all around me are familiar faces…

Do you notice who you pass on the street every day?

I have been making the same journey to the tube station almost every day for over 13 years now, and I have got used to seeing the same familiar faces walking towards me. I don’t know these people, but there’s something comforting about the fact that I can tell how early or late I am by when I pass them in the street.

I have even given them nicknames in my head. They’re not particularly PC, but when I talk to my mate who lives down the road, he knows exactly who I mean. There’s Lime Green Trainer Man (who hasn’t had lime green trainers for about 7 years), there’s Fat Jew, Cute Terrorist, Mad Scot, Annoying Yappy Dog Woman, Black Prossie, Ganja Dude, Beautiful Pole (dancer) to name but a few. There are also a number that I seem to have inexplicably given actual names to. There’s a bloke often at his front gate in his vest that I think of as George, a tall thin mousey haired woman who is Sally, a hoity-toity shiny looking girl I’ve dubbed Mercedes etc etc.

The problem is that I have seen these people so many times that I’m worried that I’ve got to the stage where I think that I know them and that the personal lives I’ve imagined for them are real. I reckon that if I spotted them out of situ, I’d probably say hello and use the name I’d given them and ask them about their dog being run over, being caught dealing, being hit by their boyfriend, winning the lottery etc etc.

I’m sure I can’t be the only person who does this though