Wednesday 19th September
It sometimes happens in the theatre; you are eagerly awaiting the performance and in your seat early browsing the expensive programme. The house lights start to dim, and then you realise that someone is arriving late and you will have to stand up so that they can squeeze past you. It is a large person, in fact it is a very large person. Usually a man, well over six foot and almost as broad. You brace yourself against your upturned seat and breathe in. The monster of a man slides past, and then to your horror, he stops and your heart sinks as you realise that the seat next to you is vacant and he will be sitting there, right next to you. The sheer physical bulk stops you from relaxing, besides they insist on sitting with their legs apart (maybe that is the only way they can sit) and so invading some of your space. To avoid contact you sit as far away from them as possible, squeezing yourself into the other half of your seat. And suddenly a pleasant experience turns into a nightmare; no possibility of moving or changing your position, no use of the arm rest (you cannot even see the arm rest anymore), and this overwhelming presence by your side to distract you.
The same thing happens on flights if you are unlucky, and on buses and the tube. And there is no easy solution – people come in different sizes, and the makers of seats cannot really be expected to cope with this anomaly. And maybe these large people are just as annoyed that the seat they are allotted is so small that they are overflowing into other’s space. I have even found myself physically wedged into a tube seat, one where there are no real arm rests – just a slightly raised plastic divider, by two large people, one either side and you hardly dare breathe out for fear you will all be locked together forever, and you are just hoping that one of them has to get off before your stop as there is no way you can release yourself unaided. So, seat designers, think about it – just how do you deal with large people and small seats.