Red train to Hythe
Like most people my degree coursework was usually done the night before it was due to be handed in. After pulling an all nighter and suffering from a heavy cold I was due to get a train to Hythe, Kent for a family reunion once I had handed in the coursework.

On the leg of the journey from London to Hythe I was feeling rather queasy. I thought I was just sweating profoundly but when I looked down there were spots of blood on my shirt and I realised I had a nose bleed. Having suffered from them since childhood I was not fazed by this so I staggered to the the train toilet to plug my nose and clean myself up.

Once in the toilet it became apparent that the nose bleed would not be quick to stop, in those situations I usually hang my head over the sink and run cold water over it. Of course being a British train it had one of those little dog turd foot pumps to get the water out of the tap, also being a British train it had no water. The nose bleed lasted about 5 minutes, the clean up operation took slightly longer. Once I had used virtually all the toilet paper to wipe the sink and the toilet itself was stuffed with bloody tissue (unable to flush due to lack of water) I decided to abandon my efforts and return to my seat. To say the least the sink had gone from unclean white to dirty pink.

I can't imagine what any other users must have thought had gone on in there to result in such mess, but I don't think it was any less than the stndard I would usually expect on an South East train.
( Statler&Waldorf I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK., Fri 8 Aug 2008, 10:00, Reply)