The Lovely Things About England

Got this email from Scott, sent from his blackberry on the train to Waterloo this morning:

.....At 7:59, I stepped into the ticket office, faced with 7 people in front of me. Right on the cusp...would I get my ticket and make it out, down theplatform and over the bridge for the 8:04?....at 8:02, 2 people ahead ofme....at 8:03, I was up. And I could hear the train pulling in. The ticketman expedited his movements (lovely thing no. 1) and pushed my tickets under the window. Train now stopped, doors open....I dashed out, ran down the platform...ran up the steps and onto the bridge. Whistle blows...imminent door closing. As I came to the end of the bridge and bounded down the steps, I was faced with an empty platform and another whistle. Then I saw the man in the blue uniform at the end of the train, holding it for me (lovely thing no. 2). I waved and jumped into the car. Doors closed and we're off.....

And then to top it off, he sees three owls sleeping in tree as the train heads out!

I cannot imagine these sort of things happening in Brooklyn. Yes, there are many magical things that happen in NYC, but commuter trains patiently waiting for stray commuters is not one of them. And wildlife viewing is limited to watching rats dart around on the tracks (although I always found that quite amusing. Are they all deaf? Have they, after 100s of generations of subway existence, developed eardrums immune to thundering trains? Is natural selection responsible for the fact that their fur is the EXACT color of the track floor?)