Bus Blogging

I recently took a bus from Maldon to Chelmsford as I have done many times in my teenage years. This bus journey was different though, I don't know if it's just because I'm a blogger now and I'm more aware of people around me, because I was on the bus on my own or if it was just a special day for the 31 but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it made me realise just how much I love Maldon.

I was waiting at the bus stop drinking a Mocha alongside another woman who was smoking and rather winding me up as a significant amount of ash had ended up on my dress. At this point I wasn't particularly looking forward to the bus journey but a lovely old lady who came along changed it all. I was applying some palmers lip butter, which I love. This woman approached me and asked if it was for dry lips and when I said yes she started to recommend me a lip balm from boots. As someone who loves a good natter about beauty products I started to tell her that I love the palmers one because it smells like chocolate and we became bus stop besties. She was lovely and told me she thought my hair colour was beautiful , we talked about the weather and our love of Greek Islands. It was only a little thing but it really made my day and I felt a little sad when there wasn't enough space for us to sit together once we were on the bus however she made an effort to say goodbye to me when she got off at Moulsham Street and I stayed on for the Bus Station.

On the bus I was really impressed by the genuine good nature of people. There was a lady on the bus who I see a lot round town. She has an illness that makes her struggle to walk properly and often leads to a lot of people staring at her. She had blood on her dress and was clutching on to some papers that she kept dropping on the floor. She was really struggling and shoes she had bought were falling out of her bag. I was impressed that I didn't see anyone giving her funny looks which you often see in situations like that. Instead, people looked genuinely concerned and like me, seemed to be wondering whether to try and help. At one point, a woman stood up said "are you alright there darling?" picked up the woman's papers and put them in her handbag, put her shoes bag in the plastic bag and handed her both bags making sure she could get a grip on them. She then went and sat back down, it was so fuss free and genuinely thoughtful and in a world where people always seem too busy to even smile at strangers, it was lovely to see someone being so caring to someone they didn't know.

I was sitting on the fold up seats and a quite large man was sat next to me with one seat in between us. He was the smiliest man I have ever seen in my life and whenever anyone got on to the bus he tried to offer them his seat. He wasn't just being a gentleman for the sake of it, it was a busy bus and I don't want anyone to think I'm being rude because size is always a sensitive issue but because of his size he was slightly sitting on the seat in the middle as well as his own and he seemed really willing to stand up to give more seat space but everyone who got on was equally as kind and willing to stand. It seems like a silly thing to notice but he genuinely seemed like one of the sweetest people. This man also helped me to open the window when 2 women asked me to, noticing I was too short to reach.

Towards the end of the journey I noticed two men chatting away like the best of friends, despite getting on at different stops. They couldn't have been a more unlikely pair, one young, cool looking black man and one old, scruffy man with no teeth but they were having a lovely conversation and it was clear they knew each other from sharing the journey to Chelmsford on the 31 every day.

Maldon is a weird place filled with lots of weird people but that is why I love it and why I fit in so well here. All teenagers claim to hate living in Maldon, moaning that it's full of old people and there's nothing to do. That's true to be honest, the population of Maldon is mostly families and old people apart from in the holidays when the town becomes noticeably younger as everyone comes home from University. But this bus journey made me realise that it's the old and the slightly weird that make Maldon. I'm a weirdo in training compared to most of the population of Maldon but they're not only weird they're also genuinely nice and thoughtful. Obviously I'm not talking about everyone in Maldon, there are plenty of normal people and plenty of nasty people in my town but they aren't the ones that inspire blogs.

I gave a thank you to the people of the 31, albeit accidental as I stood up and the chair folded lifting up my dress to show everyone behind me my pants. Maybe I'm not just a weirdo in training after all...