dotinthesky: (Default)
Dot in the Sky ([personal profile] dotinthesky) wrote2015-10-10 07:48 pm

Save Livejournal Month, Day 10: Builders

Piccadilly tube line, London

London’s trains are filled with Eastern European men.

Shaved heads, boots, paint stains, tools, backpacks, mobile phones with mind-numbing games, beer guts that give away their spare time. They are building homes they can’t afford to live in.

I never see them on the way to work, only when I return – they must start earlier than me. Sometimes they sit on the train’s floor and sleep between their arms. Or they look at fellow passengers with an edge to their stares. They are the kind of men who smoke out of boredom.

How often do they call their loved ones?

[identity profile] zenithed.livejournal.com 2015-10-12 10:26 am (UTC)(link)
I hope they get something out of it, I can imagine London can't be a fun place to be if you're away from your friends and have to work stupid hours.

Some Eastern European guys lived next door to my last place, and spent most evenings smoking and drinking in a gazebo in their back garden - but then again that's how I spent half my twenties.

[identity profile] picosgemeos.livejournal.com 2015-10-12 01:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Quite a few of them seem to be in their 30s and 40s. But they all smoke and look "uninvested" in the city.