Train folk

I travel on the train a lot.  Trains have their own little world, communities of fellow travellers (not often you get to use that term non-pejoratively).  There are fairly rigid structures on trains.  People stand in the same spot every day.  And it's always funny when you get on the train and there are intruders - two guys going up to Dublin for some reason, a mother and daughter on a shopping trip and occasionally someone on their way to court.  They have no idea the confusion they create by deciding to stand in the middle of the buffet car, right in the middle of someone's space.  There's shuffling, strategic placing of bags and a standing too close in hope they get the message.

Sometimes someone just disappears after years of seeing them every day.  Have they died? Retired or changed jobs?   Sitting at home with a broken leg?  Occasionally a new person becomes a regular.  Perhaps randomly, perhaps someone's sister who can't quite decide which is worse, standing with her brother and his very peculiar train mates, or taking her chances further down the train.

There are some odd people.  Or people whose behaviour can be odd.  I'll mention three: Top Girl, Hat Boy and Impatient Man.

Top Girl gets on the train wearing a top.  A fairly standard top, a plain coloured cottony top.  Halfway through the journey she goes into the toilets and changes her top.  It's not into a work top.  It's not a better quality blouse.  She doesn't cycle or run to the train.  It's just another plain coloured top, from teal to lilac, from black to red.  Intriguing.

Hat Boy is a hoverer, a lurker.  He stands awkwardly on the platform.  He stays near the end of carriages, not quite committing to one or the other.  He uses the reflections in the windows and the overhead luggage racks to watch people.

Impatient Man behaves as if the train will go faster and arrive sooner if he pants and runs up and down the carriage.  He must be first off the train, even if this means barging past people to get to the door.  On one notable occasion he stood on the back of someone's foot and got a dig for his troubles.  He has been known to lift people's cups of tea or coffee and just drop them on the floor.

Perhaps somewhere, there is a blogger writing about Catholicus Nua, the odd ball on the train.  Who knows?

How the black and white smoke is actually made

Some fascinating (for geeks) facts from the Vatican News Service:

Beginning with the Conclave in 2005, in order to better distinguish the colour of the “fumate” (smoke signalling the election or non-election of a pontiff), a secondary apparatus is used to generate the smoke in addition to the traditional stove in which the Cardinal electors' ballots are burned. This device stands next to the ballot-burning stove and has a compartment where, according to the results of the vote, different coloured-smoke generating compounds can be mixed. The result is requested by means of an electronic control panel and lasts for several minutes while the ballots are burning in the other stove.


For a black “fumata” the chemical compound is made of potassium perchlorate, anthracene, and sulphur. The white “fumata” is a mixture of potassium chlorate, lactose, and rosin. The rosin is a natural amber resin obtained from conifers. Prior to 2005 the black smoke was obtained by using smoke black or pitch and the white smoke by using wet straw.

The stove-pipes of the stove and the smoke-producing device join up and exit the roof of the Sistine Chapel as one pipe leading to the chimney installed on the ridge of the roof, which is visible from St. Peter's Square. To improve the airflow the pipe is pre-heated by electrical resistance and it also has a backup fan.

Make your own countdown to Sede Vacante calendar

1.  Print the picture

2.  Cut each image out - you may need an adult to help

3.  Attach each one to a separate page sticking one edge only to create a flap

4.  Write a quote from Pope Benedict under each one - there's seventy five quotes here

5.  Open your first flap

6.  Open a new flap every five hours until the Holy Father resigns

7.  Cry uncontrollably and hope desparately we get somebody good

Hat-tip to The St Genesius Blog

Romantic or a little creepy?

Pick your papal name

Fr Z is having a poll to pick the next Pope's name.  Trot on over and vote.

Beautiful time-waster

No, not me, this interactive view of Mount Everest.  Waste  a few moments exploring.  Put on your school bag and pretend you're a sherpa or if you're in Carryduff open the window and let some snow in for the full experience.