation; the topics that were discussed and how it was discussed. She made it sound like each and every pathetic issue was the end of the world. She sounded and looked like a spoiled rich child, making us witnesses to her little drama of a soap opera.

The moment she got up and left the train, everyone around me started to laugh and remark on the ignorant attitude of this creature who unfortunately is not one of a kind… Another time -during rush hour- there were these two guys, one sitting opposite of me with his friend standing next to him and another guy also sitting opposite of me talking on the phone. The guy on the phone was speaking so loud that the other two were constantly battling and raising their voices in order to be heard by everyone nearby. One of them talked with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about his achievements.

He just got a new advertising job and his manager and colleagues had invited him to join them on a retreat to Thailand for five days. He was constantly bragging about everything he had accomplished and the guy he was talking to barely responded. I could tell he felt really uncomfortable about his boasting ‘friend’ and the volume that was used to bring the news to the whole train. In the meantime the guy on the phone couldn’t stop blabbing either. It was like a hen fight somehow and all these meaningless and pointless conversations -again- made me chuckle. What is wrong with these people?

I honestly feel blessed when I get on a train in the morning and people just don’t talk, when the quiet is so loud it becomes overwhelming. I can really really enjoy those journeys to work, where I stare into the distance and watch the meadows passing by, the beauty of nature, the sun rising and the tranquillity of the morning. I cannot imagine I would’ve been so loud at that age, I would’ve been talking that same kind of nonsense or discuss drama with someone so everyone could hear. It is not my nature nor am I the boasting type. I guess it’s a generation issue and a matter of courtesy and respect.

I’m getting ‘old’.

Sweetest Revenge

Posted on by

I remember that one early morning -when I was a kid- my mother came into my room. I guess it must have been Saturday or Sunday since it was early but I wasn’t up yet to go to school, instead I was in a deep sleep when she woke me. She came into my room calling my name and I asked her what was going on. She told me to get out of bed and look outside through the window. I was still very sleepy and my bed felt nice, cosy and warm, I didn’t want to get up but I did anyway. I walked over to the window where she stood and pulled the curtains away.

The moment I had pulled the curtains she said to me ‘Do you see the horse attached to the post of that street light over there?’ whilst pointing her finger in a certain direction. I tried to see where her finger was pointing and saw different street lights but no horse to be seen anywhere. So I asked her ‘Where do you see a horse mum?’. She said ‘Over there…’ pointing in the same direction as she did earlier. Again I looked but couldn’t see a horse attached to a street light. I was confused and when she noticed the puzzled expression on my face, she said ‘April Fool!’.

I’ve never forgotten that moment of feeling tricked and being intrigued and amused at the same time, until this day I have to chuckle each year when April Fools’ Day comes around thinking about how my mum played the joke on me. But last night I finally had my moment of revenge after almost 40 years. And it was sweet ;) I called her last night around 23.00 because I’d promised to call and also to tell her that I’d had an interview that day about a new assignment and to ask her how she was doing. She sounded a bit depressed and not too happy about life in general.

At times she gets these moods where nothing seems to matter anymore and she seems tired of life. I won’t go into details because those are private but she does have a tendency to be negative and complain about certain things, expecting others to solve these issues for her. So I guess I’m kind of used to this pattern and won’t let it get to me. I will lend an ear and express sympathy but will not hold back to tell her the truth every so often if she is willing to listen that is. She can be pretty tough on herself raising the bar too high and ‘punishing’ herself accordingly…

*hmmm I know of this other person and a bar as well, as I write I observe and learn ;) *

We were talking for about an hour and half when I noticed the date and time on my MacBook Air, it showed fri 1 apr. 00:34. I immediately got this idea in my mind and started grinning from ear to ear wondering if it would work after nearly 40 years or not. So I interrupted my mum and asked her if she could get out of her chair for a moment. To my surprise she did without even asking questions. So I told her to go to the window and asked if the blinds were down, she said they were only halfway. Then I told her to move closer to the window and have a good look.

I asked her if she could see the street light, she answered she could. Then I asked her if she could see the donkey attached to it… And she bursted out in laughter! She remembered exactly what I was on about and smirked in triumph about something that happened nearly 40 years ago. We both had a good laugh. I said to her ‘I finally have my sweet revenge, do you realise what you did to me all those years ago you bad bad mother?’ and we laughed some more. It was a really nice, close moment that we shared together both silly laughing and grinning.

But the best part was when we were about to hang up she said to me that she was going to bed and that she would probably still be grinning whilst trying to get some sleep and even the day after in the morning when she would wake up. It was nice to realise that I had the ability to turn her slightly bad day into a better one even if it was at her expense… ;)