Women Get Things Done

beingwoman
The 10:27 a.m. from Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham
was canceled at approximately 10:25 a.m. The next train?
1:27 p.m. With bad weather predicted for Wales, I thought,
WWRWD? (What would a real woman do?) So I listened
for a few moments as one woman yelled at the station
conductor and a young girl sobbed to her friend that she
didn't have £50 for a taxi.

Eager to arrive in Aberystwyth for my Fellowship course
at the Centre for Performance Research at 3:30 p.m. rather
thant 5:30 p.m., I did what most Americans abroad do
(only nicely). I simply said loudly enough to be heard
over the din of angry rail passengers, "Anyone interested in
sharing a cab to Birmingham?" The young girl from Edinburgh
stepped up first. (She had done the legwork and found out the
price of a taxi.) The Liverpudlian with an attitude (just back from
a mind-bogglingly hot sailing holiday in Greece and eager to return
for her night shift as an E.R. doctor, and a woman from Brazil
just going into Birmingham on a shopping holiday) stepped up.
We shared the ride at £13 ($20 each) and I arrived in Aberystwyth
in time to post this blog, go to the grocery store and sort out
laundry change!

The men were probably still sitting on the platform at 1:27 p.m.,
too manly to ask for directions or help of any kind.