London Victoria
The mestre's whistle sounds,
To signal the passistas arrival,
Choreographed to perfection,
Eyes fixed in this moment,
The panning for gold,
Roses for my darling,
The wind of the wicked cheers,
Flow through on gust into the arena,
Moving teeth and wheels,
The chatter echos round,
Lead down towards the gates,
To pass the yellow jacket
A hug to show love actually,
That's my boy. That's your boy!
Explanation
Quite a long explanation here by the way....!
This one is about an experience I had recently at London Victoria train station. My Mum had been to stay with me for a few days. At the end of her visit, I went with her up to the train station, London Victoria and various things that I noticed whilst there shook the neuron tree. This is what fell out.
The mestre's whistle sounds,
To signal the passistas arrival,
OK, so in this part, there is an analogy of samba, which I really like. The "mestre" is a kind of leader of the "bateria" - the drumming part of a samba school and due to the loud noise produced uses a whistle as part of the directing. "Passistas are the best dancers of the school - male and female - who will take part in representing the school in shows and carnival."[1]. In the analogy, the mestre's whistle is the whistle used by train conductors to signal the departure of a train so people can make sure they're on board. The "passistas arrival" is just the large number of people who are in the station, whether waiting for a train or waiting to meet someone. As members of the human race, they're pretty amazing creatures, so are amongst the best - not as in "we're better than animals" kind of thing, but just as in all the attributes and abilities we possess, physically, neurologically etc.
[1] = Thanks to my friend Karla from the London School of Samba for providing this explanation.
Choreographed to perfection,
Eyes fixed in this moment,
Continuing the dancing theme here. This part explains something that always amazes me. How, in places like train stations, or just busy streets for that matter more people don't bump into each other. If you observe this closely, it's really a beautiful piece of choreography, just like a talented dance troupe taking to the stage. It might not have the finesse of something like Riverdance, but the randomness and accuracy is actually quite beautiful. Now, apparently, the reason this happens is because in most cases (I've been paying close attention to this and it does seem to be the case), when we see someone coming towards us, once they get into striking distance, both parties will very briefly make eye contact with one another just to manage the space around them. Because both do this it stops them bumping into each other. It's very very subtle, but next time you're out in a busy place, spend a few minutes doing it. It must be subconscious, but to me anyway, rather fascinating!
The panning for gold,
Roses for my darling,
This part refers to the plethora (I love that word. Please use it lots if ever you're around me) of shops and food outlets found in big stations, in this case London Victoria. The panning for gold refers to the crispy golden brown look that you get on chips/French fries that you might get at a Burger King or McDonalds - both of which can be found in London Victoria. The roses refer to two things. The flower stands scattered around the station - I like to imagine men buying a bunch of roses for their wife to apologise for having to work late again. Also they refer to "Roses", which are a brand of box of chocolates that you can buy in shops such as WH Smiths - also a shop found in Victoria. So basically this just refers to the shops and the people stopping off in them to make a purchase.
The wind of the wicked cheers,
Flow through on gust into the arena,
Although there are doors/gates at the station which I presume can be closed, whenever the station is open, all the entrances are left wide open which gives a semi-open feel to the station. The other day when I went up with my Mum, there was quite a strong wind, which can be sucked in through these entrances into the station. I like to imagine that these gusts are caused by people who are seeing a performance of the musical Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre on Wilton Road, which is also one of the roads you can access the station from.
Moving teeth and wheels,
The chattering echos round,
The moving teeth refers to the (lets use that word again!) plethora of people talking -- perhaps to others in person, or more likely on their mobile phones. The moving wheels and link with the chattering refers to the "chatter chatter" noise heard. Not chattering as in speaking, but by the onomatopoeic sound of "chatter". In essence it's the noise of suitcase wheels running over the ground as they're wheeled around the station.
Lead down towards the gates,
To pass the yellow jacket
When I was with my Mum waiting, we were watching the departure board to see what platform her train would be leaving from. Once she figured out which one, she lead me towards the area. There is an additional thing here though. Lead in this case is phonetically pronounced "LED", which also speaks to the LED (Light-emitting diodes) used to light up the departure boards. The yellow jacket refers to a man who was standing at the gates where you put your ticket. He was dressed in a yellow high visibility jacket. This man reminded me a little of the late Michael Duncan - i.e. he was a cool big black dude basically (am I allowed to say that? I'm always terrified of saying the wrong thing. Please correct me if this is not appropriate!). The fact he had black skin, when combined with his yellow high-vis jacket, also reminded me of the beautiful species of wasp (I hate wasps but they're beautiful behind glass!) the yellow jacket which often have distinct black and yellow markings.
A hug to show love actually,
That's my boy. That's your boy!
These kinds of scenes where people are greeting and saying goodbye to loved on reminds me a lot of the opening scene to my favourite film, Love Actually. Now, the "That's my boy. That's your boy!" bit. Later that day when I spoke to my Mum on the phone after she had got back home, she said to me "Did I notice the black man standing next to the gate? I could. And "Did I remember that he was kind of looking at us in an "aren't they a close family" way"?. I could. Well, apparently as we gave each other a hug and say our goodbyes, I went off in the other direction and as she went through the gate, he looked at her and she said to him "That's my boy!". And he just replied in this really cool "yeaaah baby" accent with "Thaaats your boy!!!" So cute :)
