Having been enrolled in Kingston University since September, I have taken around three buses a day, every weekday for the last 5 months. On average, that's around 60 bus journeys a month if my maths if right. That's a lot of bus journeys and considering buses are probably my least favourite public transport, I'd rather not think about how many hours I have spent on the cramped and sometimes annoying tin can! But the good thing about spending so much time on buses is that you get to eavesdrop on conversations that people have during their journey. Sometimes, these conversations are between friends, sometimes between strangers and sometimes, weirdly to themselves. Overhearing conversations is hilarious.
If you're ever on a bus, please listen in to some conversations and it'll keep you entertained for your entire journey. I'm probably in someone else's list of funny things said on buses but here are a few things that I've noted down since I decided to do this blog about a week ago...
♥Can I get a return?
Now this isn't really a conversation so I've already flouted my blog topic BUT this is something I regularly hear on the bus from people. Now I don't know whether or not they are new to London or not but I have NEVER heard of being able to get a return on a bus in London and it makes me giggle everytime they ask. It makes me wonder whether that was their first bus journey in London/Kingston and then I wonder further about why they might be there, what are they doing?
London does not offer return bus tickets because it means they wouldn't receive as much money as they do now, the money grabbers!
Now this isn't really a conversation so I've already flouted my blog topic BUT this is something I regularly hear on the bus from people. Now I don't know whether or not they are new to London or not but I have NEVER heard of being able to get a return on a bus in London and it makes me giggle everytime they ask. It makes me wonder whether that was their first bus journey in London/Kingston and then I wonder further about why they might be there, what are they doing?
London does not offer return bus tickets because it means they wouldn't receive as much money as they do now, the money grabbers!
♥Where does this bus go to?
Now, I don't know about you, but whenever I'm going somewhere different and new where I don't know the area; I always research the bus that I need to take in order to get to my destination, and I research extensively. Maybe that's because I'm a little bit of a worrier but it does make me laugh when people get on the bus and then don't know where the bus goes OR when they need to get off. Completely lack of planning on their part. And there's a lot more people that don't know where the bus goes or where to get off than I thought.
But unfortunately, on Monday, I became one of these people because I knew I needed to take the 463 bus but I didn't know which side of the road I needed to be on. Also, to make things 10x harder, the bus was in a section of hail and ride and so there wasn't a bus stop to check on my handy Bus Checker app. I know, disastrous. And what's worse is that I had to get off the first bus because it wasn't going where I wanted to go. How shameful!
Now, I don't know about you, but whenever I'm going somewhere different and new where I don't know the area; I always research the bus that I need to take in order to get to my destination, and I research extensively. Maybe that's because I'm a little bit of a worrier but it does make me laugh when people get on the bus and then don't know where the bus goes OR when they need to get off. Completely lack of planning on their part. And there's a lot more people that don't know where the bus goes or where to get off than I thought.
But unfortunately, on Monday, I became one of these people because I knew I needed to take the 463 bus but I didn't know which side of the road I needed to be on. Also, to make things 10x harder, the bus was in a section of hail and ride and so there wasn't a bus stop to check on my handy Bus Checker app. I know, disastrous. And what's worse is that I had to get off the first bus because it wasn't going where I wanted to go. How shameful!
♥Talking about their test scores.
I get a bus that is overran with school children because that's how they get to school in the morning. The bus stops right outside their school so I don't blame them. But it's also a school that is rated very highly and all the smart children go there to extend themselves. So, the theme of their conversation is always about test scores and grades they received. No word of a lie, one conversation I overheard was mocking a child for getting 7/10 when everyone else got 10/10 in Physics. Now, becoming a teacher I should find this as a good thing because the children obviously care about their education but at the same time, I also feel a little sad about it because those children obviously have so much pressure on their backs that they aren't even really allowed to be children. It's a lose-lose situation, I guess.
♥Weather.
This is generally the conversation between strangers and most of the time, if not all, there is an elderly person involved. I find these conversations endearing and I love talking about the weather with a stranger on the bus. It gets a little lonely spending so much time by yourself on a bus so it's nice when you see a smiley face or someone that actually wants to interact with the other human beings. I had a lovely conversation with a middle-aged woman about the weather and how rainy it was. We also spoke about Australia and how crazy the weather is around the world. And you know what? It put a smile on my face when I got off the bus after a long day. It's nice to be friendly.
♥Diet.
This is probably the worst conversation I have heard on the bus between a group of three teenage girls just because it's so evident of what our society values and it makes me a little sick. I listened to the girls talk about going on diets and trying to eat as little calories as they could in the day. No word of a lie, the girls actually had a little competition about who had eaten less the day before. And it turned out that the girl that had eaten the least also had fainted that day, which she said wasn't bad because it was just the once. I mean, what the hell? What has our world come to? It makes me so angry and then so sad to think that this is what girls think is a good thing. It's not and I wanted to say something to them but I got too scared.
And those are some of the things that people talk about on buses. It's quite interesting to listen to people when they're talking because there are some people that hardly talk on the bus (me) because they don't want people listening in and then there are some people that really don't mind what they talk about or who is listening. You could probably guess that I also like people-watching.
I'M NOT A CREEP!
xxx
I get a bus that is overran with school children because that's how they get to school in the morning. The bus stops right outside their school so I don't blame them. But it's also a school that is rated very highly and all the smart children go there to extend themselves. So, the theme of their conversation is always about test scores and grades they received. No word of a lie, one conversation I overheard was mocking a child for getting 7/10 when everyone else got 10/10 in Physics. Now, becoming a teacher I should find this as a good thing because the children obviously care about their education but at the same time, I also feel a little sad about it because those children obviously have so much pressure on their backs that they aren't even really allowed to be children. It's a lose-lose situation, I guess.
This is generally the conversation between strangers and most of the time, if not all, there is an elderly person involved. I find these conversations endearing and I love talking about the weather with a stranger on the bus. It gets a little lonely spending so much time by yourself on a bus so it's nice when you see a smiley face or someone that actually wants to interact with the other human beings. I had a lovely conversation with a middle-aged woman about the weather and how rainy it was. We also spoke about Australia and how crazy the weather is around the world. And you know what? It put a smile on my face when I got off the bus after a long day. It's nice to be friendly.
This is probably the worst conversation I have heard on the bus between a group of three teenage girls just because it's so evident of what our society values and it makes me a little sick. I listened to the girls talk about going on diets and trying to eat as little calories as they could in the day. No word of a lie, the girls actually had a little competition about who had eaten less the day before. And it turned out that the girl that had eaten the least also had fainted that day, which she said wasn't bad because it was just the once. I mean, what the hell? What has our world come to? It makes me so angry and then so sad to think that this is what girls think is a good thing. It's not and I wanted to say something to them but I got too scared.
I'M NOT A CREEP!
xxx
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