It’s not politically correct to admit it, but I hate public transport. It’s bucketing rain this morning so I didn’t ride my bike (powered or unpowered), I caught the tram.
I don’t like the waiting, the fact that when I do, it’s usually cold and wet is a bummer, but I can put up with all the logistical problems, what really bugs me is the other passengers. There’s always someone with a new and surprising way of annoying their fellow passengers.
This morning’s nutter was armed with a mobile phone. It’s annoying enough listening to half of someone’s conversation on a tram, but I’m not such a grouch that I let it bother me any more. This morning, however, the woman with the offensive communication device had it on speakerphone! That’s right, we got both sides of the conversation! I believe it was her sister, I wonder if she knew she was being broadcast to the other 60 or so passengers within earshot? I think not, if she’d known, she would have tried to say something intelligent.
Actually, not to diminish the story, but it reminds me of another recent and disappointing encounter with the new breed of mobile phone. We were sitting in a cafe next to a trio of young lads, when one of them pulls out his mobile and starts playing music through it like it was the world’s smallest ghetto blaster! Imagine it, the 5mm speaker going beserk as Nirvana’s Teen Spirit squeezes it’s way out of the overloaded circuitry with so much distortion that it seems likely to explode – we should be so lucky!