I felt like an old man.

As I boarded the train to Waterloo, I was looking forward to my daily read. In this case I had elected to continue my brain melting education in New Testament Greek. But as I sat down and to begin my struggle with participles, aorist infinitives and the like, my concentration was shattered by the unleashing of a tinny tirade of Heavy Metal music from a few seats away.

I tried my best to ignore it and tune out, but it really was incredibly loud. After reading the same paragraph, the same paragraph, the same paragraph time and time again I had had enough. What was this person doing to their ears? To get it that loud they must have modified their ipod to deliver this ear torture.

And so before I could stop myself, I found my face peering through the gap between the seats to see the source of the irritant. Unfortunately I caught her eye and then found myself acting out turning the volume down, whilst informing her that 'it's a bit loud', a fact I'm sure she was well award of. She looked a little taken aback, before, thankfully reducing the ear-puncturing music to a more polite level.

I slinked back into my seat feeling as surprised as she was at my little outburst – but at least I would be able concentrate on my Greek now, or so I thought. Unfortunately all I did was worry about whether I had acted in a reasonable way and if I had been right to speak up... and so round and round went the same paragraph, the same paragraph, the same paragraph...