Day 10: Friends - Real friends vs. online friends

Day 10: Friends - Real friends vs. online friends

Someone ones said that life is like a train journey. Passengers get on and off, some stay a while, with others we only have a brief encounter. I assume that those who stay a while can be called friends.

During my train journey, I’ve met a few ‘passengers’ and each of them has played a significant role in my life. Let’s take a look at them, although for privacy reasons I’ll change their names.

Angela

Angela was my very first friend. We met in grade 1 and remained friends throughout our school years. We were thick as thieves and shared just about everything. Upon graduation, we swore to stay friends forever. When we said goodbye, we didn’t know at the time that it would be a farewell, we never saw each other again.

Gary

Gary was my first male friend. He was not my boyfriend, there was no physical attraction. With Gary, I had long and deep conversations, about anything and everything, but especially about space and religion. We lost touch when we both got married. Many years later, after we both got divorced, we connected again, but it’s hard to keep up a friendship with an ocean between us.

Joanne

Joanne walked into my house and into my life at just the right time. I was at the lowest point in my life and she was there, not as a shoulder to cry on, but as a sounding board. She had a way of putting things into perspective and making me see things a different way. Over numerous cups of tea and slices of pizza she picked me up and made me see that I could face the world on my own.

Rita

Around the same time as I met Joanne, I met Rita. While Joanne was building me up emotionally, Rita took care of me financially. She didn't give me money, she got me something better ... a job. And not just any job, but the best job I’ve ever had. I got hired by the most prestigious company in Johannesburg, worked with the most fabulous boss and colleagues, for a salary that made me financially independent.

Online friends

And then there are my online friends. Men and women whom I have never met, and most likely will never meet. Some are right here in Canada, others in the States, Europe and as far away as Australia. We share the good, the bad, the scary and the ridiculous. We share ordinary things, exchange helpful hints and every now and then, we vent about something. You know what they say, a shared sorrow is half a sorrow. So, while some might say that these people aren’t real friends, they are very real to me. Every single one of them has enriched my life.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

TTC - The Better Way

Officially the Toronto Transit Commission is known as the TTC. Users of this type of transportation have another name for the TTC though ... Toronto Trash Cans.
The TTC’s slogan is ‘The Better Way’ but this week the subway was most certainly not the better way.

When I boarded a subway train last Wednesday, I heard the announcement that there was no service between Broadview station and St. George station.
I didn’t worry about this no-service too much, confident that by the time I got to Broadview the problem, whatever it was, would be fixed. I was wrong.
When I got to Broadview all passengers were instructed to leave the train as the train would turn back to Kennedy.

Some 300 people exited the train and joined the hundreds who already stood shivering on the Broadview platform.
After a while came the announcement that shuttle buses and streetcars would take passengers to their destination.
As another train arrived more people joined the throng of commuters already on the platform, shuffling toward the stairs. Seeing them go by, dressed in dark gear and keeping their heads down, they reminded me of the march of the penguins.

I had no intention of joining them. Cold as it was in the station, it would be even colder outside. The weather forecast had predicted -20 deg C (that’s -4 deg F) for that day and that was just a bit too cold for me.
Usually, if the TTC has a problem, it doesn’t take too long for whatever it is to be sorted out, so I preferred to wait inside. That wasn’t possible this time though. A TTC official walked the length of the platform informing everyone who, like me, had decided to wait it out, that it could take hours for the problem to be fixed.
Okay so I joined the ‘penguins’ and proceeded up the stairs too.

Ooh but it was cold. Even with a thick coat, a scarf wrapped around my head and gloves I could feel the cold wind going right through me, biting at my nose, fingers and toes. Where were the shuttle buses? Where were the streetcars? Oh they were there alright, but they were packed with people, like sardines in a can.
I got the idea of taking a cab to work. A good idea, except there was a problem ... there weren’t that many cabs available to begin with and with over a thousand people standing around Broadview station, I wasn’t alone who had thought of that.

Just then an announcement was made that the subway was up and running again and we could all go downstairs. Even though the words were greeted with relief, they presented a problem ... it would take some time for the mass of commuters to go back inside the station, down the stairs and onto a train. I suspected that it would take several trains to take care of this lot.
I was right, after we shuffled our way back onto the platform, trains - already full with peak hour passengers – had limited space to take in the waiting crowd.
Or let me put it this way ... my journey to work, which usually takes 45 minutes, that day took two and a half hours.

The TTC, the better way? I think not.