Friday’s Rant from the Soap Box in my Living Room!

Welcome to my Friday’s Rants from the Soap Box in my Living Room. A small space in the week where I can have a chunter about things that have made me twitch with annoyance or made me question if the world has gone mad or not….
I also  linked up with MummyBarrow for her Ranty Friday. You can find her blog and link up here if you’d like to join in. A good rant can be therapeutic.

I was going to rant about HMRC, that mysterious and infuriating official body otherwise known as the  TAX man, but that will have to keep ’til next week.

This week, I am going to print out a little bus etiquette list, because, frankly, I am getting a little peeved with the manners of people who use the public transport I frequent…I don’t drive, so I am on public transport a lot. This little collection is from approximately the last two weeks or so:

• When waiting for a bus, at a stop, it is generally considered polite to wait, in a queue and let the people who were at the bus stop first, get on the bus before you. Elbowing, shoving, hacking at people with your stick, or trying to knobble their ankles with your pushchair is not acceptable.
• If there is a pushchair, waiting already, and you are behind them, with your pushchair, sneaking on the back, or trying to push your way onto the bus before them is also not acceptable.
• If there is a wheelchair on the bus, tough luck, it does mean your pushchair may not be allowed on. Fold it, or wait for the next bus. I know it’s a pain, I have done it myself many times. Swearing at the bus driver is not going to get you anywhere. Same applies if the bus is full. I know it’s pants to wait for the next one, but I have done it, trying to ram yourself onto the bus only makes the bus driver annoyed, and holds everyone else up!
• If a pushchair is trying to get into the space for wheelchairs/pushchairs, please move. Don’t just stand there and look at the poor harassed mother, and grumble. She has a reason to use the bus, she has paid, if the driver has let her on, he thinks she can fit in the space. MOVE!
• Dear sweet old lady, trying to get on the bus before 9am when your bus pass doesn’t work before then, please don’t look puzzled and keep telling the driver “is it really not 9am yet?” when it is only 835am…
• Having the correct money or your bus pass, or at least an attempt at change is helpful. Waving a £20 note at the driver, then yelling at him, when he tells you he hasn’t got enough change is stupid. A £5 I can just about understand, when the fare is £2.40, but a £20 is frankly, moronic. Your only excuse is if you are non English speaking tourist who has never used the bus before.
• If someone gets on who is pregnant, disabled, elderly, carrying a small child, and you are fit, able and capable of standing GIVE THEM YOUR SEAT. Do not expect the mother with a toddler to stand, while you sit on your bum, yelling at her, as the fragile old lady who could have your seat stands, and  hangs on like she is on a ride at Alton Towers
• I don’t care how much your precious handbag or briefcase cost, it does not have it’s own bus pass, it did not pay for a ticket, therefore it is not entitled to a seat, so put it on your lap, and give up the seat. Your bags of shopping also do not have the right to a seat, and if you decided to go and spend a fortune on a humongous wide screen TV, then really, you can probably afford the taxi fare home, stop trying to ram it onto the bus via the back door!
• If you want to eat smelly food, by all means, but if I start farting in revenge, don’t look surprised (OK, so I AM only joking, but it is tempting when you are sitting next to someone eating a particularly garlicky smelling pasta dish, or McDonald’s, on a hot, crowded bus)
• On the same note, I know farts are part of the body’s functions, and I know sometimes they can’t be helped, but really, if you have to pass wind, please try and WAIT until you are off the bus. Leaving behind a trail of your gaseous excretions, or worse letting them off continually, is just not fair to everyone’s nasal passages.
• Please don’t douse yourself in the whole body, bath and scent range of your choice, and then get on the bus, it can be eye watering, allergy inducing, and just plain inconsiderate.
• Turn your music down. I DO NOT NEED to hear Bonnie Tyler, Justin Bieber or whatever, neither does the whole bus
• Same applies to phone calls. We do not need to hear the gruesome details of your fungal toe nail infection, or who your date went last night, thanks. Although I will admit some one sided calls can be at least semi entertaining when on a long bus ride…
• When you have pressed the bell to stop the bus, you only have to do it once, pressing it 5x won’t make the bus stop sooner, the bus driver isn’t allowed to randomly stop just because it suits you, and it will only succeed in making the driver and your fellow passengers cross.
• Shouting at the bus driver because the bus is stuck in traffic and you have to be somewhere is pointless. The bus doesn’t secretly have wings, it can’t fly out of the traffic, we all have to be “somewhere” and the bus driver doesn’t control the other cars on the roads.

I can’t think of any more off the top of my head, please feel free to add yours….

Have a good weekend! 🙂