a train trip

[atchoum]

Krazykat’s latest set of observations have made me realise how much I appreciate this genre, so here are a couple from a recent train trip to Geneva. Trains are excellent places for observing sneezes, possibly even better than planes, as the view is usually better.

It was school holiday time, so I couldn’t get a direct train to Geneva, and spent an hour in Lyon on the way, though this turned out to be lucky as far as sneezes are concerned. But my luck started in Paris, even before the train left. I arrived at my seat at the same time as the person sitting next to me – a man of about 25, sparely built, Mediterranean looking, with dark curly hair, a one week beard (also fairly spare) and very tanned arms. We had exchanged pleasantries as we settled in, but before he sat down, he took out a Kleenex – a used one I think – and gave a good blow into it. A cold ? Confirmation seemed to come soon. He had only sat down and started going through a maths book (a very advanced one), when he sneezed a pretty loud sneeze “a RISH OOOOOH”, the RISH part almost – though quite unsuccessfully stifled, and the OOOOH not at all. He then pulled the same Kleenex out again and gave another blow. But then he went on working without any more nose blows, so I wondered if it was a cold at all. About three quarters of an hour later he was working on his laptop, and without any warning let out another “a RISH OOOOOH”. This time he got out a fresh Kleenex and gave a good long blow. But that was all; so I’m not sure if it was a cold or not. I was glad though that he did not stifle (or only most nominally) as he seemed to have a naturally pretty strong sneeze.

The second observation was waiting on the platform for my connection to Geneva. There was a couple – man and woman in their mid 30s, not just travelling together but also enjoying one another’s company a great deal too, kissing and hugging etc. Neither was very tall, and the man perhaps shorter than his wife/girlfriend –around 1m60 (not much more than five feet) and he had a beautiful face, very fine features, a completely shaven head (not just close cropped), showing a perfectly regular skull, very small trim ears and a perfect but very small nose… which immediately made me wonder if his sneezes were also small and delicately formed. The train arrived and people started milling about to get on, and the couple held back a little, but I did too, and had them in my range of vision when the man did sneeze – they were quite some distance and I’m not quite sure if he stifled the first sneeze or if it was covered by general noise, but I certainly heard the second sneeze, which came barely one second after the first : a delightful TSCHEEWW with a small spray reflected in the sunlight. Exactly in character!

The trip back was much less eventful: one loud and very unrestrained sneeze from an elegantly dressed 40 year old woman – seemed to spit it out onto the floor of the corridor and a rather handsome man in his 30s sitting just ahead of me. I happened to catch sight of his sneeze as I was looking up just as he did sneeze: a very quiet sneeze, no body movement and minimal sound.

It had started to snow before I left Geneva, and I had been walking round in a mixture of snow and rain, so by the time I got to the train my shoes were completely wet. (Shades of Mirf’s blog ! – it’s happening all over again – getting drenched and everything, and these shoes are much sturdier than the ones I got soaked a week ago). In the train, I happened to be sitting next to a very attractive woman of student age – about 20 or so – I first took her to be French but she turned out to be Greek. We chatted a little, then I started reading and she seemed to doze. Before long the wet shoes made my feet feel cold and that often leads to sneezes. This time there were only two, about an hour apart – unstifled - into my book (not as much protection as sneezing into a newspaper). She seemed to doze through both sneezes.

[Hajo]

Nice observation, especially the first one. Difficult to say, if he catched a cold or not, but independent of this, several sneezing "fits" and blows of the same person with an interval between, with changed Kleenex its interesting at all. Im jealous a bit.

[Vetinari]

A very nice series of observations thank you!

[krazykat]

Am glad to be of inspiration to you sir!

Nice obs... particularly the first gentleman's sneezes as I have always had a bit of a weak spot for that type of sneeze.