There's nothing like a long train journey in January to find out what everyone got for Christmas. I spent almost the entire day on Friday in various trains between Bordeaux and Dijon, leaving the house at 5H30 a.m. and getting back at 12H30a.m. - that's a lot of train. Apart from admiring shiny new Louis Vuitton handbags, I also got to sit beside people with hissing earphones of all shapes and sizes. Two young lads walked the length of one train with prized PSPs in their hands, both playing music, both without headphones. A young couple turned on a Nintendo at the Gare de Lyon and didn't turn it off until we got to Dijon. At night, between Paris and Bordeaux as I watched the first couple of episodes of Desperate Housewives 3 and puzzled over that British accent, the guy on my left watched something I couldn't quite make out on his laptop, the guy on my right watched King Kong and the guy in front of me watched Lord of the Rings.Yes we were all very smug about our Christmas presents. As I got off the train I looked around to see if there was any sign of the homeless person I'd walked past early that morning sitting in the cold and dark outside the station holding a baby wrapped up in a blanket. It's an ill-divided world.
4 comments:
Few people know how many homeless we have, because most of the time most of them are not to be seen. However, when I hear the figures on TV it seems to me that in western Europe we have as many homeless (as a percentage) as many 3rd world countries. I don't know for sure, but it seems that way. Surely we are doing something wrong.
I was just about to pout because I didn't get a Louis Vuitton for Christmas. Then I read further.
Spoiled, silly Stella.
Doug: I suppose we usually avoid the places where people sleep outside - out of sight, out of mind.
Ms Mac: Don't worry, we're all spoiled, not just you. And don't get me started on just how much "stuff" children seem to think they need.
Well, doug, there are a lot of tents that have just been put up in Bordeaux on Allées de Tourny for the SDF so help should be at hand thanks to the Association des Enfants de don Quichotte. It is a start, anyway.
Lesley, can't wait to see more Desperate housewives.
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