Journeys I

I was travelling home on the bus the other day and it occurred to me that I spend approximately 40 minutes a day sat on a bus, dialled into my phone, listening to a podcast, staring blankly out of the window. I was breaking the habit of a lifetime, for once observing the things going on around me, and I figured I could probably use that time to do something productive.

And so a new series was (without much thought, admittedly) brought to life. I'll caveat this by saying that I get horrendously travel sick on the bus if I look at my phone for too long, which is why I tend to listen to podcasts instead of scrolling through social media. This means that my daily observations will be brief, and I'm literally going to copy and paste from the Notes app on my phone, into these posts, so they might not be the best quality, but it'll give you an insight into my journeys home. Probably a good thing that they're brief.

30/09:
There's a man making some sort of origami shape out of double-sided yellow paper opposite me. It's super intricate, and has so far taken 12 minutes to complete, totally from memory. I'm trying to watch but don't want anyone to notice me blatantly staring, so I'm not 100% sure what it is. So far, my guesses have included some sort of Star Wars ship, a bird and a dragon. Either way, I'd quite like to have a go myself, but that's entirely predictable from me. 15 minutes and it's completed. I think it's a yellow dragon.

On to the next activity: the Rubik's cube. Plainly, he's no stranger to one of these either. A matter of minutes later and it's complete - our driver hasn't even got us to the Park and Ride yet... I've completely lost track of my podcast, time to rewind.

01/10:
It's raining, and the windows are steaming up. It's an old bus so it smells foisty to say the least; a heady mix of moisture in the air, artificial heating and the odd cool draught of air, just to mix things up a little. There's not really a great deal else to report today, and I suspect this will be a common occurrence. Everyone is soggy. Many people are engrossed in their phones (myself included). A handful are not.

I'm aware of two people sitting to my right and it feels as though their eyes are boring holes in the side of my head. In my peripheral vision, they really look like they want to get home, and so do I. My sister just mentioned me in a Facebook comment - chat tomorrow.

02/10:
It's 17:42 and I should very nearly be about to get off the bus, get in my car and drive home. Only problem is, I've not actually made it onto a bus yet. The first bus turned up three minutes early, but didn't let anyone on because it was going from Tombland to Anglia Square, to then turn around and come back... yep, that's what I thought too. The bus I usually get then turned up, and let three people on before claiming to be 'full'. Full in the sense that there were still empty seats and standing room available. Work that one out... so now I'm stood waiting for a bus when I should be nearly home. The 17:34 bus is already ten minutes late and shows no signs of appearing any time soon. I'm quite sure I can smell pollution in the air and it's giving me a headache. I'm raging, to say the least.

17:47 and the bus has arrived. Nearly half an hour after the time I was hoping to get on the bus. I'm angry, desperate for a wee, annoyed that I've missed out on the opportunity to get an extra 20 minutes of work done, have a headache and just want to get home to a now very large glass of red wine. Thanks Kinect Buses/Norwich Park and Ride, top service as always.

03/10:
I left work early today so I could see Harv before he left for work; I'll catch up on work later. Catching the earlier bus gives me a slightly different perspective, a slightly different group of people instead of the usual crowd. Lots of the same behaviour though; there's a woman sitting next to me playing a game on a phone with a cracked screen, there are lots of people staring blankly into space. In more interesting news, there's a man standing in the wheelchair space with his eyes closed, leaving me with all sorts of questions. I'm inherently a nosy person, which is why I find this sort of thing fascinating.

I'm not listening to a podcast today. I've had a really musical day, and felt super productive at work, so the idea of someone talking in my ear all of the way home just didn't really cut it. I've no idea why; I've listened to podcasts on the way to and from work for a number of months. Perhaps I just need some new podcasts.

04/10:
My legs are starting to really ache. I had my gym induction and a PT session first thing this morning; my GOD it was hard. I've never had a proper PT session before in my life, and I didn't expect it to be quite so hard. I'm pleased with what I managed to do, but ever so slightly concerned that I might not be able to walk tomorrow so watch this space.

I wan't really paying a great deal of attention to everyone else on the way home; the bus was late, and strangely busy so I'm having to stand right at the front, on the yellow line. I'm listening to music, but it occurs to me that we're coming up to the end of the route and I've not taken in any of the journey really, being in a little world of my own. Should I buy a rucksack for the gym instead of this huge gym bag? Maybe...

Laura x