Well done for handling it so well! As a fellow Londoner out of curiosity which tube line/station was it? You were pretty unlucky to see that I have to say as *touch* wood I have travelled around London by tube, train and bus thousands of times over - including late at night with drunkards - over the last 6 years and have not seen it happen.

The only thing I feel (as well as the natural panic) when I see someone v* in a public place is sympathy. I feel sorry they are a) going through the process of being sick and b) doing it in a place they would undoutedly rather not. They always seem to cope better with it than I ever would too. I always feel bad that I can't help them, like asking if they're OK and giving them water if I have it, because I get too scared.

V*ing isn't the same as going to the toilet - natural, everyday motions which we learn to control from a young age and therefore do not do in public. It is actually a reflex that for the vast majority of people, is not controllable. V*ing usually happens, similar to d*, when someone is ill and as such it is not a normal, everyday process that we can control. I remember having bad food poisoning in Greece and the d* was so bad I decided it was best to camp out all night on the toilet with a pile of magazines to read, as at one point I nearly didn't make it 10 feet from the bed to the en suite bathroom! If I'd have been in public I dread to think of the accident I'd have had! I was ill and when it's that bad, you can't control it with all the willpower in the world. The poor chap on the tube had clearly been struggling to wait for the next stop and clearly did well to make it that far.