Imagine you're in a hurry. At the last minute you've decided to get a gripping thriller from the bookseller at the central station, enough for the two hour trip by train to Paris. At the cash desk, you're in the slow queue, how could it be otherwise? The queue next to you is going faster, and at a certain moment, there is no one standing in line anymore. Out of the corner of your eye, you see someone coming, patently obvious heading for that 'no queue' cash desk. At that moment, you switch to the other cash desk to pay. You see the man coming towards the desk shake his head in disapproval.

Once outside, you work your way through the crowd to the platform. Once at the platform, you're completely out of breath. That's the moment you realize you shouldn't have hurried that much, since only then you experience the train is delayed by ten minutes. There are several benches at the platform, from which one is taken by five smooth operators in tailor-made suits, busy doing business while waiting. A cleaning woman is mopping the platform. As she enters the bench with the tailor-made suits, you see the businessmen simultaeneously lift their legs, so she could mop the floor underneath. It's great to see, because none of them really takes notice of what the cleaning lady is doing. They all continue having dealings. It's like a playing child responding to what his mother says while playing with his cars with his friend (and thus not following the conversation at all) ...

Once in the train you make it yourself comfortable. You order yourself a latte machhiato in the train's bar, you fling yourself into the chair and start reading. You're so immersed in reading you're not aware of the train leaving the station. Two hours later the train arrives at the 'Gare du Nord' station in Paris. In your imagination it's like the train has just left the city of Brussels. Time flies when reading a gripping thriller! You leave the train. At the platform your girlfriend is waiting for you. She falls into your arms and you kiss away her tears of joy. It looks like the start of a beautiful, romantic weekend!