Tags

, , ,

Disclaimer: This might scare you enough to prevent you from going to work tomorrow! Read at your own risk!

 

Some things you never get used to!!

Inspite of using public transport for more than 4 years now, I am still a grouchy, grumpy commuter. I spend close to 2.5 hours (3 hours sometimes on those unfortunate days!!) travelling to & fro everyday  and have to experience all 3 modes of public transport Melbourne has to offer..a BUS followed by a train followed by a tram. 

Yesterday, I read a post somewhere about what one should do to make the daily commute not-so-miserable. It talked about music, reading, meditation and what not! Seriously, I din’t know there’s so much to do. The only thing I like about my daily travel is that it allows me to pursue my hobby of reading. Other than that, I have million other things which put-me-off every single day. These are some of the not-so-funny, somewhat-irritating things which I don’t like about it:

1.  I wish I had a switch to turn off some of my senses as and when I want, especially my nose! This one tops my list. For all those luxurious people who use their cars (sprayed with air-fresheners!!), you won’t understand it. Its such a gross thing when people (who either don’t brush their teeth or don’t spend sufficient time on it) turn their faces toward you and yawn (that biiiiig yawn ) or double torture when two people belonging to this species are talking and you happen to stand/sit near them. God save you if your neighbour passenger has just had a smoke (worse that morning breath…atleast for me!).  And there are other kinds of odours as well not worthy to be mentioned in my blog post!! This is not what you want to experience first thing in morning… never.

2. The location of handles in trains!! I mean this might sound funny but if I keep on trying to hold those handles for couple more years, I am sure my arms will be long enough to give giraffe’s neck a competition. Why can’t they be suspended a bit lower using straps for tiny people like me? And what about the area near the doors..there is nothing to hold on to!!  So irritating when everything seems out of reach even before you have started your day! Imagine what negativity it brings 😀

3. People not making use of vacant seats!! I always fail to understand what fun do people get in standing when half of the tram (yes, this happens mostly in trams) seats are vacant! No one is going to give you awards for standing people!! This disease is more prevalent in male species of human race! Standing people obstruct views for people who are sitting, give neck pain to your “sitting” friend travelling with you & talking to you and most importantly distract people like me who keep on thinking “Why can’t you just sit??”.

4. Those BIIIG Fancy, bigger-than-your-head earphones : Music is one of the best things existing, true and there would be hardly anyone who doesn’t like music! But it gets annoying…seriously annoying when I can’t hear whats coming out of my iPod because someone else’s music is THAT loud. If not for me, do care about your own ears!!

5.  Those Rants and Rambles:  OK, its unfair to ask everyone to be silent and not speak just because I want to read, but no-one really is interested in your weekend plan or meeting at work or your insurance policy. I have had numerous occasions where I had to listen to heaps and heaps of crap just because people talk too loudly on phone or with each other. And however hard you try, once you overhear a part of such things, you just cannot concentrate on anything else!!

Phew … lot of complaints!! Surprisingly, I have seen/heard/felt funny things as well while commuting..which I will save for some other post! For now, happy commuting to work 🙂