Crash

I was sitting outside Camden Food Co at Liverpool Street station flicking through the paper waiting for my platform to be announced.

One loud thud.

A crash that draws attention.

I glance up.

A man is lying curled up on the floor.

People are slowly crowding around.

Police are called to attention.

It unfolds in front of me just less than 10 metres from where I was sitting.

More police flock to the scene.

The man is not moving.

I watch him, willing him to move as police come to warn everybody off.

Passers by walk slowly by, curious by the crowd starting to form around him.

I notice a woman hysterical near man. She knows him I think.

No one is coming to help? Why isn't there anyone yet??

A police officer finally rushes to the scene with a large orange bag of supplies.

Curtains are put up around the man. The crowd is told to back off but people still linger.

The woman is still hysterical, crying with her knees to the ground.

As I move closer, I see the blood.

I see the blood pool around his head.

The man is still not moving.

And quickly it is covered up by the curtains pulled briskly around him.

I step back, no choice but to stay and wait for my platform to be announced.

I watch the hysterical woman lead the police up the stairs to the walkway above. She's crying and a man she knows wraps his arm around her to comfort her. She doesn't know the man lying on the floor. She saw him fall.

The man was alone.

20 minutes I wait until my platform is announced. Still no paramedics come to rush him off to the hospital. No one moves him away from behind the curtains. Police tape is out up around the area.

Its one of those images that will stay in you head.

Oh god. I hope he's not dead.
Please please pray that he's not dead.

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Curiousity

When I travel, my senses are heightened. Placed in a foreign land, I become more aware of my surroundings eager to drink in the culture, people, sights and feel of the place in the short lived time that I am there. Travelling piques my curiosity and as a wise man once told me, I am best when I am curious. There is this renewed sense of clarity looking over my life at home. I am inspired when I travel- inspired to write, to paint, to be and to do with so many thoughts buzzing around in my head that I almost can't wait to get back to get started.

Then its all too easy to get lost in everyday life. And suddenly these thoughts are lost, pushed aside or remain scribbled on a post it note or purposefully bought journal, never coming to life.

So how do I translate this into everyday life? How do I retain that curiosity; the eagerness to learn and to search for more without getting sucked into routine. Many a time have I reached the office unknowingly letting my feet carry me and habitually dodging and weaving in and out of the crowds of people completely oblivious to my surroundings. And I'm sure I'm not alone. This is in stark contrast to when I'm off on my travels. Shouldn't I be eager to know, learn and drink in my own surroundings too? Sure there isn't enough time to take 1000s of photos, to sit in a cafe and peoplewatch for hours & to write everything down for fear that my appalling memory will forget. There are responsibilities, work, study, errands to run... and I can feel myself caught up in all of this.

We can't always be travelling; its an expensive life and as we flit about from place to place, soon the novelty will wear off and perhaps there will be a need for a greater constant in our lives. I am eager and perhaps inpatient to move abroad, to live somewhere else other than what I have known for the past 22 years of my life. This is no unique dream. Many have done it with ease. But while I am living here, do I really know it?

I need to find a way to keep that sense of curiosity that drives me to be and to do in my daily life.

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