I’m on a commuter train. The hemispherical sliding automated toilet door is malfunctioning and slides open and shut on a 15 second cycle. A Malaysian student goes in, starts to undo her trousers, then the door - which she has been watching malfunction in the same way for a good ten minutes - opens again. She seems stunned. She tries the door lock again. Eventually she gives up. Then someone else tries.
It becomes a bizarre ritual where people watch a door automatically closing and then opening every 15 seconds, go into the cubicle, start undoing their trousers, and then stand astonished as it continues to open and close. Meanwhile we all sit staring at the door and trying to pretend it isn’t happening.
Whenever people get on the train, they look around accusingly that someone has left open the toilet door. Everyone shouts ‘it doesn’t close’ but they have earphones in, so carry on oblivious. They close it. It reopens. They try again.
Eventually they give up, and when anyone else gets on and repeats the cycle, we roll our eyes and shout ‘It doesn’t close.’
I wish the guy next to me would stop sighing so pneumatically; his garlic breath is far worse than the odour from the toilet.
Meanwhile here comes another Malaysian student.
