So I was on the tube the other day...tolerating my hour's journey home, with a killer headache, in one of the hottest environments on earth. And then it happened.
A rotund gentleman, perhaps in his early 60's sat down on the seat next to me, and I started to feel sick.
Believe me when I tell you that I'm not the smallest guy in the world, so it wasn't his size and inability to stay within his seat area that so offended me.
It was the stench.
It was unbelievable! An unrelenting combination of smoke, BO and bad breath. This was a reasonably smartly dressed gentleman too, shirt, suit trousers and a sports jacket. But it smelled as if none of these clothes had been washed since he bought them 40 years ago. And worst of all, his sleeve was touching me!
But the worst was still yet to come as he started to nod off. By this point I was panicking...what if his head comes to a rest on my shoulder? Would I be able to even touch him to push him off? My headache was getting worse and I did the unimaginable - I gave up my seat, to some guy who was probably 10 years younger than me.
As I squeezed past people to get to a slightly less crowded area, I started to wonder. Should I feel sorry for the guy? Doe he not have any friends, or a wife to tell him how much he stinks? Does he have some strange disease that has caused his nose not to work properly, so he has no idea how bad it is? Who knows...
One thing's for certain though, there was no way I was going to turn round and make eye contact with the poor young guy cursing me in my old seat.
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