January 13 - in which we explore the etiquette of giving up your seat

The journey home, and again, I need an RAK to perform. I'm sitting in a reasonably crowded tube carriage and trying to work out how to smoothly give up my seat to one of the people standing in front of me. The trouble is that none of the passengers standing is elderly or infirm or pregnant, and might well find it odd if I just stand up and offer them the seat. Even worse, if I stand up and implicitly offer the seat, everyone might assume that I was giving it up for someone else, and no-one will sit down. Oh, how we Londoners love to tie ouselves up in knots of mute embarrassment - anything rather than actually talk to each other and make ourselves clear.

It takes me a few stops to work it out, but finally I hit on the solution. I get up nonchalantly and stand by the exit door, as if I were about to disembark at the next station. One of the standing passengers, a young woman, immediately accepts the free seat. I stand up for the rest of the journey. Neither of us look at each other or acknowledge what's happened. But the important thing is I managed to give up my seat for someone else without actually having to make any personal contact with them at all. Job done, and British etiquette preserved. Hurrah!
My Random Act of Kindness was the work of a moment. L spends an entire evening doing her RAK. She's at church, helping to teach a confirmation class - children doing Bible studies in preparation for being confirmed into the Church. It's a thankless task, which she and I have promised to do once a week for eight weeks. We'll be trying to make the lessons a bit more interesting and fun for the poor kids, most of whom I'm sure would rather be sitting at home in front of the TV.