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stella41b -> RE: What has made your eyes roll today? (10/17/2008 5:13:45 PM)
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Eye rolling moment at a bus stop outside Earl's Court Underground station in London. I need to take a 74 bus towards Putney. Three buses pull up together, a C1, a 328 and a 74 (hidden behind the first two buses). The two buses in front stop to let passengers get on and off the bus. but so does the 74 bus behind them. However because it has parked so closely behind the second bus nobody at the stop knows that it is a 74 bus.
However the driver of the 74 bus lets passengers off the bus and opens the doors to let people on. Some at the bus stop wonder whether this is a 74 bus and run down to get on the bus which is behind these other two buses. As these passengers reach the doors of the bus the other two buses in front pull away and the driver of the 74 bus also closes his doors and starts to pull away. The passengers who have had to sprint the length of two buses to get on the 74 now have to sprint after the 74 bus back towards the bus stop hoping it will stop. Other passengers at the bus stop including an old man with a Zimmer frame jump out into the road to stop the 74 bus. The bus screeches to a halt by the bus stop and opens the doors.
The bus driver is upset. 'What is the problem with you people?' he demands to know.
'We want to get on the bus.' explains a passenger, 'which is usually why we stand at bus stops.'
'But there were buses at the bus stop,' the driver explained, 'and I stopped further back instead of the bus stop.'
'You're not picking up a team of Olympic athletes,' one man said, 'You think mothers with pushchairs and old people have nothing better to do than sprint up and down streets chasing after buses?'
'But there is traffic,' the driver argues..
'Of course there's traffic,' the old man continues,' this is London, it's a capital city. What do you expect? People to ride around on horses?'
We get to my stop. I press the bell. The bus doesmn't stop but goes past the bus stop. I press the bell again and again.
The bus pulls up at a set of traffic lights. The driver turns to me and demands,'Why you keep pressing the bell?'
'Because I want am parachute..' I yell out.
'A parachute?' the bus driver is dumbfounded.
'I'm pressing the bell, and you're not stopping at the bus stop. How else do you expect me to get off this bus?'
The driver opens the doors and I get off the bus.
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