There are rules. In the Underground, it is not proper to make eye contact with people you don’t know. I use my ‘staring into space’ skills, honed after a few years of using Melbourne public transport.

Imagine my perturbation when one Monday night, while going down the stairs to my Tube platform, the man walking beside me turned around and made eye contact.

Eye contact is sometimes accidental. Despite our best efforts, accidents do happen. When they do, the correct response is to dart your eyes away. On this night, though, my fellow commuter held my gaze. I think he even smiled! I was forced to blink and gaze past him, then look the other way (a la ‘I was looking in your direction but not focusing on you specifically and now I’m going to naturally and without any concern swing my head to look elsewhere’).

When we reached the platform, I think he tried to re-engage eye contact. I shuffled quickly down the platform and lost him in the crowd.