Eavesdropping On The Bus

Photos Copyright: Maggie May

It is nearly a year since I went off on my own ........ just catching a bus from our bus station and going off to our local sea side using my bus pass.

Last Saturday, I felt the need to do this and whilst feeling a bit guilty about leaving Harry behind and wondering if he would be alright, I made the decision and left home at 9.30 am.

The bus journey takes about one hour on the fast bus but much longer on the meandering one that I caught, as it visits lonely estates and villages and winds along country roads on the way. I sat upstairs on the top deck of the bus, known as a double decker, for those of you who don't have this type of vehicle.

The surrounding countryside can be seen much better than from a car. I like to see over the hedgerows and I do enjoy looking into peoples' gardens and farms. I can see so much more from a bus.

The bus journey itself is always quite interesting as I love to *people watch* and as if on cue, a large family got on the bus and sat in front of me on the opposite side. It soon became apparent that they were speaking two languages. The first being German or Austrian....... I can't tell which is which and the second English. The two boys and two girls spoke mostly in the Germanic language but the parents answered sometimes in English and sometimes in their native tongue but the children seemed to respond to either. Although both parents spoke excellent English, I did feel that the woman was English. This seems to be the natural way to ensure that the family are bilingual. It takes input from both parents all the time.

Eventually they got off the bus long before I did and they all headed off to a wooded area, obviously going for a long walk in the country.

Harry and I haven't been to many places since we had to have so much treatment for our illnesses and last time I visited, Weston Super Mare was still in turmoil with workmen everywhere while they finished putting in the superior sea defences and new walkways. The whole of the town seemed to be upside down for several years, so I was quite pleasantly surprised that it was all finished and not a workman, tractor or bulldozer anywhere in sight and it all looked very new and agreeable as well as safer for the people who live there.

Harry is responding to the new cancer drug and feels much better but the brain disorder, Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, is affecting his memory, moods and often walking, making things hard for him and everyone else. He has recently had to give up driving and we managed to sell the car over the weekend to some friends.

Anyway, Harry is not well enough to travel so far as my journey but can go to the city centre on the bus by himself and go out for walks now he is feeling a bit better. He just needs to be reminded to take his keys and things like that and I do worry in case he forgets important things to do with the safety of him and the house. So I can never really relax and spend the time thinking of possible things that could happen to him.

Anyway, I managed to go for a very long walk along the seafront as far as the eye could see and beyond. I sat down and watched the people go by while I ate my sandwiches. I was most surprised to see a young couple walking by with a shopping bag and I noticed a little nose peeping out from it, sniffing the air. Very curious, I was trying to decide what animal could be in there, when it popped its head out completely and I was able to recognise it as a ferret! It had a stainless steel lead attached to the bag and harness. I was thinking about my little rabbits at home in their safe surroundings.

The day was warmish though I needed hat, scarf and gloves. At times there were bursts of sunshine that I basked in and the air seemed much fresher than the city.

After several hours, I walked back to get my bus home. That bus was much quicker and busier than the first bus that I caught out and I just found myself listening in to a conversation between two women whose age I thought was quite young, but I wasn't rude enough to turn round and look. However, when I got off the bus, they overtook me and I found they were very elderly ladies.

Aren't I just the nosiest person around?

However there is always some blog material to be found by watching and listening and I did enjoy my trip and it gave me an enormous amount of pleasure and Harry was fine. I will do this more often now, I think.

Overheard Conversations

Photo copyright: Maggie May

I can't believe that another week has gone by so quickly.

I have caught the bus to oncology at various times of the day, all this week and my treatment seems to have gone well. I am feeling alright.

I could catch the hospital bus if I wanted, from the city shopping centre. They seem to run every 30 minutes or so and stop at all the major hospitals. However, so far, I have felt the need to walk the short distance to oncology from the main shopping centre and again on the return journey. It is the only exercise I seem to be getting these days, so I feel it must do me good.

While on the bus, I have overheard some strange conversations.

One man who obviously had some degree of learning disability, plonked himself down in the seat behind me, next to another man and immediately struck up a conversation with him.

He asked the stranger if he'd ever been abroad and he replied he'd been to Spain. This was met by a very excited response and the conversation got louder and louder and he wanted to know what food they ate in Spain and what the driving was like etc. The other man was very patient with him and must have known that the whole bus was hanging onto his every word.

"Are you going again?" he asked the man.

"Yes in September," was the reply.

The excited man then asked for how long and the long suffering man answered "One week."

"Only for one week?" Replied the excited man, "Whats the matter with you, couldn't you afford more than that?"

Unfortunately, I had to get off then and I was wondering what the reply would have been. I'm sure he'd have been very polite and had a very good reply.

Another journey going into town, nearly brought tears into my eyes and I wish I'd have had the nerve to say something.

I noticed a very rough and ready grandmother who was sitting next to a little girl who must have been about 4 yrs old. They were sitting directly in front of me

Her granddaughter was repeating a word over and over again. I think it was *Anyway.* She wasn't shouting the word but it was obviously getting the grandmother down. She put a fist to the little girl's chin and said in a very gruff and menacing voice, "Will you just shut up and stop saying that word." She then went on to say the word over and over again in a very sarcastic and mimicking kind of way.

"Now you know what it sounds like. Just shut up."

I couldn't believe it when the man who was sitting next to me, started to poke her through the seat and also tell her to shut up and listen to Nan.

She turned round and said, "Don't Daddy." She was doing her best not to cry.

I made a point of moving after that. I hope they realised why, though I doubt it.

What rotten luck to have two grown ups looking after her who were behaving in such a barbaric way. Her father and her grand mother.

It is the end of the week now and I probably won't be getting into another bus until Monday.

You might be wondering why I chose a wet ornamental grass to illustrate this post.

Well, in truth....... I have no idea.

Not sure if there could be any psychological reason.

Any guesses?

The Trying Journey.

This photo is copyright of Maggie May.

I found a good seat on the bus and looked forward to being on my own for the hour long journey to the sea. I had a delicious feeling of a pleasant day ahead, with the possibility of writing post or two while I travelled. One of the last days of the half term school holidays, the lull before the storm because I was having all the grandchildren for a sleep over and a weekend with my daughter and son. I could recharge my batteries before they came, especially following my roof alterations and the tensions that had been building up with the rat hunt.

However, my peace was to be shattered. What was that noise?

Two very large women climbed onto the bus followed by their sons, who I estimated to be aged 4 or 5 years of age. One of the women and her boy made a very noisy couple as they walked in my direction down the bus. The mother shouted to him, "You got your DS?" and she flopped into the seat directly behind me. This particular mother and son were the noisiest of the two families and the peace of the whole bus was shattered as she shouted out commands to the boy.

"Sit back, put your feet down. Get out your DS. What game do you want? No not that one. That's me brain training one."

She went on to say. "Try this one. You got to take exams on this one. Yes, you have to....... do you understand you got to?"

The child was immediately put off this game and wanted another. He started to fidget around my back and I felt his fingers on my shoulders.

"If you pick your nose, you'll get a wart on the end of your finger." She announced. I shuddered at the thought of the yucky fingers on my back, but reminded myself that I was quite used to children and I blanked it out.

From time to time the woman behind me talked loudly to her friend across the isle. I noticed the friend's son was fairly well behaved and sat quietly with his DS , sometimes nodding off.

The bus, being delayed by the traffic, stopped for some time beside a colourful poster on a board outside.

"What's that picture mean, mummy?" said the boy behind me.

"It's a picture," She said.

"But what does it mean?" He insisted.

She answered three times that it was a picture before the boy gave up and I felt quite sad for him.

His mother ranted on. "Sit back, feet down or I'll put you off the bus."

"Stop doing that, you're hurting mummy. I'm going to smack you." SLAP! I expected a reaction but he didn't flinch. He must be used to it, I reckoned.

"When you get to the beach, you can have chips with your sandwiches.

The child protested that he didn't want to eat on the beach.

"Well you got to," was the reply. "We will have ice cream too." More protesting.

"Well you got to try it. Yes, you got to."

"Can we go to the shops? the boy asked.

"You will go to the shops when I want to and not when you want to," She replied. "You will not throw sand. Sit back, feet down."

"Don't do that, you are hurting mummy." Slap!

And so it went on.

Well I mentally started writing a post so I suppose something positive came out of the tiresome journey, but the loud voices and the mother's behaviour did grate on my nerves a bit. It was almost painful having her shout so near to my ears. Yet I couldn't bring myself to move. It would look so obvious and it was a single decker bus with no where else to move to.

When we finally reached our destination, the boy got off the bus with the others and started to cry. "I'm bored," he said. Already, I thought?

I turned away and looked for a bench to sit on and made notes so that I wouldn't forget the conversation that everyone on the bus must have shared.

I looked around me. The sun was shining and the day stretched before me. I could do what I liked, go where I liked and be answerable to no one.

A sudden wave of contentment coursed through my veins as I forgot about the trying journey and the boy.

The Balloon Ride

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

I was travelling on the bus in Bath, when I saw this hot air ballon. Fortunately, I had my camera on me and after a few attempts I managed to get a reasonable picture of it. Of course it was taken through the glass window but I didn't think it was too bad a shot.

Anyway, seeing this hot air balloon reminded me of the time when my husband, Harry and his twin brother, Larry, were about to be 65. My sister in law, Rhoda had decided it would be a good idea to treat Larry to a hot air balloon ride and my son Sam and daughter Deb decided to treat their father too, so that the twins could go together.

We had thought that it would be a fairly simple operation and that they would be able to just take off after the tickets had been paid for.

How wrong we were. We were told that the weather had to be just right and that the twins had to be prepared to come when summoned at short notice.

Unfortunately, they could only do that on a Saturday or Sunday evening, as Harry was still working, and they were put in a long queue and their Birthdays came and went!

The summer of that year was not really good and weather conditions were either too windy or too rainy. The company didn't want to run the risk of them crashing into the sea or being knocked into a power line. There is not much margin for error if the weather is wrong or suddenly turns bad.

Anyway, after waiting weeks and weeks for the flight, we had the phone call saying that the flight was imminent and the four of us quickly managed to get to the given site in time for a Sunday evening flight.

We all watched while the hot air was pumped into the balloon shell and the pilot told the twins to get in. Not an easy task to climb into the wicker basket, as they are not particularly tall. There were two other people going with them. No, Rhoda and I preferred to stay on terra firma. 

The balloon shot up fairly quickly and after lots of waving they took off towards some trees. It looked like they were going to go directly into them, but they managed to skim over the treetops. The weather was almost windless and the balloon hovered over the city and did not seem to go very far at all.

After what seemed like only a few minutes, the balloon started descending slowly and we wondered where it would come down. We had been told that they would be brought back to the starting place, so Rhoda and I just waited.

Apparently they had hovered over the city and seen some amazing sights and for some reason had landed in a park in a rather rough area. The balloon was mobbed by teenagers and the twins were a bit worried they would be mugged or something. However the balloon and the twins were packed safely into the land rover and brought back. They had a fantastic time but were a bit disappointed that they didn't get a longer journey. No two trips are ever the same apparently.

This photo and this story have been produced for Photostory Friday, hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek.