Yup - the suspected drunken walk thing - I get that, including, once, from railway barrier staff - and another time from a couple of security guards at the entrance to a street food market. Sorry that happened to you. (I'm also above average likely to be pulled out of a queue at a customs point, and also notice that dogs clock me with an ancient instinct as being the likely one to single out and kill should they go into hunting mode. Quite funny when the dog in questoin is a bichon frize.)

Mark

 
I have graduated from a senior person's railcard to a disabled person's one. I don't actually consider myself disabled, but then I suppose I am but don't usually notice.  As I walked across The Lawn on Saturday evening, a man and a young lad who I took to be his grandson appeared from nowhere, accused me of walking across their pathway, and suggested I watch where I go.  I mumbled an apology and as they walked on, he made a gesture like raising a glass to his lips, then, rolled his head / eyes in a suggestion that he knew I had been drinking and was under the influence of alcohol.  The whole incident was over in a few seconds; not worth taking it any further, except it makes for an interesting study.

Sure, I can look drunk. I stagger around, keeping my eyes fixed on landmarks ahead as I have lost the sense of hearing in one ear and balance.  And keeping my eyes in use to balance, while walking I am looking less at the immediacy that's downward of my eyes - I can trip over things or, in this case, those little people below me. I do look a bit older I suppose, and most people naturally give me a bit of space.

But it did set me thinking and mulling over how we see others around as we travel, and how we summarily, and sometimes wrongly, judge them.  The young lady on who was on the train I joined at Whitstable across the aisle, suitcase at her side, struck me as being tired and perhaps ill - certainly coughing, and as we set off she fell asleep.  Very shortly, the train manager came along she checked my ticket - "saw you just get on" as I had made a dash for the rear unit, and she took a very perfunctory look at my ticket and it was "Thank you" and AOK. She gently woke the young lady opposite ... who looked for the return half of her ticket, on her phone but was unable to find it.  The train manager suggested she show her the booking confirmation email, but she wasn't able to do that because, apparently, the Trainline whom she had booked through don't send confirmations.  The train manager suggested that the young lady travelling may have accidentally bought a day rather than a period return ticket, and in the absence of supporting staff and with other carriages to check, moved on, alerting the young lady that her ticket or backup information would be needed at the barrier at her destination. On balance, I suspect that the young lady had self inflicted conditions, no valid ticket, and that the lack of said valid ticket was not a mistake on her part.

From Paddington, I had a reserved seat to Swindon turned out to be an aisle beside a lady travelling on her own, and due to her build she overflowed onto my seat.  A smile / "oops" and making space wasn't on; her Niqab made it hard for me to gauge any facial expression - only eyes to go on - and if she said anything is a soft voice I wouldn’t have heard it due to my deafness on that side, nor would I have been able to lip read or even tell she was speaking. And yet ... as we got to Swindon and I left the train, I ventured a smile and goodbye and I could have sworn I saw a softening of the eyes into the upper part of a smile, and I suspect she returned the courteous pleasantry.

P.S. - To the little man and his grandson - it was Saturday night, and I hadn't touch a drop of alcohol since the previous weekend. I was not intoxicated!