If I hadn’t seen such riches

GARETH SAYS…

I’m a big fan of the British band James. They are the guys who did “Sit Down”, “She’s a star” and “Laid”. I have no idea if they made it big over here in America but I hope they did.

Not only were there songs catchy but they also had great lyrics – stuff that stays with you a lifetime.

My favorite lyrics of theirs is the following:

“If I hadn’t seen such riches I could live with being poor”

Top stuff and I think very appropriate for what we are going through with Operation Night Brace and how all of a sudden our salaries started being diverted into the Student Loan Company rather than our own bank accounts.

The most recent example of this “hadn’t seen” happened last Friday night when I landed back at JFK.

In the old days I would have jumped straight in a cab and been home in about 40 minutes with a wallet “$45 plus tip” lighter. But this time I decided I would get public transport home for a total of $7 (no tip required).

I left the arrivals area at Terminal 4 and then managed to get the wrong Air Train twice. Be impressed – it is pretty hard to go that wrong as the Air Train is basically a loop.

Eventually I got to the A train station at Howard Beach $5 poorer. I then waited forever for a train into Manhattan. When I finally got on I was treated to a ‘colourful’ NYC subway ride for the next 1 hour and twenty minutes. There was the man who wouldn’t stop talking out loud to no-one in particular. When someone told him to “SHHHUTTT THE FUCK UP MAN” in their most politest New York accent the man responded by shouting out that he wasn’t talking to him “I’m talking to my GODDDDDDD”.

I decided at that point that it made sense to reread the newspaper for the fifth time that I had found on the seat. I found the article even more interesting when the guy who had told him to shut up revealed that he had been in jail for 15 years and didn’t need much provoking motherfucker. Gulp.

In the same carriage was a hugely obese woman in an electric wheelchair. I’m not sure what happened there but all of a sudden she was shouting too: “It’s not like I can fucking fold it up”. I think she was referring to the wheelchair rather than her excessive roles of excess fat.

I just wanted to get home in one piece.

I had landed at 9:00pm and I didn’t make it home and into bed until 1:20am. I may have saved $43 but I was exhausted and in a bad mood dragging my luggage around the subway system.

Note to self - It is easy to save money when you have plenty of time to do something but being in a rush and saving cash just don’t go well together.

I guess we only have a few more months until “the riches” James sing about come back into our lives and we can start divert our salaries towards things like taxis home from the airport rather than bastard loan companies ☺