buses

i am a bus user. i spend a lot of time on the 25 bus going to and from home or work or going to and from home and central london.
the 25 is one of the famous bendy buses. it also seems to be designed around the famine or feast principle - sometimes it is empty and spacious, other times it is packed to the gills with people (and you never get thrust up against the person you want either...)
my theory is that eventually you will see all of life's mystery and all of life's differences if you stay on the 25.

recently i have had to "suffer":
fat child stuffing her face with chips that had been covered in an inch of ketchup and mayo - looking more like an abstract work of art than a meal. it was obvious that she was her mum's little (well actually very large) princess and was prepared to play the spoilt kid role to the hilt. there were several times when i wanted to stuff all the chips in her face. including when she got stroppy with the mum for 1] not wanting to finish off the chips she had left 2] for not wanting to carry the kids rubbish and 3] when the mum dared to point out she was behaving badly.
cemented my dislike of children.

mobile phones playing crap urban music, and urban music that is stealing from 90s disco. the "tunes" played are never any good, the quality of the sound is so poor as to make your grannies wind-up 78 record player sound like it is from b&o, the lads who play these great tunes always try to look hard but somehow they look embarrassed by the tinny noise that comes out of their phones.
(how i am dreading the advent of the video ipod!)

then there are the new urban warfare pushchairs, they take up 2 to 3 times the amount of space as the old small buggy did, and does nothing more for your money. it's a little like the 4x4 that populate the rugged hilly roads of london. the drivers of these little tanks don't seem to care who they bang into, or what space they take up. but they are quick to let you know that you are in their way.

then there was the african who decided to declare that the world would be a better place if all pakistanis were not in it. the language he used though was of a more earthy nature. he had strategically waited until he away from the people he was abusing before he started. i think that this is the third such incident i have seen

yesterday it was the african woman who was reading from her bible quite loudly. at first i thought she was on the phone to a mate, then i realised she was quoting biblical texts. to her credit (and to my amazement) she kept it up for the time i on the bus without missing a beat, no stumble, no hesitation.

ah is it any wonder i look forward to the bus?