Paddington, Monday, 9.45am. Heading to Wimbledon.
I arrive on the platform just moments before the train pulls in. I make a bee-line for the front carriage as Wimbledon is a typical terminus station (exit at the front).
I've got enough time to make the front but decide to eschew it in favour of a business class seat in the second carriage.
I can see that the train is quiet, there's no-one near where I'm about to sit.
The tube comes to a stop and the doors open. To my surprise there is a passenger waiting to alight who I had not previously spotted - a pigeon. Let's call him Percy.
Percy looks up at me, and in a break from Tube convention decides to stand aside and let me on first before calmly alighting himself. We share a long glance. It is the most eye contact I have had with a Tube traveller in years.
Controversial. Very controversial, Percy.
- - - -
Fast forward several months and it seems the beasts have evolved. Politeness has got them nowhere. The door opens at the same spot and Percy shoots out of the starting block and away into the playground of Paddington station.