L - Unit 10 - A2
Jack's stressful day
A = Alan, J = Jack
An annoying train journey
A Hi Jack! Over here! How was your journey?
J Huh! Not good! Not good at all.
A Why was that?
J Well, there was this girl in the seat behind and she was talking loudly on her mobile phone the whole journey. I know everything about her life. I even know what she's going to wear when she goes out on Saturday night and I know what she's not going to wear.
A That drives me mad too! You know, not long ago trains had quiet carriages where you couldn't use your mobile phone.
J Well, they don't anymore. I couldn't read my paper with her yak, yak, yakking behind me. She told the same thing to at least four friends. Then I had this kid opposite me with his mother. He
A What was he doing to annoy you?
J He had one of these mini-computer things...
A A Game Boy!
J Yeah, one of those and he was head down playing this thing all the time - zing, ping, bang - all those noises coming from it. He never looked up once. When his mum asked him to say hello he just grunted, 'Uh!. So impolite!
A I know. Kids these days, they're so badly- behaved. Did you book your ticket online this time?
J I tried to.
J What happened?
A Well, I followed the instructions, one by one and got right to the end and it asked me for my password. Password? I didn't know I had one for train travel. So I thought 'OK, I'll ring instead.
A Maybe not the best idea.
J Er- no so I rang the train company and of course I got the usual recorded message you know the type of thing: 'I'm afraid all our operators are busy at the moment. Then music and "Thank you for holding. I'm afraid our operators are still busy. And more music, so I gave up. I bought a ticket at the station.
A It drives you mad, doesn't it? Life's too short to spend so long on the phone. Still, I usually do enjoy travelling by train.
J Me too, usually. It's better than driving. I hate driving into town these days. There's too much traffic. It's just jam after jam. And it's impossible to find a parking space. Parking's a nightmare! And car parks and parking meters are so expensive.
A I know. I remember when you could park all day for 50p. Come on let's get out of here. Let's get a coffee.
J OK, but not Starbucks. I can't stand Starbucks.
A Why? I like the coffee.
J It's the size of the cups. They're all huge. Even the small one is too big for me and the biggest is so big, it's enormous, and there's so much choice – latte, skinny latte, soya latte, - cappuccino. Frappuccino, single shot, double sh...
A OK! OK! Modern life! There's a small coffee bar round the corner. Let's go there.
