Having been traveling fairly regularly for the last couple of years, it is good to be back home.
One of the main differences being back is the commute. Every morning. Sure, in comparison to other people, my commute is pretty short, but it is long for the distance. I have found that it is a good 14km from door to door (thanks to an odometer on the car). My commute involves bus, train and some 15 mins worth of walking. When there are express buses and trains are running on time (ok, so that is rather wishful) then it can take me around 40 mins to get to work, which is not too bad. If there are no express buses (and usually, by the time I leave work, there are none) it can be a painful 1.5 hours. For 14km. Ok, perhaps I have been spoilt for the past couple of years, since I have been walking to work.
If I am not reading, listening to music or falling asleep and drooling all over the person next to me, then sometimes I just sit and observe the people on the bus, just to pass the time (any other ideas are welcome). I have seen some weird things - perhaps I am just "lucky", but some observations:
- A man in the morning attempting to read a tabloid. A lady was sitting next to him, and he proceeded to open up the paper with the paper and his hand practically in her face, while she was reading something! I can’t imagine if he was reading a broadsheet! I think that is a clear violation of personal space!
- A lady decided that cutting her nails on the train would be a great idea. Nice one, considering her nails were flying all over the place!
- Another lady was filing her nails and proceeded to accumulate a fair bit of dead cells on her lap...which she calmly brushed onto the floor.
- Random man who decided to liven the bus up by singing and walking up and down the bus. Perhaps he had mistaken the public bus from a tour bus. Who knows?
- Some guy deciding that he had too much beer for the night and couldn’t hold it in, so decided that the back of the bus was rather secluded and proceeded to produce a river down the aisle, much to the delight of the other people on the bus.
Except for the first one, I have not seen any of the others occur on a plane.
Also, it's sometimes interesting to see the asssortment of reading materials commuters have - whether it be newspapers (even newspapers have variety within them), magazines, novels, self help books, foreign texts, travel brochures, their laptop etc.
Hmm. I may need a hobby. Or a Gameboy Advance.
3 comments:
Cutting nails on a train is just gross. An elderly Asian man did that next to me once and his nails were flying all over me *shudders* icky.
Gameboy Advance? Nah, get yourself a new Nintendo DS!
Babe you need an IPOD, and don't forget to play round ruckus on it so you can laugh yourself stupid listening in the mornings and make people cautiously grip their bags tighter and move away from you.
giz: Man, that snowboard things is so old-school. Anyway, I typically get a seat on the bus, but on the trains it is packed! So I normally have to stand shoulder to shoulder with everyone else and be forced to keep my balance. It is definitely worse with the summer heat!
Even if you do see the same people on the bus/train/plane, not many people strike up a conversation. Not necessarily something many people do while going to work for some reason. It's almost as though people are preparing for the mental slog they have to deal with in the hours to come...who knows?
riss: Hi! Welcome to my blog. Yeah, cutting nails is something I prefer people not to do in public places. I still think producing a golden river on a bus is pretty bad though.
GBA has those old school games that I used to love to play! The Nintendo DS is pretty cool with the dual screens, but not sure how it stacks up against the PSP (especially in the games dept, as that's a rather critical factor).
becks: Haha. I listen to round ruckus at work, so I already look silly suppressing smirks at work!
Post a Comment