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This week I’ve had the pleasure of being reminded why London is sometimes a crappy place to live.
First of all I asked a girl on the bus to turn down her radio; everyone was glancing at her and it was a tinny and unpleasant noise. I’ll put up with headphone overflow but I could hear her radio over my ipod. I was really nice and just asked if she would mind turning the volume down, and she slid her eyes towards me with real hatred, and just said ‘Wha’ever, why don’t you turn your own music down?’ (So not only was she rude but she was also stupid.)
I don’t know if I expected her to actually do what I asked, but what was so horrible was the waves of hatred emanating from her, just at this simple and frankly very reasonable request. I doubt very much that the rage was due to me asking, but feeling the force of it directed at me was not very nice, to say the least. I didn’t know what to say then, except something insulting, so I didn’t say anything more. Everyone else rolled their eyes and muttered things like ‘Unbelievable!’, and the girl got off at the next stop thank god.
So then I got off the bus a bit later at my stop, and nearly got run down by a guy cycling on the (thin and overcrowded) pavement! His eyes were completely dead. People cycling on the pavement makes me mad because it’s so clearly a selfish and stupid thing to do, and really, what’s the point of cycle lanes if you are just going to mow down pedestrians?
Once off the bus I went to a newsagent to top up my Oyster card, where I was quite blatantly queue barged by a guy who knew I was there and waiting and just stepped past me. By that point I couldn’t be bothered to say anything, I just let it go. There’s enough aggro in this city without me adding to it.
But it made me feel sad; there are so many angry, hateful, sad, aggressive, selfish people out there. I kind of feel sorry for that girl on the bus. She obviously had something going on. But why can’t people just be a bit kinder? A bit less selfish and a bit more courteous? It costs nothing and just makes people feel better.
