Coffee and commuting etiquette

[TomB]

Dear Aunty P11,

I have an etiquette dilemma I hope you can help me with. Was on a very very packed DART this morning (see post in other thread), and as I was manouvering myself on I had the following exchange with a fellow commuter -- a well spoken bloke in his late twenties. It went something like this

He: "Watch your ****in' coffee!"
Me: "Oh, I'm sorry, did I spill it?"
He: "No, but you might do"
Me: "I'm sorry?"
He: "Look, this is not a canteen, right? You can't just come on with your coffee like that"
Me: "Oh, so I didn't actually spill anything on you"
He: "No"
Me: "Well, I apologise theoretically, then"

(wish I'd thought of more elegant comebacks but there you go).

In my defence, it was one of those polystyrene cups with a little hole in the top you can drink out of. And I was holding it pretty close to my body, so I don't really think anyone was in danger. In fairness it was unusually jammers this morning because of delays -- it's not normally that crowded.

So my question is, was he right? Is it bad form to bring coffee on to a crowded DART?