I am a SOCA WARRIOR!!

On Tuesday night, I had the best tube journey of my life. Without a doubt. As a London commuter, I've had many, many, many, largely uneventful, tube journeys. Here's why this one was cool.

I'd just been to the Joe Satriani gig in Hammersmith with my brother. Hammersmith tube station was pretty full afterwards, but we all managed to get into a District Line train (probably my least favourite line - although the Waterloo and City Line is pretty stupid). The journey to Baron's Court (the next stop) was pretty regular. As we pulled into the station, there were about twenty Trinidad and Tobago fans (including some very pretty girls), all dressed in red, white and black, waving flags - and were without doubt, the loudest people I have ever met.

They crowded into our carriage - singing and dancing - man, these people have rhythm. They were belting out such classics as 'I am a Soca Warrior' and 'Deutschland, Deutschland, here come the Soca Warriors.' Their voices were great, and these were proper songs with verses, bridges and everything! (A little different to 'In - ger - lernd, In - ger - lernd') They danced the whole time and at certain points in the songs, they all had to jump simultaneously and boy, did that carriage shake.

I was kinda expecting everyone on the carriage to be very British and stare down the whole time, trying to ignore the whole thing, but they didn't. People were joining in the songs (I had 'I am a Soca Warrior' in my head that whole evening), clapping, dancing - it was unreal. Everyone was just really happy. Pure joy. Great stuff. No-one would believe these people had just lost their final game and been knocked out of the Cup.

Unfortunately, the whole thing only lasted two stops - they got out at Gloucester Road, and within twenty seconds, the carriage was back to silence, with the vast majority of people staring at the floor again. I looked around thinking - 'did that just happen?!' Then an old lady turned to her husband and said quietly 'that was the best tube journey I've had in my life', and I knew it was real (like when the boy finds that scarf at the end of the Snowman).

A moment of sheer craziness - I felt like I'd just been tangoed. That night, we may have been standing on a District Line train between Hammersmith and Gloucester Road, but in our heads, for just a couple of minutes, we were all Soca Warriors, dancing on a sunny, Caribbean beach.

It's not often that the District Line takes a detour through the Caribbean.