In most European countries, people have a reputation of being cold and unfriendly whereas in most developing countries people who've never met generally greet each other when they use public transport.(There are of course exceptions to this). In my home country people on a bus or a commuter taxi will often say hi or ask how you are and sometimes a conversation can take place between several passengers about a mutual topic of interest. Its not beacuse they want something from the other person but its just a matter of being friendly and a sense of being one. Try saying hello to a stranger on the tube...they'll probably call you "Freako" and move to sit somewhere else.. !
I'm fortunate in that I drive almost everywhere I go and I don't have to use public transport regularly, but on those few occassions that I've had to leave my Rolls Royce (I wish) at home I've been dismayed at the actions of some commuters. I think apple should consider installing a sensor in their iPods which will detect whether a person is in a public area or not, if they are in public, then it would automatically reduce the volume of the gadget so that it doesnt annoy those around them. I'm telling you some of those kids are gonna go deaf before they're even 25. For the entrepreneurs there's an idea for you (volume reducing sensor)...free of charge...you can thank me later...
Gum on the seats in buses, trains and now even in church....yeah dont get me started ya'll...
The smelly hot food... hot wings, fish and chips on the tube ...I mean c'mon... If u are hungry dont get take away...find a table and eat, THEN jump on the train.
And what of the love birds who want to act out an X rated movie on public transport...Please go home or if you cant wait till you get home...get a room!
Gosh!
Ok let me calm down....I had an interesting tube ride the other day, a young lady whose face resembled a stormy day (by this I mean she looked like she was about to explode with anger)sat on a seat at the end of a carriage and put her bag on the seat next to her. At the next station a couple of people got on and there were no more seats. But to everone's surprise she still didnt move her bag, she just glared at everyone in silence, her dark gothic like makeup probably intimidated people. At the next station another woman got on and asked if she could have the seat. The stormy girl glared at her and moved the bag slightly to the side so that the lady could have 2/3 of the seat. The lady sat down and she looked uncomfortable but she was probably scared to ask "Stormy" to remove the bag entirley. Sad state of affairs but everone was relieved when Stormy got off at the next station. Infact one man looked in my direction, shook his head and made a little chuckling sound.
The saddest tube ride however was one evening about 9pm when I was coming from Central London. A young lady got on the tube and she was in tears. She sat down and people just looked at her. She continued to cry all the way from Bond Street to Mile End. It wasnt a loud wailing kind of crying but soft whimpering accompanied by gallons of tears. I wanted to ask her if she was ok but she was two people away from me and I guess I was worried that she might shout back and tell me to mind my own business and then I'd end up embarrassing myself. No one said a word to her but she was obviously very distraught about something.I feel terrible that I didnt have the courage to say something but then again its so sad that the society we live in that makes us feel that saying something would be intrusive. Sigh!
My most interesting tube ride, was on one of those miserable rainy days. Now I'm not sure what happened but a woman came and sat two seats away from me. A few seconds later I saw her put her hand on the seat and then bring it to her nose to sniff it. A few seconds later she mumbled somthing about the seat being wet to her friend and got up. Odd I thought. I wonder how the seat got wet. Now there are many reasons, someone could have sat there with a very wet coat/or an umbrella dripping, or maybe there was water seeping into the carriage from somewhere or worst case scenario someone had taken a pee but thats highly unlikely on the train (at least I'd hope.)
The next person to sit there was a nice young man in a suit who had probably had a long day at work. Being the considerate person that I am, I decided to warn him about the seat just as he sat down which was a little hard because the seat wasnt next to mine, so I kind of had to shout over the other passenger for him to hear me. The young man thanked me and quickly got up. Two other people sat in the same seat and I wanted to warn them but the train was now quite full and it was difficult for me to get their attention without shouting or causing some kind of scene. So I kept quiet and so did the people who were sitting next to them who were very much aware that the seat was wet. I wondered why they couldnt just open their mouth and say something. The "wet seat victims" immediately got up once they realised that seat was wet.I wished I had a big piece of paper and I could have written in bold letters "WET SEAT" and put it on the seat to warn everyone else but I didnt have any paper so I had to watch in silence.
Anyway as I got off the train, a girl who had been the last victim of the wet seat walked right past me and to my horror and unbeknown to her, her short grey skirt now had a big dark wet patch almost the size of a melon and to anyone who didnt know the story, it looked like she had missed a trip to the John ...oopps daisy, I was embarrased on her behalf to say the least. Shame!
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