Michael needed to get a blood test, so we had to find a hospital. We found out that St Mary’s Hospital was just a short bus trip and headed off. We are a bit bumbling with the English coins, they are more logical than ours but we are unused to them and regularly mix them up. Most people are very patient, especially the bus drivers! The driver today was no exception, one of the passengers however was not amused and she let us know it. “There’s no hurry!” she snapped “Don’t rush yourself.” She said half to herself but certainly loud enough to be heard the length of the bus. She was quite young, mid to late 20’s I reckon, tall, slender and stylishly dressed. Dark skinned, she wore her hair in silver blonde thin draped braids. She may have been a bloke, Michael doesn’t think so but there was something very ‘Les Girls’ about her, in looks and mannerisms. She stood close to the front of the bus and for most of the journey shuffled her parcels and assorted bags on the bag shelf near the front of the bus, she munched on an apple and talked to herself. Until, as the bus was stopped at traffic lights, I got up and asked the driver if the bus stop was actually at St Mary’s Hospital. He nodded but she let me have a mouthful! “Excuse me! Don’t talk to the driver while the bus is in motion! Can’t you read? Look that sign says don’t talk to the driver while the bus is in motion.” It was bizarre, she just went on and on.
I said “The bus was stopped at the traffic lights!”
She said. “He was at a cross road, not a bus stop, do you want him to have an accident? It would be your fault!! Read the sign, it’s right there! Don't talk to the driver!
I said “Thank you for pointing that out to me.” Thinking that would be an end to it, but she continued on and I just couldn’t resist, “You’d make a good tour guide, you’re so welcoming to strangers!”
“Excuse me?! The sign is right there! Do you want him to have an accident?” she said gesticulating wildly at the sign.
“Thank you for pointing it out to me again, I’ll take it on board and it won’t happen again.”
She continued on and on and on. There was a bloke who sat across the aisle and behind us, he was stifling a chuckle. I rolled my eyes at him and he nodded acknowledgment. The bus stopped at a bus stop and passengers started to board, while this weird woman was ‘telling on me’ to the driver! impeding the embarkation of the incoming passengers as she did. “She, that passenger, was talking to you and you weren’t stopped at a bus stop, there’s a sign, I told her blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!!” Then to me, (as if to say it’s ok for me to talk to him) “He was stopped at the bus stop!!” and made a face at me. “So I see, Thank you for pointing that out.” I said.
She kept on mumbling. When the bus stopped at St Mary’s we got off through the back door as she was gathering her belongings and making a rude sigh type sound aimed in our direction. We walked past the front of the bus and I called “thank you” to the bus driver, who gave me a wry smile and sort of shrugged his shoulders. I think we were the entertainment for the morning! We read the sign on the wall of the hospital complex and found we had to walk back in the direction we’d just come, which meant passing ‘the bus police,’ who had just got all her bags organised and was heading towards us. I couldn’t help myself, “See ya!” I thought Michael was going to faint, “You probably could have just ignored her and said nothing you know, that probably would have been a better way to handle it!”
“Yeah, I know, but I just didn’t want to!!!!”
“There was a sign……………”we heard her voice fading off into the distance as she struggled in off in the opposite direction.
No comments:
Post a Comment