I’ve not been on a bus for around a year, since moving to university i’ve not really needed too, everything is about 20 minutes away. The weather doesn’t bother me, never have, in fact, I enjoy walking in the rain, the wind, the hail and the snow, because then you see what a city and its habitants are really about, you see who and what copes the best. So when I came back home for the week it was decided we would take a trip on the bus to see my brother, who since last year has well and truly moved out of Manchester and into no man land, all in all to get there and back we had to take four buses, as you could probably imagine, I wasn’t exactly pleased about this. That’s putting it kindly, the idea of getting four busses properly pissed off. That was until I sat down and looked at the other passengers around me and saw it as an opportunity to listen in on other peoples lives, and you know what, I heard and saw some quite interesting things.
The first people I listened in on were two teenage lads – around the ages of 18-19 – talking about their girlfriends and their experience of going into stores like Victoria Secrets and Ann Summers and buying underwear. One of the lad was explaining he had to go into Victoria Secrets and explain to the sales assistant the sort of underwear he was looking for, and the sales assistant asked what was the occasion, now, the lad explained to his mate the reason he was buying the underwear was because his girlfriend is now away until mid March and he wanted to buy them both something nice so when they’re finally back together he could “fuck her brains out” while she is wearing something “sexy and accommodating”. Instead of saying this to the sales assistant, well you wouldn’t would you, he told her is was a gift because her cat had died, at that point they heard me give out a small laugh and lowered their voices. Selfish, I know.
To be honest that was the only good rememberable one on the bus there, the others are all on the later bus back.
At the bus stop waits a girl at lets say 16 and her mum, the girl steps on the bus and her mum begins to enthusiastically wave her off. The girl goes to the back of the bus to meet her friend, and her friend instantly says, without greeting her first, “you’re not wearing that, are you?” and the girl replies “nah, i’ve got a dress in me bag”. Along with the change of clothes, they’re seen at the back of the bus completing her make up and having a laugh and giggle. By the time she gets off the bus, this girl who looked like a typical 16 year girl, looks likes she past the age of 21. Teenage girls, rebellious from the age of 13 till the day their spirit dies.
A woman and her male companion got on at the stop outside the Etihad Campus – home to Manchester City football club – wearing around her neck an official Man City lanyard and I.D card, turns out she is the supervisor for the Spanish version of the official club site and their Spanish social media outlets – Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc. She was explaining to her companion, who seems to be knew to the club she has a weekly target for the site, she needs to get so and so visitors by Midweek and so and so more by the end of the week. For the social media accounts she has to produce content at least five times – for each account – a day, and increase overall visitors and followings by a certain amount every few days. She was explaining the club currently have a big following due to having Spanish international and world cup winner David Silva on their books, and the former Barcelona player and director of football as their current director of football. She said they are currently the leading club in the premier league with the fan base they have in Spain, though, she did state that not a lot of premier clubs do what city do and have different accounts for different countries. As the bus was going through the Northern Quarter she was singing its praises to her mate, telling him how much she loves it and how there isn’t a place like it where she is originally from, so that’s nice.
https://www.thoughtco.com/public-transit-privatization-pros-and-cons-2798647
As we got onto the last bus to take us home we found ourselves sitting across from a lady who looks around 30 years old, give or take a few years, with short red hair, dyed red, not natural, who was talking loud on her mobile phone to her mum. At first listen her conversation seemed very humorous, she was talking about her ex boyfriends bad hygiene, apparently he would not change his clothes for days, shower or bathe and he even wore the same underwear for days on end, and according to her his “bell end smelt like an out of date dairylea triangle”, at this point I was giggling to my self, holding it in like the true champion I am. Then the conversation dramatically changed direction, she was explaining to her mum she was just glad to get rid of him, after that night he raised his first to her, but she proclaimed that she wasn’t having any of that and punched him back as her mum and dad taught her “to never take any shit from no one” she went on to say she hurt her hand punching back, but it had to be done, because she wasn’t going to become a victim. She went on to tell her mum that she had just ordered her self an new bed from Brighthouse, as the old one contained “his stink” and she was looking forward to picking her daughter up from her mothers. The lady made her kid stay at her mums house as she was worried her ex partner would come back for part two, or something along those lines. She then went on to say she was done with men and getting in any more relationships, because all she has experienced is being with “bastards”. From being a conversation we thought was that with a tone of humour, to that of a sad tale turned even more disheartening when we heard the reason she was speaking on the phone to her mum throughout the bus journey, her mum was worried incase her ex partner showed up while she was traveling home and did something, so she made her daughter speak to her from start to end. As she got of I gave her a slight smile, to no response and she was on her way, with her strong independent looking face.
So from being hesitant about getting on four busses, after so long of not even getting on one, to experiencing all these different lives, that are all at different stages. I’ve decide once a month i’ll take myself for a ride on the bus, just so I can again experience other peoples lives, as it isn’t really something you experience in everyday live, is it?
