Normally, I wouldn’t be writing about personal things on the blog, but I got so annoyed yesterday that I need somewhere to blow off some steam.

I was on the way to a Publishers conference in Dublin and I decided for once to go by train (about 2.5hrs). I had reserved a seat in carriage C and went to take my seat at the front near the exit.

( Sitting next to me was a 12 year old girl resplendent in shiny tracksuit and across from her sat her 15 year old friend/sister/accomplice. They were relatively quiet – but there was a reason for that. They had decided to communicate entirely by text message for the 2 ½ hours. They also had the most annoying text message ringtones in history. Crazy Frog would sound positively angelic compared to the squeaky “Tiny message! – You’ve got a tiny message!” that the 12 year old must have had a poisoned dwarf record on her phone. Each time it rang she would grab the phone quickly as if taken by complete surprise and try to to quieten the ring. Every time. Every text. Every two minutes.

20 minutes in, I was struggling to keep my composure and resist the temptation to hurl her phone down the length of the carriage. I was trying to enjoy the excellent The Guns of August (Shameless Plug) a great narrative of the early days of World War 1 – and the brutal methods of the invading German troops were beginning to look good.)

But I digress. The main point of my story is this – about halfway through the journey, a fresh batch of passengers embarked and we set off again. I was at this point trying to concentrate on the eBook, when I noticed a minute or two later that there were quite a few people standing at the end of the carriage and in the aisle. I saw also that there was a young mother with a 10 mth old baby standing also. Without having to think about it, I immediately offered my seat which was gratefully accepted.
As I stood for the next hour or so, I began to notice the number of young professionals and fellow passengers in the carriage that hadn’t made the same offer as myself. Don’t get me wrong – I’m no hero, but things like this are second nature to me. Maybe I’m a bit old fashioned I thought – Perhaps my love for Sinatra, B+W movies and Frasier had skewed my views on modern life. Maybe I was the one with the problem.

To top it all off, when we pulled into the main station, I was behind a group of three men as we waited for the door to open. There was a brief delay why and I stood on my toes to find out why. In front of the three men was a woman in her thirties with a 2/3 year old toddler in one hand, bags over both shoulders and struggling to get her buggy/stroller off the floor. And the men were stood there watching! I got pissed and pushed through roughly asking if I could help. I gave her a hand off the train and shot the men a scowl which none of them acknowledged as they strode self-absorbed down the platform.

Am I mad here? Is there anyone with manners or human decency left in this world?

The more I think about it, the more I despair. We see countless instances of this every day. Overly aggressive drivers refusing to let people cross, children who don’t visit their parents any more or view them as an annoyance. Random violence in every neighbourhood, People who leave their friends drunk in the streets or let girls walk home alone. Parents who absolve themselves of any responsibility for raising or instilling values in their morbidly obese 10 year olds. I could go on and on.

I feel a little quixotic here – am I tilting at windmills in vain? Is chivalry dead? I need to somehow reaffirm my belief in humanity – but how?