The things you see when you're out and about

I'm quite a country boy at heart and am very happy with my own company. However, I've also always loved being in towns being around people and "people watching". I'm just nosey I suppose.

Now that I cycle and use the train I see more of people than I ever did when driving to work. And I really do see all sorts! Like, for instance:

• The guy in funky clothes who always drinks a can of cider on the train home
• The young chap who clearly works in an office job but spends his commute drawing busty graphic novel heroines on a Mac Book
• The Chinese computer programmer who just about stops tapping code into a laptop to get on and off train
• The man this morning (who usually wears fairly dull office dress) splendidly attired in a cream linen suit and straw hat
• The girl with a peroxide beehive and fake tan the colour of mahogany
• The man with pink, patent leather shoes
• The elderly Indian lady meditating on a small patch of grass next to a subway
• The guy in a pinstriped suit and carrying a briefcase and umbrella but wearing those split-toed ninja shoes
• And trainspotters....so many trainspotters

I love the variety and the stories each person looks like they have to tell. It makes you realise just what a vibrant place the world is and that you don't need to travel to far flung places to meet interesting and unusual people.

Of course, as they say, when you point a finger at someone there are three pointing back at you. So when my fellow commuters look at me what do they see?

Well, a guy in shorts and sometimes geeky glasses who rides a shopping bike and reads the Bible on his iPhone. So nothing out of the ordinary at all then...

Variety - the spice of life. It would be dull indeed if we were all the same.