Deliberate Deceleration

- Eugene Yiga

The dinner gong sounds. Is it 7:30pm already? I can’t believe I’m going to be late because I can’t choose a tie. Why did I pack so many? And why can’t I remember how to make a knot?

I put on my jacket and make my way down the passage, unsure for a moment if I’m going the right way. Then I arrive at the table, take a seat and sigh in relief. But even though my thoughts are still rushed, they’re forced to be quiet when I find myself captivated by the scene.

This is the dining carriage of Rovos Rail, voted by wired.com as one of the seven most luxurious trains in the world. My first impulse is to reach for my phone to take photographs of the crystal wine glasses, the silverware and the rest of the luxurious scene.

The same impulse strikes when the first course arrives. The standard procedure would be to ‘compose’ the plate, angle the camera, take the picture, crop, filter, tag, tweet and post. Then there’d be endless refreshing to wait for the ‘likes’ and retweets, all the while hoping the food would still be warm when I took my first bite.