He would collect timetables (old and new), visit train stations (far and wide), collect memorabilia (useful and not very) and find insufficient time to go to parties or have any girlfriends (there's a surprise).
Even while he was captive in various POW camps in Burma, he would see occasional steam trains and carriages from all over the world and they would help him cope with his captivity. The film doesn't go into much detail about this but the book does.
He was also fanatical about lists; not just lists of trains he'd seen, train times and such like but lists of peoples, dates, places, things, etc. This helped him cope with his previous and later life in civvy street but also while he was locked up.
Was he a bit OCD or what?
This got me wondering how OCD each one of us might be. So, in the interest of objective research I Googled OCD and took an on-line self-administered questionnaire. I scored 4 out of 40 which means I'm probably not OCD but could be if I asked a psychologist to look into my behavior.
So, not fully convinced of my soundness of mind, I started to list all the things that might push me towards uncontrollable OCDism.
Things like:
- Always needing to know where I am and where I am going.
- Interested to know which way I'm facing: north, south, east, west or anywhere in between.
- Wanting to know the weather forecast and where the wind or rain is likely to come from.
- Keeping a detailed diary of appointments, holidays, other peoples appointments (where they may impact on me).
- Keeping all my 'stuff' in a reasonable order so I know where everything is.
- Researching things, considering options and their implications before I do something major.
- Keeping my internet files in military order.
- Communicating well with internet sellers.
- Maintaining a 100% feedback rating on eBay.
- Keeping up my 3 Blogs.
- Regularly checking emails, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
- Thinking about whether I'm OCD
I thought I ought to stop there because I think I know the answer and if anyone suggests I go and see a Shrink, don't bother. I'm quite happy with my 4/40 score. I just don't know where it came from or where I'm going with it.