I arrived at the station in time for the 08:30 this morning and was actually the first into the coach, which was over crowded as usual. Most of the people get off at East Croydon to either get trains to Victoria or actually go to work in Croydon. Before we got there though I had to endure 4 minutes of trying to keep balance. I was positioned just inside the seating area, not the door area, but just a bit too far away from an upright grab handle. So I had to opt for a very high up horizontal grab rail on the overhead luggage rack. Of course I received a tut from some chap trying to read his paper - my jacket was waving around a bit. Four minutes later we are approaching East Croydon station and of course all those getting off decide to get ready by standing up, even though the train has not actually reached the platform or even started to slow down. I had to let go of the grab handle and re-orientate my-self but at that moment the diver decides to brake - a gentle brake at first but got progressively hard. I staggered, stood on a ladies toe, felt my self going over and looked at everyone’s faces who had turned in my direction as in slow motion I reeled onto a petite ladies lap.
Naturally I got up faster than I had gone down and apologised profusely while turning bright red. Nobody laughed. Nobody smiled - apart from the lady who I had landed on and that was out of embarrassment.
What a start to the day...
And we arrived at 08:58 instead of 08:54 - but I am not sure my incident had anything to do with the late running.