Takes on a Train 3 – Habit Space

Looking North through the dome window

I figure if I do this often enough it’ll become a habit.

(Both the writing, and the hobbies. And maybe the trains? TBD… )

Been working with a travel palette of watercolours that I brought. That, and a few other small things. We’ll see which one I enjoy most, but right now the watercolors are delightful. Being able to add a small degree of colour to a notebook beings it to life.

I think there was a guy who did oil paintings in an Altoid’s tin? The watercolors remind me a lot of that.

Oh here it is:

I’ll give the oil paints a test run first. I’m not sure how well they travel. But watercolour is inoffensive enough in a public space like a train.


Though perhaps semi-public is the way to describe it? Everyone is close, but off in their own space.

Not in the very close and not-at-all-private way that we’re used to in an airplane, or in the even closer contact you get in commuter transit.

So you get a modicum of space, of distance, and that plus the time gained from the pace of the thing, continuously moving, relentlessly forward, allows for the time needed to take up a hobby, or discover a new vocation en route.

It reminds me of the work by Matt Crawford, in Shopcraft as Soulcraft, (which of course echoes Pirsig’s ZATAOMM from decades earlier, where the space for the work impacts the work itself.

I talked about it a lot in my dissertation.

I haven’t looked at it in a few years.

We’ll return to it soon.

Takes on a Train 2 – Lux

Napping and looking out the window

Everybody is sleeping.

At 3 in the afternoon, everyone is in full-blown siesta mode.

Myself included.
(I’m a light napper).

It’s the pace that’s different, is what I’m getting at. It’s not that there’s that much else to do, either. Play a game, watch a saved vid, or whatever you downloaded the last time the data was above 1 bar, rolling through Bala or Torrance or Wasego or wherever.

But everyone is zonked right out. And moreover, has the room to get zonked.

Which to those accustomed to air travel is a luxury all on it’s own. Economy on the rails is some Air Emirates level of lux in the air, when it comes to space and mobility.

Granted, hours turn into days in terms of distance travelled, in some kind of reverse-Innisian metaphor. It’ll take 4+ days to cross what a plane could accomplish in 4+ hours.

But it kinda does feel lux.

I mean, there’s a certain luxuriousness in being able to even take the time for a five day trip in this day and age, where time is money. “You took your time? How decadent.” And again this is all in economy class, back with the hoi polloi. I’ve only heard rumors of the Prestige and Sleeper classes.

We’ll go exploring soon.

Takes on a Train 1 – Pace

The Trip Begins…

Boarded on the train, though with a little confusion as to where we could sit. Got it figured out after all, but confusion describes a lot of what had us rushing this morning. Ended up taking an Uber, which cut an hour off our travel time, so we had a bit to sit around. This was okay – relaxing even. But frantic to start.

The train has a different pace. Almost two hours out; we’ve had to stop once to wait for freight, and once we backed up (to get to a siding line for you guessed it: freight). But after the first twenty minutes or so, after the city rolls away (surprisingly quickly) you come to that moment of realization that: “I’m here for a while”, and you should get comfy.

I’m napping, relaxing with the blinds drawn.


I’ve explored a little bit, through the kitchen car and up into the dome. I’ll go spend more time there soon, but right now I’m just chilling.

Enjoying the pace?

So far: most definitely.