Metro madness/A zut by any other name

You know how, when you do something stupid, you sometimes just have to go through with it, rather than immediately admitting you're an idiot?

OK, maybe not...

Anyway, I was on the tube yesterday, and I fancied sitting down.

There were two young women sitting next to each other, and there seemed to be a bit of a gap between them.

So I said to one of them, 'Can I sit here?'

She looked a little surprised, but indicated that it was OK.

Of course, as soon as I lowered my buttocks to the seat, I realised my error. It wasn't really a seat; the two girls were occupying spaces for two. It was just that they were quite slim, and there was a gap.

But then I couldn't just reverse my descent, for fear of appearing stupid. Instead, I leaned forward, to minimise the space I was taking up, and sort of perched between them.

At the next stop, I got up (not looking back) and stood for the rest of the journey.

What a fool.

PS Sharon has taught me a new word: 'zut' (pronounced 'zoot', I think).

The conversation went

SS 'is just about to smoke a zut'

DS comment 'Is a zut what I think it is?'

SS 'yeh..y?'

DS comment 'coz I've never heard it called a zut B4'

So I'm almost using textspeak...