The Rudeness of Strangers

Not sure if I've grumbled about this before but if so, then I'm doing it again.
I got on a bus at about 10.45pm last night, not too late.
It was fairly full with no seats on the lower level, so I stood where the buggies would normally go.
My journey takes about 1/2 hour at that time, with many more people getting on and off.
Firstly, an obviously pregnant woman in her late twenties got on. Did anyone offer her a seat? No, not a single person.
Then an elderly woman, followed by an elderly man got on.
Someone gave the woman a seat, but not the man.
Finally another elderly woman got on and also had to stand, at least for a few stops.
Most of the people sitting were my age or younger and could quite easily manage to stand for their journey.
It just amazes me the lack of respect and courtesy that people do NOT have any more and yet, everyone of them would probably expect to be given a seat when they reach their older years.
It costs nothing to show kindness.

The inevitable return of 'Super Shouty Mummy'!

I'm sitting here feeling a bit pathetic.
All is calm and quiet now, but less than an hour ago, I was a screaming banshee!
In fact, my throat feels quite sore from it's excessive use.
It has been a long day and I'd handed in an assignment that I was less than pleased with.
It was my final day of college until the new year.
That in itself should have made this evening a happy one, but I'm tired.
Actually, I'm quite possibly exhausted, having burnt my candle at both ends now for many weeks.
What I should do after Child has gone to bed, is have my bath and have an early night.
Not so sure what an early night is?
But what I will probably do is sit and watch bad telly, with a glass of something chilled.
Child was being obnoxiously rude to me earlier, as well as doing feet stomping.
The downstairs neighbours must think that I have a herd of not-so-little elephants up here.
Determined to not 'hear' me, Child carried on, dancing, singing, saying 'NO', calling me stupid and silly and even managed to throw in an 'old'!!
Buttons got pushed and I was helpless to do anything about it, except pick her up and deposit her in her room, followed quickly by a flying pile of dirty clothes/pyjamas.
I was shouting, she was shouting, crying and hitting me.
Finally, I went into the kitchen to breath.
I could hear her sobbing.
It makes me want to sob too. I find it hard not to cry at times like this.
I hate being like this.
I hate her not listening, after many attempts to ask her to get ready for supper.
I hate her rudeness.
But mostly I hate that I let it all get to me and that I don't have the strength or good character to let it pass, to turn the other cheek and put it down to her being only 6.
Sometimes I feel like such a crappy mummy.

3 in 1

I'm a big watcher of people and have spent many a day sitting at my favourite cafe in Paris, simply sipping and gazing.
And being on a bus is no different.
Well it's a little different, not so chic and it was in London and NOT Paris.
But you get the picture.
The main thing is that I was given an opportunity to observe some not-so nice traits amongst the people of London.
I should have called this post: The Rudeness of Strangers (might change it later)
No. 1
I got on a bus last Tuesday to go to my normal evening dance class. It was a fairly empty bus except for a girl in her late teens, sitting in the middle of the back seat. She had a sullen look on her face and was holding her mobile phone. And from said phone, she had blaring the latest dance music. It was loud.
I turned around and asked her politely to turn it down, which she did, briefly for all of ONE minute. Then the volume went back up and was even louder.
I turned, again to look pointed at her.
She had a dead-pan expression and ignored me.
I looked back at her with an air of disgust and moved to a seat nearer the front of the bus.
When it was almost her stop, she walked to the door, waited and increased her volume even more.
The doors opened and she got off.
Joy!
Peace at last.

No.2
I take buses everyday, so I see a lot of odd people.
This time it was a girl.
Everything about her was normal for a late teen early 20-something.
Except she had no sense of her surroundings.
She was on her mobile.
Conversing with a friend in an incredibly loud and animated voice.
Totally unaware of anyone else sitting on the bus.
A complete lack of consideration.

No.3
It was late on a Tuesday night and I was on my way home.
Relieved that another bus had come along so quickly, as I'd just missed the one before.
About 15 minutes from home, we picked up what I can only assume to be the contents of the earlier bus. Tons of people.
At the next stop, a very disgruntled man got on.
The earlier bus had gone straight past him without stopping.
It was a cold, damp night and he wasn't happy.
He was cursing, saying that if he saw the last bus driver again, he'd rip him a new one!!
If he'd stopped to think about it a bit more, he'd have realised that the bus was empty for a reason, which is why it hadn't stopped for him.

I don't normally do a post with multiple parts to it, but these 3 bits had all occurred on good old London buses.
It did give me cause to reflect.
People present themselves in a very definitely light, that is all down to their attitude.
The first girl could have had head phones, or just managed a small apology.
The second should have looked around and realised that we were all sharing in the details of her story.
While the man could have relayed his frustration simply by telling his tale with a smile.
It's all in the attitude.