Bus Tales

I have been taking a different bus in the mornings to get to work. I have two choices, I can sleep in a little longer and take the number 4 which requires me to walk to a bus stop further away or I can not sleep as long and pick up the 375 which stops just down the street. The 375 takes a windier way to work and every day when we get to this one road, where there is just one narrow lane going in both directions, and people parked in one of those lanes on the left, the bus ends up playing chicken with a car coming at us until the car basically gives in, pulling into a parking spot on the left or putting it into reverse and backing all the way out. At that moment, roads in England seem insane to me. Why would a bus go down such a narrow road?

When I am coming home in the evenings I sometimes take this bus home where a woman, the bus driver’s girlfriend or wife, stands next to him every day as he drives his route. I was telling someone at work about it and since she is an optimistic person, her response was, “How romantic!” I told her that yes, I thought that at first, but then I started wondering, is he one of those controlling men that won’t let her out of his sight and that’s why she is there? He is a large man, and I can’t tell what language he speaks to her but it is a very harsh sounding language, so maybe that makes me think something sinister is happening. My work colleague, suddenly not being very optimistic said that maybe SHE was the controlling one and stood there where each woman entering the bus had to buy their ticket to make sure he didn’t stray. Who really knows but it is funny how we construct tales about perfect strangers.

With entertainment like that, I have not felt super motivated to get a car. I had the great opportunity of covering Reading Festival this weekend for a website and it is a dream gig for someone who likes music. We really have nothing comparable in size to Reading Festival in the U.S. After looking over the public transport options, there was just no way to get to and from in an easy fashion each day and there was no way I was camping there, especially alone. I was upset about this and told H that if we had a car this wouldn’t be an issue. He of course told me that we shouldn’t rush into buying a car that day just because I had an impulse. So true. We are just beginning our car research and were planning some looking this weekend. I’ll just be watching the Reading coverage on the telly and watching the drama on the bus a little longer.