Human electrons

Today I got a bus to a GP surgery.

Busses and surgery waiting rooms have something in common which baffles, saddens and amuses me. When people get on a bus, they don't just get on and sit down. Oh no, once they have their ticket their eyes are skimming around carefully calculating where they can sit to be as far away from any other passengers as possible. People getting on busses are like human electrons, repelling each other and strategically positioning themselves at optimum distance apart. Each row is carefully filled with a single passenger until, heaven forbid, someone will have to sit next to someone else (and even then they often prefer to go upstairs). Then, once seated, eyes frantically try not to make contact with each other. The doctors surgery is much the same, eyes darting around, everyone wondering what's wrong with everyone else.

I find this all rather odd. Now don't get me wrong...I'm quite sure most of the people on buses are very friendly, but that's just it?!. It's like we've got so used to this bizarre behaviour and accepted it as norm.

That's why I love children and old people. You can always count on the baby in the waiting room to get the people cooing, or the toddler to point and ask questions loudly and whenever I meet an elderly person at a bus stop they always have a tale to tell.

I think this is great.