Just before lockdown, I parked at my local train station to catch the sparrow-fart train to London. It was only the second instance when I had travelled at this time, and it was dark and raining, and as I walked onto to the platform, a fellow commuter approached me and told me off for parking the way that I had. He told me that I should have parked in a different way in order to make more room for others. Thing is, he was so rude and abrupt that he really threw me. As I spluttered an apology, he walked off. We had another 10-15 minutes to wait for the train, and as I stood there, it got me thinking. First of all, I calmed down a bit, and then I started to get rather angry. I totally got where he was coming from, and if he gone about it in a different way, it would have been - in my eyes - the right way to do things.

Normally, I don't do confrontation, however, this time? I took a deep breath and calmly approached him. I apologised for bothering him, but wanted to ask him a question. He seemed wary but I think he was intrigued, so he said okay. I asked him if he had seen me take the train at this time before, as it appeared that he took this train on a regular basis. He confirmed that no, he hadn't seen me, and that yes he did take that train on a regular basis. Now I was ready to get to it, and I did. I asked him to do one thing - "Next time, I said why don't you think about helping the person park - in the dark and rain, an extra pair of eyes would make all the difference, and by helping rather than being so rude would make the whole experience so much better for everyone involved" I then walked away and waited to get on the train. I couldn't help looking over though - he was opening and closing his mouth like he was a guppy....

It felt good to speak to him about it, to be honest.

Annabelle