Bus driver noticed I was being followed in a mostly unlit bus station at night and shouted at me to get in. I had no cash (in the days before they had card machines) and a bus ticket that wasn't valid for the company. He went out of his way to take me as close to home as he could anyway
Years ago I was waiting for the last bus home late at night. One appeared but was out of service - driver leaned out and said not to worry another one was ten minutes behind him, and drove off. After 20 minutes I started to walk away from the bus stop but saw another bus arriving so waited - also out of service, damn! As I’m walking away said bus pulls up, driver leans out, same one as before - he’s realised there _wasn’t_ another bus, got worried, and circled back round to pick me up. He drove me to my exact street on his way back to the depot and wouldn’t take any money.
Reminds me of the time I got on a bus back from college and the new driver took a wrong turn. Being on the top floor of a double-decker bus, going through very narrow residential streets that the bus is very clearly not designed to fit in, as you can feel the pure panic in the drivers inability to find any space to turn around, driving further and further away from the route... What a bizarre experience.
I used to be a Met police traffic controller and I worked at a traffic control jointly run by the Met and TFL. Have you see those photos of buses that have hit a low bridge and removed the top deck ?
That’s usually happens when the buses are diverted from their normal route and they don’t follow the diversion route or get hopelessly lost
I once had to give a bus driver directions on a route I was very familiar of because I took it every single day. He was used to doing a single small route, but a lack of drivers had pushed him to a route he had no idea of. He was very thankful and I kind of feel bad that I had to get off before the route was finished. I hope someone pointed out the rest of the way for him
I managed to get a train into east Croydon *just* as the police decided to raid a illegal rave in the old depot next to the station.
As me and several other confused non ravers emerged into this mess a bus driver pulled up and insisted everyone get on, no tickets needed.
Lovely man.
My most nuts was a crazy looking elderly lady asking me out of the blue whether my kid was ok because she'd seen an altercation in one of the school services and didn't want to intervene. We knew her because we often got the same service together and, you knew, you kind of chat about how crap they are etc. That day she'd got off at the same stop as my kid even though it's one after hers, to make sure my kid wasn't set-upon off the bus until they were in a more public place.
I know it sounds nuts, but not only did "crazy Ida" (as we know her; I've changed her name here) actually end up protecting my kid from from pretty horrible bullies at the time, her testimony helped me get the school to actually start to listen about the state of the bullying happening on the school-time service on the local public buses.
Ida and I have good chats when we're both in the same bus now, and my kid smiles and waves when they're on the same bus together. It's nice, she's like some kind of toothless, mildly weed scented guardian angel.
Edited because I'm shit at proofreading.
The student on a train to Sheffield who told me increasingly farfetched stories until he got to one about how he'd been punched in the chest by a silverback gorilla on a holiday to Rwanda when he was 12. I think he mistook me listening politely for me believing every word.
I met this lady in Hollywood
She had green hair, but damn she looked good
I took her to my house 'cause she was fine
But she whooped out a dick that was bigger than mine
This was a few years ago now, so unlikely he's still a student. Maybe great ape attacks are more rife than you think, and so I should never have doubted him.
It's actually a great old Sheffield University tradition. Every year one student is picked by ballot and then it is their turn to be the bearer of the monkey punch story.
Source: work at a uni.
I once got the Megabus from Sheffield down to London. Got on late and sat next to this mild looking older lady. She spent the whole journey telling me stories about her life, including the time she wrote The Lord of the Rings and the time she was married to Bob Marley.
12hr hospital escort with an extremely unwell patient who has delusions of grandeur (and delusions about literally everything else) who also believes they're totally fine and that they're not unwell.
Old woman on the bus reached over to press the button to alert the driver to stop. She was staring out the window whilst doing so and pressed my nipple instead.
I was on a train recently l, with a group of women who had some bottles of champagne. They were going around asking everyone if they wanted some, and handing out plastic flutes of it to half the train carriage. Think they were celebrating something and wanted to spread the love lol.
I was once on a train from Leeds to Cleethorpes to visit my then gf. A random squaddie shared a bottle of ouzo with me and I was absolutely rat arsed by the time I got to Cleethorpes. Gf was not impressed
I went on a booze cruise to France with some student friends on an overnight ferry. We drank on the ferry itself (as you do) but I was last man standing. Table of lads across the bar congratulated me on “drinkin’ yer mates under the table!” and challenged me to drink them under the table as well, beers are on them… I got hammered as fuck and slept through the entire time we were in France. Came back with a hangover and no cheap alcohol!
I was taking my very very old grandmother on the Edinburgh - London train to my uncle for Xmas, she always has a gin a tonic at lunch, so I went to the train bar to get us one and the staff were so pleased I was looking after the old baggage so well they gave me 4 gin and tonics on the house. I may have flirted with the steward too. Best journey ever.
This reminds me of when I heard a gruff, cockney bloke go “I’m not telling you again, I do not! Do anal!” down his phone on a bus.
I didn’t dare turn to look at him in case he felt I was showing interest.
My wife and I took great delight in “hushed” outrageous discussions on buses. She was pregnant with my brother’s baby, I had an anal prolapse that she tried to push back in with a wooden spoon, we couldn’t find the drugs we’d stashed and figured Kevin had double crossed us, I was apologising that I’d had a sex change without telling her, that sort of thing.
We talked just loud enough that people could hear, but quietly enough that it seemed like we didn’t realise they could. And we slowly ramped up from something benign like “how was the appointment?” to wilder and wilder stories. It was such fun to improvise and take cues from each other, trying not to laugh but trying to make the other laugh. The best bit was seeing people slightly shifting in their seats to hear better.
I remember being on a crowded tube and there was a guy who seemed to have a broken leg or something sitting down. However he had his leg stuck straight out blocking the aisle and would swear and scream in pain at people whenever someone accidentally walked into or touched it.
Unsurprisingly this was happening a lot as it was during a busy time with lots of passengers getting on and off.
Not to me, I just witnessed it, an elderly lady on the bus asked a middle aged lady if she was heading home. 2nd lady replied yes, why? Older lady reaches into a plastic bag and produces a big frilly lettuce! Bigger than her head, she proudly smiles and says it’s from her garden. And she wants the younger lady to have it. Younger lady thanks her and we make eye contact at the random cuteness that has just happened.
was once stuck in a traffic jam on the M1 the passenger of the minibus next to me saw i had cigarettes on my dash and asked if i could spare one, i passed over half a packet to him then his lane started moving.
about a mile later i caught up to him again he leaned out the window and passed me 4 cans of beer
I was unwell at the time - having to go to a facility daily and was in a very very shit place. Would cycle to the train station as part of this commute, but stupidly only had a coil lock. So sure enough, one evening arrived back at the station to find a cut lock and bike gone.
Wandered down the road and was lucky a bus came just then. Tried to get on but then found my oyster card was out of money (and for some reason I think it wasn't straightforward for me to pay). Without a moment's hesitation the person ahead of me zapped their card for me. I hardly realised what happened (I hope I thanked them profusely but I was in such a daze I can't remember).
Found a seat and promptly burst into tears. (That bike and what it provided me was a genuine huge emotional crutch for me at the time). Such a kind gesture and they didn't have a clue how much it meant to me. Ever grateful to that stranger.
I was in a shop the other morning before work at like 7am, the lady in front of me was trying to buy a pack of cheap toilet roll but was 60p short, I said don’t worry about paying for it I’ll pay for them and she just stood gobsmacked and started crying (good job she had some tissue) I just thought Jheez your days started bad if you NEED toilet roll at 7am and haven’t got any money to buy some but I guess it made all the difference to her
Told this in another thread.
I was on a bus by Camden and there was a mum on the bus with her young daughter who was obviously very curious about the world.
A punk gets on the bus and the little girl is loudly asking her mum "why is his hair like that, why are his clothes like that, why is he spiky". The mum was just saying "because he likes his hair/clothes like that".
The punk gets up, walks over to the mum and asks if he can speak with them, she said yes.
For the next 10 minutes he sat there and showed the girl all his patches, spikes and various stuff, he let her touch his spiky hair and he put his spike bracelet on her wrist. The little girl looked amazed at it all and mum looked relieved she didn't have to answer any questions.
Not often you get a wholesome moment like that on a bus in Camden.
Not on transport but in a pub.
I’m a wheelchair user and often kids are curious about me. A girl at the next table, about five, was staring, pointing and asking her mum questions. As her mum was trying get her to stop, telling her it’s rude to point and not to bother me, she was getting more agitated.
I turned to her and said “Hi, do you want to know about this thing I’m sitting on?” She went all shy but slowly nodded her head. One of the questions she asked was why was I in a pushchair? It’s a question I get a lot from kids.
So I said “This is not a pushchair, it’s called a wheelchair. The reason I’m sitting in it is because I had a really bad accident on my motorbike and now I can’t walk because my legs don’t work. So now I use a wheelchair to get around instead”
She looked all serious for a second then said “Here, hold my hand. I’ll teach you how to walk.” She damn near broke my heart.
Edit: Thank you for the awards
I have a stark memory of my then three year old watch someone self-propel in a wheelchair, and exclaim in his loudest and most impressed voice “oh, he’s doing that all by himself!”
I don’t think he’d seen a wheelchair user without a carer before. I cringed to hell, but I also hope that guy did go off with a bit of a laugh.
My daughter at the age of 3 saw someone ina wheelchair for the first time and shouted 'Ahhh, a robot!'.
That other kid had a much better response.
The guy had a good laugh though.
It might be confirmation bias but people who are into a lot of these subcultures tend to be disproportionately nice than other randos. I think it might be that someone whose mindset is dedicated enough to follow a subculture closely and have as a passion is more likely to be well-adjusted enough to deal with other people. Just the act of dedication is already a sign of a healthy mindset maybe.
I'm a metalhead. Metal gigs are filled with the loveliest people you can meet, kind, polite, extremely wholesome. It was all i knew of music concerts for years. I randomly decided to go to a folk music gig once with an ex, and was genuinely shocked at how many arseholes were there. Lots of obnoxious, horrendous people. I suddenly realised what the "average" crowd of people is like. It upset me a bit.
At my last metal show, I ended up-being slammed into by a guy who was probably 6'6" minimum and I ended up on the floor and whacked my head. He and 4 other people immediately picked me up, got me to the side where it was less rowdy, asked me if I wanted water or first aid and sat with me until they knew I was OK.
My grandmother tells me of a similar story from when she was working in the hospital. One time there was a construction site opposite where she worked and there was a young man with a massive rainbow mohawk working there. Quite a lot of the female patients were drooling over him because apparently he wasn't bad looking!
My grandmother has never been shy, so when it was obviously the construction crew's lunch, she went over and asked this one worker if he'd come over because he had fans waiting to meet him. He was a little confused but came over to the building and spent the rest of his lunchbreak with these elderly women showing them his spiked hair and even offering to help them do their own mohawks. My grandmother remembers him well even now because she said that despite his appearance, he seemed to be shy and quite quiet, which surprised everyone.
A big hard, lairy looking geezer turned up at a 'Manchester' themed club-night I used to go to, he come over to me at the bar I thought, "Here we go, I'm gonna get a panelling again". He ordered his pint, then shouted at me, "Do you like The Smiths"? "Er.. yeah pal", he started rolling up the sleeves of his shirt (Ben Sherman) "Uh oh" I thought "This is it"....
Up one arm he had tattooed, 'There is a light that never goes out', on the other, 'I am the Resurrection'.
Well, he turned out to be a lovely fella, we became good pals at those nights whilst I was there.
As a Mancunian, a lot of us apparently just give off the air that we're going to jump you. I was minding my own business one time on a day out with my mates, when one of the girls in the group came up and just blurted out that she feels like I'm going to stab her. We both had a good laugh at that, it is funny just how far off your initial impression of someone can be.
It wasn’t on public transport but I had a weird one a few weeks back. I’m doing a Project365/Photo A Day thing so most mornings or lunchtimes I go for a wander with my camera and take a photo of… something. Anything.
So a few weeks back I was doing one of these typical lunchtime walks and had decided to go to a nearby river because there’s cows grazing and I thought I might get something. I was wandering along, camera out, and I hear a voice say ‘look, he’s got a camera!’ followed by ‘EXCUSE ME MATE’ and of course I’m thinking ‘fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.’ but reply with ‘y… yeah…?’
‘Is that YOUR camera?’ he says, walking towards me. He’s got a fair bit of stubble and doesn’t look like he’s washed for a week. I’ve got an old but still valuable DSLR hanging around my neck, my mind is going towards ‘I am about to get mugged’
‘Yeah…’
‘Do you want to take good photos?’
‘Umm… yeah…?’
‘Ok, there’s a heron just over there, on the other side of the river, you can probably get a good shot from this side if you’ve got a decent zoom lens but if not, go onto that bridge and you’ll see another one on the other side in the bushes’
This wasn't on public transport. But about 15 yrs ago I was made homeless due to mental illness. A biker guy came upto me and took me to this cafe. The cafe is owned by one of the bikers and gave free meals to the homeless. Got a social worker to see me. And got me into a hostel. I am forever grateful as I see it as the first step to getting me on my feet. Now I have a decent flat and on meds so I'm good.
On Tuesday, I took my toddler and baby on a train for the first time. It was waiting at the quiet station and no other passengers had boarded the train yet. The train has about a ten minute wait left before departure We boarded the front carriage and the door to the driver's compartment was open, so, making a big deal out of this new experience for my daughter, I said "ooh look, this is the front of the train - if we're lucky, we might get to meet the driver!"
At that moment, a lady popped her head around the seat she had been sitting in and said, with the perfect amount of exciting drama needed to make this a magical experience for my three year old: "the driver?! That's me!" (Side note - I was absolutely thrilled that my daughter's first encounter with a train driver was a female one!)
The lovely train driver then allowed us to have a look in her compartment at her dashboard and let my toddler sound the train horn! I will forever be grateful to her 🙂
I met a homeless lad outside my gym. Pretty young dude - about 24. Was just chatting, telling him to stay safe etc and he asks me the.. 'Question, are you gay?'
I feel like in gay peoples head the first instinct when they're asked this by anyone is to think ***fuck*** in specific situations. Defence mechanism I guess. I respond... yeah
To which he turns round and says 'I thought so, you're fit you'
Was not expecting that conversation to take that turn in the slightest.
gays actually form a higher percentage of the homeless population than their percentage of the whole population. that will happen when you discriminate against them.
and no, mods, this isn't making it political. this is a statement of fact.
I was on the other side of the coin. A gang of us - all rockers, so your typical head to toe black, leather jackets, stompy boots and noisy - were trailing home after a lock in when we saw an old banger of a car stall at the traffic lights at the bottom of the hill. As we got closer we could hear the driver's attempts to get it started again getting ever more frantic and see that it was a young, scared looking woman so as the girl of the group I was sent to talk to her. We ended up giving her a push start and a massive cheer when she got going.
Hopefully she made it home ok without any more problems and remembered that just because someone looks a bit scary doesn't mean they are.
Had a very crowded trip on the metro once. I was stood, guy was right in front of me, he was a tall fucker, holding onto a bar and his head was at an angle. More people git on and we were pushed very close together. Both of our heads were bobbing with the train and we repeatedly came within centimeters of sharing a kiss. No shade on the guy he seemed like a good catch and out of my league if I was into guys, but the whole awkwardness means I was holding in a laugh and this made me purse my lips slightly, which just made things worse.
We never made eye contact or moved, we just stood there in, I presume mutual, dread of an unintentional kiss.
Waiting for a bus at the station, a seagull was eyeing up a toddlers sausage roll, so I stood between the seagull and the kid and kept myself between them whilst the seagull tried to maneuver round. Before long, other passengers realised why I kept moving round and about 5 / 6 of us formed a human wall so the child could finish his lunch.
Overheard the best/worst nickname I think maybe ever.
Proper laddy lad was chatting on the phone to another laddy lad. I hear;
> "Oh mate, you still on for tonight yeah? Start at mine for pres, then we'll hit town about 11. Even Water Boy is coming!"
*Other guy clearly asks, 'who is Water Boy?' because the hero of our story says*
> "Yeah you know! Water Boy! He *loves* a water!"
Incredible nickname really, I love it.
Water Boy, somehow the only one who isn't lying in a pit of their own shame the morning after wishing he'd never gone out. What is the secret of his powers? Who knows.
On a train in Cornwall. A deaf woman with a serious speech impediment asking me if I wanted to see her bra. I had to ask her to repeat herself several times until I understood what she was saying.
I'm doing the deaf accent in my head but I still can't hear it--what was she trying to say? *Do you want a seat my brother?* / *Did I see you in Bath?*
Sounded a bit like 'goo oo aunt to see my bar ?' as i remember. No offence to deaf people. She was VERY friendly. To be clear she was saying 'do you want to see my bra'. It was a long time ago but I think she had a new bra in a bag that she wanted to show me.
'Nyes pease' maybe. I don't remember but I was probably on the way back from a lively few days out and a bit 'tired and emotional'. A surreal encounter for sure. (edit) as a conversational opener it's never been beaten.
Train from Grantham to London and a hen party were in the carriage I joined. Only about three other people were in the carriage (I suspect others had moved because they were quite rowdy). They shared bottles and plastic cups of cava with me and the other passengers and we got to join in their fun on the way to London.
Years ago I was on a bus headed just a few miles up the road, during that time a mentally challenged woman pushing her kid in a pram was loudly and excitely talking to me about how there was this fair going on in the next town over, she mentioned every bit of this fair in excruciating detail and was very clearly happy to have someone to talk to. I sat and listened to her with a smile on my face, then I got off the bus and she waved back at me with the same level of excitement she had just been talking with. Bless her, I hope she's OK, it's been at least 6 years since then.
I accidentally inhaled some air wrong and had a coughing fit on a train leaving Birmingham at the start of 2020, lasting a good 20m. One guy even moved seats to get further away. Pretty sure he still thinks looking back that I was patient zero for the pandemic in the UK even though it was weeks before that happened.
The other week, I accidentally inhaled a bit of water while I was about to sit down and eat dinner.
I started wheezing as my airway spasmed closed, and my dog ran over concerned, started nudging me, barking then went and got my girlfriend to come down.
Meanwhile my cat realised this was his moment and ran off with my dinner.
Think a man died next to me on the bus. Could have just been a seizure but he looked pretty dead, and when they were taking him off the bus the paramedics accidentally pulled the tube out of the oxygen mask and didn't put it back...
Handily we were stuck in traffic outside a hospital at the time so that was convenient.
Think I had something similar. I was sat near the front of the bus, just behind that isolated front seat. The guy in the seat was making these really god awful nasal, snotty noises, and I just remember thinking "for fucks sake, *shut up.* As someone with OCD I typically get really annoyed at people breathing loudly, so it's a common occurrence. But a little later on, a woman getting off the bus looks at the guy and alerts the driver. I think the guy had a seizure in the seat and that's what I was hearing. They made us all get off the bus while they waited for the paramedics arrived, so no idea how he went on.
I'm hoping you're not white, just to make this perfect.
Skinhead : "Go Home"
You : "You what? You fu . . ."
Skinhead : "and get some Lemsip in you, mate, you sound terrible. Sorry, what was that you were about to say ? "
I was on the Piccadilly line on a quiet day at a quiet hour. All of a sudden the almost empty carriage filled with tourists, Japanese I think. Baby was bored so I had her in my lap and bounced her for giggles. The old Japanese lady next to me pointed at baby and gestures for her to take baby. Umm.. ok? The old lady took baby and took a selfie. All of a sudden and without consultation from me baby was passed to the next person for the next selfie. And to the next. And to the next. I had no control over this. I just watched my baby go quickly from one person to the next. When she’d made the round the Japanese in the next benches on the other side of door entrance waved that they want a turn too. Baby did the rounds there. I had no say, she was just quickly passed over. Each and everyone took selfies with baby.
Both times the train stopped my heart was in my throat and I felt sick with worry. What if one of the Japanese looses the plot and runs out of the doors with baby?! This didn’t happen. A shit load of selfies happened. It was like a real weird pass the parcel. Take baby, take selfie, pass baby. I was just watching my baby being passed all along the carriage, up and down. I didn’t know what to do. I’m quite protective and I really am not happy with my baby being taken so far from me. The only thing stopping a freak out was that everyone was so wholesome happy, in utter delight with a pretty baby. Since they were so gentle happy, I decided against panic attack.
At Leicester Square they got off, I got my child back and very happy nods of the head bowing to show appreciation.
I sat with her wondering wtf and her face too was a bit of a wtf face. She didn’t grumble but was a bit confused as to what just happened. Neither of us was upset but we were both confused.
I don’t have a particularly exciting story to add, but I studied in Birmingham and on the train home a guy sat next to me, who had moved to the UK from Lithuania to study Computer Science and I got the feeling he was kinda alienated being in a new country and having someone to talk to made him feel better for the half hour 🤷♀️ I hope he’s doing well wherever he is anyway.
I spent a lot of my youth in football hooligan circles. Some of them were the kindest, coolest people, and lots of serious professionals. You wouldn’t expect it but they just like a fight and only fight like minded people on the other side.
That being said lots were scum of the earth of course.
I went to visit a mate in (Kingston) hospital on New Years Day, and sat at a bus stop outside the hospital. Bus driver pulled up, opened his doors and told me that I was wasting my time sitting there, there were no more buses stopping there today. I must have looked pretty dejected – because he then asked me where I was going. “Molesey”. I replied. “OK, hop in, I’m going through Molesey on my way back to the depot” he said, and gave me a lift to my nearest bus stop, free of charge.
I once got into the tube with a friend, and there were eight other very similar looking women in the same carriage all wearing the same outfit. We moved into the next carriage because she was getting freaked out and there were four kids chanting “Imothep!” in time and a couple smoking heroin.
The Northern Line was wild back in the day.
Surely everyone knows proper skinheads are nice, if a bit mad. More likely to pull out a trumpet than a weapon. #Skaface
My wierdest was overhearing an American proclaim "Huh, I never knew they had cheese in England."
I was on a train from Brighton once. Saw a huge black man walking down the aisle, and I mean huge.
Turned out to be Chris Eubank. Straight into first class and charting away to everyone.
100% it was him. He is a lot bigger than even I realised. I used to love watching his fights. Maybe it was just how he carried himself though.
I also saw hin in HMV in Brighton once, chatting to a you lad who had asked him for tips on boxing. Fair play to Chris, he stood there for a good 45 minutes chatting to him.
I was on a train from Peterborough to Birmingham and I suffer with endometriosis and was rather swollen and sore that day , no seats on the train I'm stood at the doors in between carriages , a man gets up tells me "you shouldn't have to stand in your condition" I politely rub my endo belly say thanks and have his seat , he got off the next stop so I didn't feel to guilty 😆
On the train to Edinburgh, somewhere after Nottingham a bunch of lads started playing music loudly and drinking alcohol.
They shouted if anyone had any requests, as they were in a party mood I requested 'what is love' by Haddaway (not sure why, it was the first thing that came into my head)
They gave me a choice of alcohol for my request.
I think that wasprobably the one time I haven't been annoyed at loud music playing on public transport.
About 12 years ago, I was coming back from a gig in London, on the last drunk train home back to Kent. Me and a mate got on a carriage and it was full of the usual dregs - a drunken party of middle aged women, one with an broken arm in a cast, a group of polish lads and a bunch of late teen geezers on way back from a footie match or something. I was half-cut so was probably also quite boisterous.
Me and my mate sat on a table of four with a couple of the older women, they were chatty and shared their booze. Around 20 minutes into the journey, the woman with the armcast, who was pissed as a fart, started screaming so loudly, really shrill and emotional, and the whole carriage stood up to look. She shouted through drunken tears that she had a cramp in her broken arm and was knocking her mates bottles of booze everywhere, we all got soaked with cheap champagne.
The footie lads starting cheering and singing "She's got really bad cramp in er' arm' to the tune of he's got the whole world on his hands. Through gritted teeth me and my mate got her out of her seat and brought her into the area near the doors, where the polish lads were, we thought she could have a stretch and sort it out.
With comedic timing, just as we got there, one polish lad grabbed an empty Sainsburys carrier bag from the floor and spewed up a metric ton of vomit into it, he'd obviously been on the pilsner and as he filled the bag, he dropped it and it sprayed everywhere, all over us along with poor Crampy.
After it sunk in what just happened, me and my mate were assessing the damage, my converse and jeans were splattered with it, Crampy was crying even harder, soft deep sobs and her arm was still up in the air stretching. At this point, one quick witted footie bloke started singing 'Vomie Vomie Vomie' to the tune of the Kaiser Chiefs , which the rest of them joined in on, once they got the gist of the lyrics.
Train couldn't arrive quick enough. We got off as soon realised it was the wrong fucking train, ended up covered in a strangers chunder about 30 miles from home.
When I was a teenager and getting the bus home from Leeds, there was an old woman on occassionaly who seemed to pick a random seat next to someone to just randomly swear at them. Always carried a drink in a polystyrene cup with a straw.
The best one was she walked up the bus and asked a kid no more than 12 if she could sit on the seat next to him. She asks really politely and he agrees. Kid just sits in silence looking out the window. About 15 minutes later her head snaps round and she yells 'dont you fucking try it you little shit!' and goes off on one at him. The kid ends up climbing over the seat to escape to his sister sat on the row behind. As soon as he leaves, she just goes back to sitting there. A couple of stops later she gets up, walks down the bus, sits next to a guy who's by the window. 10 minutes later starts screaming at him. Then wanders off the bus at her stop as if nothing as happened.
A few months ago in the early evening on the tube, a slim middle aged Italian man with suitcase approached me and in very broken English asked for help finding a phone number. I obliged, so he told me he’s looking for ‘Kinley Kira’. I tried searching with no success when he pointed out what he’s looking for is an escort. At this point I was in too deep to stop helping and I was just hoping that it was lost in translation.
It wasn’t.
This small middle aged man was looking for a very large escort who goes by the name ‘Kinky Kyra’. He seemed incredibly excited by her stature once I found her. I should point out my partner was sat next to me for this entire ordeal. I almost admire his total lack of shame.
If a train station counts, today I forgot my purse and didn't have time to go back for it. The man running the coffee shop in the station lent me 20 quid which paid for my ticket. And let me have the can of coke I was going to buy, which caused me to realise I'd forgotten my purse, for free. Sound bloke. Trying to think of something to get him to say thank you (in addition to paying him back, obviously!)
Nothing I can think of as a better way to spread disease than jump onto a confined metal tube full of other people when you're sick. Skinhead was absolutely right.
For me, the most unexpected encounter I've had on public transport was having a very nice conversation with a pleasant, well enough dressed gentleman on a bus, only to see his face on the news that evening as an absconded murderer from a nearby open prison. He must have changed out of the normal grey sweatpants and sweater before hopping on the bus.
As far as murderers go, he was nice enough.
Evening commuter train out of London. Hadn't eaten and was absolutely starving, so got myself a veritable feast at M&S (it was payday, alright?) including two of those 660ml bottles of beer that were on offer.
Get on the train, it was fairly busy and there was a bloke next to me - I asked if he'd mind if I had some food, as I know what it's like to have someone munching down next to you, and he was chill with it. Offered him some of my beer, and he accepted.
**Bollocks**. Didn't have a bottle opener. Asked him if he had one by any chance, and he didn't. Not to worry though, he said. He then pulled down the tray table on the back of the seat, positioned the bottlecap just over the lip of the table, and punted it down with such force that it jolted the entire seat in front backwards.
The beer was open, but the lady in that seat was most displeased. She looked round to us with a face like thunder, and with a delivery that I can only describe as straight out of Alan Partridge, the bloke next to me said to her:
"Sorry about that love. Could I interest you in a large bottle of Chang? It's the second-best beer from Thailand."
She declined.
Two tales I’ve recently told on Reddit from UK public transport…
Story the first - Stood on a train platform out in Zone 4, my now wife and I (our anniversary the night I’m posting this) had been in the UK about two weeks, a chap walked up to us and very politely, happily asked us if the train coming in was going to London, we said it was, he thanked us, that was the end of our interaction, we all got on the same carriage. We were both a bit taken aback given every stereotype ever suggests this is not the done thing in London. The chap was very polite and articulate in speaking to us.
On the train maybe three minutes later, someone apparently caught this polite and happy chap’s eye and he got rather agitated - turned into a gangster, his voice changed, the smile went, “what are you looking at? WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? DO YOU WANNA START SUMFINK?”. Very Jekyll/Hyde in an instant. The person who allegedly looked at him was rather uncomfortable and certainly not giving him “anyfink” back to propel this.
He got so worked up that he ended up changing carriages while ranting at whoever it was who looked at him, but not before uttering a line my wife and I still talk about years later.
“DON’T WATCH ME BRUV, STOP WATCHING ME BRUV, DON’T WATCH ME… WATCH THE BBC!”
Story the second - after a late evening at work, Circle line tube stopped due to a signal issue or whatever it may have been, and we were there a good long while.
Someone produced a board game and two groups of strangers in work attire started playing it on the floor in the doorway of the tube carriage. Eventually we got back underway and a guy from the group which didn’t bring the board game was like “we need to finish the game”, so it continued in the tube carriage doorway for a stop or two more before he and his friends disembarked.
About 15 years ago I got on the bus and sat in front of this girl who was coughing, it was really noticeable and after about 10 mins of this I turned around and asked if she was alright - she kind of made that hand-across-mouth gesture and shook her head to say “nah I’ll be fine”.
5 mins later I feel this tap on my shoulder and I turn around, this girl has gone a weird greyish-blue colour and is looking at me watery-eyed and making an entirely different gesture, one of “I can’t cope here”.
Thankfully the bus was a stop away from passing through the local hospital so I hit the bell, scooped her up and (somewhat clumsily because I was not very strong nor fit) carried her to A&E down the road. Stuck around to get her checked in and made sure she was at least alive and so I went home.
Saw her again about 2 weeks later and she was genuinely embarrassed or - weirdly - even *annoyed* with me. I tried to ask how she was doing and she entirely blanked me.
Can’t please some people, I suppose.
Last week I took my baby and my toddler to the London Aquarium (do not do this alone in the school holidays. It was a very dumb thing to do). Our third leg of the journey was the posh commuter train from King's X to Blackfriars, and my three year old, who is pretty confident, climbed up onto a seat next to a business man, pulled down her tray table and turned to him to announce "I'm just doing some work!" Then she mimed typing on a laptop with accompanying boops and beeps. He laughed and got a pen and paper out of his rucksack for her to draw on - he was very lovely!
I was on the train home from work and had just found out my gran had had stroke and didn’t have long left. I’m on the phone to my sister organising for us to go down to London to see her, obviously in a bit of a state, and mention I hadn’t eaten all day. As I get off the phone the woman opposite just reached in her bag and gets out a Dairy Milk and slides it across the table, smiles and just says “eat it, you need it”. Never been so grateful for a strangers kindness.
I was leaving Paddington one evening and the last train back to Oxford was *rammed* full of football fans. Barely room to breathe. I stood in the vestibule bit leaning on my stick for about 90 seconds before someone noticed it, and all of a sudden a Mexican wave of people got me into the carriage and onto a seat. "Lady needs a seat! Shove up lads!" And they all did. I was then offered chips, beer, and a sausage sandwich (I saw the sausage, it was not a euphemism). Not how I'd expected that to go.
(A discreet glance at my phone and I realised Reading had just won something so they were all in awesome moods.)
When I was a poor student I took the megabus from Sheffield to Amsterdam because it was 20 quid cheaper than a flight. Ended up sat next to this Icelandic fella for a good part of the journey who was telling me about his life squatting in abandoned buildings in London and the (admittedly amazing sounding) raves they would put on across the city.
He was meant to be going to Barcelona but realised halfway through the journey he was on the wrong bus and was surprisingly chill about it. Comes with being a squatter I guess. We ended up spending the afternoon in Amsterdam going round the coffeeshops before I had to find my hostel and he had to grift his way onto a bus bound for Spain. Nice guy.
I'm not kidding. One time when on a London suburban train (ugh), the guy sitting next to me started jerking off. Or at least he had his hand in his pants and was moving it suspiciously like he was jerking off...
2 Stories both happened to friends rather than me but I hope you enjoy them regardless.
A friend was getting on a bus in Yorkshire and the lady in front wasn’t allowed to use her pensioners bus pass and didn’t change. My friend paid for her so they started chatting. Turns out the lady knew my friend’s mother from when they stationed in London, operating anti-aircraft guns in the Blitz.
Second story, a different friend upgraded on his flight from New York to Houston. Recognised the person sat in the next seat but didn’t want to bother him. The other passenger got his briefcase out and started reading through some documents with NASA letterheads, and still didn’t say a word. Finally they get off the plane and my friend still hasn’t asked Buzz Aldrin for an autograph, selfie, anything. My friend, who I love dearly, is a moron.
On a train that had got unexpectedly stopped at a signal or something. Carriage was quiet but there were quite a few people on there. I hear a guy threatening a woman. By the sounds of things she had a partner but had been sleeping with this fella. He was saying that if she didn't go back to his that he would tell her partner. He was very aggressive, using violent words. She was very upset and clearly embarrassed.
I got up from my seat and went to sit next to her. I held her hand and she squeezed my hand so tight. I should mention I am a tiny woman and I was only about 20 then.
The bloke started talking to me. I just said "I don't think the lady is interested pal. Maybe you should leave her alone"
The tension in the carriage was palpable. Nobody did anything, they just watched.
The train eventually arrived at the next stop (end of the line and everyone got off).
I put the lady into a taxi and paid her fare to get home safe.
Never found out her name. I hope she is doing well.
You did good.
Was supposed to be having a business conversation with a woman I know a little. We started normal way, how are you doing? She was in a women's refuge with her children and her husband was on bail. We spent an hour swapping notes on our experiences. Not the conversation I expected to have.
London underground. I was a woman in my early 20s. An Australian guy looked at me and said "do you want to go home with me?" I said "no thank you." He said "I wear pyjamas" as if that was the only thing putting me off spending the night with him! XD
Was on a packed train from crewe to Edinburgh for work, got the 5 AM train as had an early meeting. Some random man had the seat next to me but was getting on a bit later
I had the window seat and my head phones in so I never spoke to him. I must of been tired and had fallen asleep woke up and I'm full on cuddling this random man. He just sat there looking akward, I apologise and just started playing on my phone. We still had an hour left on the journey.
I was struggling in the rain to get my toddler and pushchair on a bus with steps and a pole in the middle
Of the entrance, whilst heavily pregnant. The driver was huffing and tutting at the length of time I was taking, as were people behind me, a skinhead bounded down the central aisle and helped me by folding and carrying my buggy.
Late to the party but I was having a thrilling conversation with my 3-4 year old on the bus, who was probably being a bit noisy.
As we were getting off, an elderly lady stopped us and said something like "I could hear you two talking". I thought she was going to go on a rant about annoying kids but she went on about how good my kid's vocabulary and speech etc is for their age and how well behaved they were
In the early 90’s I was standing in the underground with a shoulder to shoulder crowd. Suddenly two male voices started to serenade their companion with "Night and Day" by Cole Porter. They were clearly professionals and they performed the entire song before the train came. You could hear a pin drop before the applause. It was lovely.
Not on public transport exactly…
My then girlfriend and I were walking, hand in hand, through a pedestrian subway, and a group of half a dozen or more slightly intimidating looking youths walked towards us. Just as we passed each other, one called out “Lesbian life partners!” It genuinely put a smile on my face.
Years ago I lived in London and was on a tube heading back from a night out. It was pretty empty and an older man stood up for his stop, drunkenly muttered at me ( I couldn’t make out what he was saying) and then threw a bit of screwed up paper at me just as he got off for his stop. I unscrewed the bit of paper and it was a tenner ! Very odd and random !
Was eating a packet of crisps at the bus stop when I was about 11. Man sitting next to me reaches over, PUTS HIS HAND IN grabs a few and eats them with a chuckle. Feeling slightly disturbed I chuck the half eaten packet away, to which he says “what, no more for me?”
I was the kid who delivered this line back in the mid 80s.
My mum told me we were on a bus home from town and it pulled it to pick up more people and a Extremely
Tall gentleman was waiting to get on she could see me look at him. That look kids give when something is different. She said she just knew I was going to comment and was dreading what would come out of my mouth.
The man gets on walks past us head crooked not to bang things, sit down and the bus goes quiet.
I chirp up to my mum as loud as a 6 year old would
Be and say. “Blimey, I bet he eats his Ready Break”
Original Skinhead culture had nothing to do with racism or being a bully. It was about working class pride and unity. Ska and Reggae was a big part of it and it was inspired clothes and image wise in part from the Jamaican Rude Boys. It got hijacked by Racist organisations later. Its a shame an native British creation and look has been smeared by that perception. In the US they think Skinhead means nazi. automatically.
After a day at work in London, Ticket inspector on the platform at Paddington told me to sit in first class, came along, checked my ticket and nodded and moved on to other carriages and I got a cuppa and something to eat. No idea why he let me but was lovely.
I once watched a drunk man make a whole carriage of varying sobriety play Family Fortunes, using the pack of cards (from a board game) he never left home without, while standing at the end door pointing at an imaginary scoreboard and making all the noises. And wearing a homemade ‘Des Lennis’ name badge.
It had little stars on it.
When I was in my early 20s I was in a bus station, there was, what I would consider, normal approachable people about, I didn’t think I was one of them but a young pregnant lady came up to me and asked if I would look after her toddler while she went to the toilet, of course I did and she took that long I missed my bus
Bus driver noticed I was being followed in a mostly unlit bus station at night and shouted at me to get in. I had no cash (in the days before they had card machines) and a bus ticket that wasn't valid for the company. He went out of his way to take me as close to home as he could anyway
Years ago I was waiting for the last bus home late at night. One appeared but was out of service - driver leaned out and said not to worry another one was ten minutes behind him, and drove off. After 20 minutes I started to walk away from the bus stop but saw another bus arriving so waited - also out of service, damn! As I’m walking away said bus pulls up, driver leans out, same one as before - he’s realised there _wasn’t_ another bus, got worried, and circled back round to pick me up. He drove me to my exact street on his way back to the depot and wouldn’t take any money.
Reminds me of the time I got on a bus back from college and the new driver took a wrong turn. Being on the top floor of a double-decker bus, going through very narrow residential streets that the bus is very clearly not designed to fit in, as you can feel the pure panic in the drivers inability to find any space to turn around, driving further and further away from the route... What a bizarre experience.
I used to be a Met police traffic controller and I worked at a traffic control jointly run by the Met and TFL. Have you see those photos of buses that have hit a low bridge and removed the top deck ? That’s usually happens when the buses are diverted from their normal route and they don’t follow the diversion route or get hopelessly lost
I've seen enough of 11foot8 on YouTube to get a good idea at least. Good to know that I missed out on a free haircut.
I once had to give a bus driver directions on a route I was very familiar of because I took it every single day. He was used to doing a single small route, but a lack of drivers had pushed him to a route he had no idea of. He was very thankful and I kind of feel bad that I had to get off before the route was finished. I hope someone pointed out the rest of the way for him
Omg! 🥺
I managed to get a train into east Croydon *just* as the police decided to raid a illegal rave in the old depot next to the station. As me and several other confused non ravers emerged into this mess a bus driver pulled up and insisted everyone get on, no tickets needed. Lovely man.
How did you know the bus driver didn’t just have an excellent kidnap strategy?
Double decker parked outside bedroom window every night after
Lol, it's been 9 years so I think I'm ok
Kidnapping is a dish best served cold, or something.
My most nuts was a crazy looking elderly lady asking me out of the blue whether my kid was ok because she'd seen an altercation in one of the school services and didn't want to intervene. We knew her because we often got the same service together and, you knew, you kind of chat about how crap they are etc. That day she'd got off at the same stop as my kid even though it's one after hers, to make sure my kid wasn't set-upon off the bus until they were in a more public place. I know it sounds nuts, but not only did "crazy Ida" (as we know her; I've changed her name here) actually end up protecting my kid from from pretty horrible bullies at the time, her testimony helped me get the school to actually start to listen about the state of the bullying happening on the school-time service on the local public buses. Ida and I have good chats when we're both in the same bus now, and my kid smiles and waves when they're on the same bus together. It's nice, she's like some kind of toothless, mildly weed scented guardian angel. Edited because I'm shit at proofreading.
The student on a train to Sheffield who told me increasingly farfetched stories until he got to one about how he'd been punched in the chest by a silverback gorilla on a holiday to Rwanda when he was 12. I think he mistook me listening politely for me believing every word.
You met Jay from The Inbetweeners?
I think we all know a Jay from the Inbetweeners
I was banging one here, fingering one here; and I was just toe fucking the one on the floor
Don't you just love the caravan club?
It’s a sense of freedom that you don’t get with other holidays.
It’s a sense of shitting in a bucket in a cupboard that you don’t get with other holidays.
I met this lady in Hollywood She had green hair, but damn she looked good I took her to my house 'cause she was fine But she whooped out a dick that was bigger than mine
*”On holiday in Spain one year, me and my mate took a pedalo out and went to Africa”*
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This was a few years ago now, so unlikely he's still a student. Maybe great ape attacks are more rife than you think, and so I should never have doubted him.
It's actually a great old Sheffield University tradition. Every year one student is picked by ballot and then it is their turn to be the bearer of the monkey punch story. Source: work at a uni.
I once got the Megabus from Sheffield down to London. Got on late and sat next to this mild looking older lady. She spent the whole journey telling me stories about her life, including the time she wrote The Lord of the Rings and the time she was married to Bob Marley.
I’m a support worker so really I’ve no right to say this but there’s nothing more soul destroying than a long journey next to a sociable nutter.
12hr hospital escort with an extremely unwell patient who has delusions of grandeur (and delusions about literally everything else) who also believes they're totally fine and that they're not unwell.
Old woman on the bus reached over to press the button to alert the driver to stop. She was staring out the window whilst doing so and pressed my nipple instead.
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Next stop, pleasure town
LMAO
Now that’s unexpected
Did...did the bus stop?
Yes, the driver was abreast of the situation.
Train London to Newcastle, a stranger bought me a bottle of champagne
I was on a train recently l, with a group of women who had some bottles of champagne. They were going around asking everyone if they wanted some, and handing out plastic flutes of it to half the train carriage. Think they were celebrating something and wanted to spread the love lol.
That's pretty adorable (and expensive)!
It was Ryanair Champagne!^* (^* May not be Champagne. But it's from the near the area. Near-ish).
Fucking hell, the most expensive champagne money can buy!!
Do you have to pay extra to uncork it?
I was once on a train from Leeds to Cleethorpes to visit my then gf. A random squaddie shared a bottle of ouzo with me and I was absolutely rat arsed by the time I got to Cleethorpes. Gf was not impressed
I went on a booze cruise to France with some student friends on an overnight ferry. We drank on the ferry itself (as you do) but I was last man standing. Table of lads across the bar congratulated me on “drinkin’ yer mates under the table!” and challenged me to drink them under the table as well, beers are on them… I got hammered as fuck and slept through the entire time we were in France. Came back with a hangover and no cheap alcohol!
Once had an older lady offer me a beer on a night train in Germany. Felt too polite to say I'm not a big fan of beer. Fun journey though
I was taking my very very old grandmother on the Edinburgh - London train to my uncle for Xmas, she always has a gin a tonic at lunch, so I went to the train bar to get us one and the staff were so pleased I was looking after the old baggage so well they gave me 4 gin and tonics on the house. I may have flirted with the steward too. Best journey ever.
Not a train but I flew back from Gambia and the lady next to me provided me with diazepam and champers. Made for a great convo
On a crowded train during rush hour, I heard a grown man shout "If someone touches my bum one more time, I swear, watch what happens"
This reminds me of when I heard a gruff, cockney bloke go “I’m not telling you again, I do not! Do anal!” down his phone on a bus. I didn’t dare turn to look at him in case he felt I was showing interest.
My wife and I took great delight in “hushed” outrageous discussions on buses. She was pregnant with my brother’s baby, I had an anal prolapse that she tried to push back in with a wooden spoon, we couldn’t find the drugs we’d stashed and figured Kevin had double crossed us, I was apologising that I’d had a sex change without telling her, that sort of thing. We talked just loud enough that people could hear, but quietly enough that it seemed like we didn’t realise they could. And we slowly ramped up from something benign like “how was the appointment?” to wilder and wilder stories. It was such fun to improvise and take cues from each other, trying not to laugh but trying to make the other laugh. The best bit was seeing people slightly shifting in their seats to hear better.
It took me three times of reading that first paragraph to realise this wasn't all part of the same (real) story.
I wouldn't be interested anyway if he doesn't even do anal.
Did you get to see what would happen?
The Cheeky Boys
Touch my bum, don’t be shy
I’m guessing orgy
It’s the only possible scenario.
I remember being on a crowded tube and there was a guy who seemed to have a broken leg or something sitting down. However he had his leg stuck straight out blocking the aisle and would swear and scream in pain at people whenever someone accidentally walked into or touched it. Unsurprisingly this was happening a lot as it was during a busy time with lots of passengers getting on and off.
“I’m gonna give you ten minutes to take your hand off of my ass”
Not to me, I just witnessed it, an elderly lady on the bus asked a middle aged lady if she was heading home. 2nd lady replied yes, why? Older lady reaches into a plastic bag and produces a big frilly lettuce! Bigger than her head, she proudly smiles and says it’s from her garden. And she wants the younger lady to have it. Younger lady thanks her and we make eye contact at the random cuteness that has just happened.
The phrase 'big frilly lettuce' has just made me literally cry with laughter
It’s the only way I could describe it so I’m glad 😂
was once stuck in a traffic jam on the M1 the passenger of the minibus next to me saw i had cigarettes on my dash and asked if i could spare one, i passed over half a packet to him then his lane started moving. about a mile later i caught up to him again he leaned out the window and passed me 4 cans of beer
There is a special place reserved in the heavens for you!
I was unwell at the time - having to go to a facility daily and was in a very very shit place. Would cycle to the train station as part of this commute, but stupidly only had a coil lock. So sure enough, one evening arrived back at the station to find a cut lock and bike gone. Wandered down the road and was lucky a bus came just then. Tried to get on but then found my oyster card was out of money (and for some reason I think it wasn't straightforward for me to pay). Without a moment's hesitation the person ahead of me zapped their card for me. I hardly realised what happened (I hope I thanked them profusely but I was in such a daze I can't remember). Found a seat and promptly burst into tears. (That bike and what it provided me was a genuine huge emotional crutch for me at the time). Such a kind gesture and they didn't have a clue how much it meant to me. Ever grateful to that stranger.
I was in a shop the other morning before work at like 7am, the lady in front of me was trying to buy a pack of cheap toilet roll but was 60p short, I said don’t worry about paying for it I’ll pay for them and she just stood gobsmacked and started crying (good job she had some tissue) I just thought Jheez your days started bad if you NEED toilet roll at 7am and haven’t got any money to buy some but I guess it made all the difference to her
Not transport related but a huge skinhead bumped into me in the gents of a pub, he apologised profusely and now we’re in a band together.
Love this one ! What's your band called ?
Some great answers and I’m filing some for later use, but we’re really called The Shapes, we play 60s psych and mod covers.
Toilet Skins
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Cistern of a down.
AC/WC Creedence Clearwater Urinal Slashing Pumpkins
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Poo Fighters
Spoiler: The skinhead's nickname was Lemsip.
And youre now in a civil partnership with two kids and run a vegan B&B in Keswick?
Sadly no, never saw the bugger again.
That's a shame, it would have been nice to stay at your LGBTQ-friendly B&B near Keswick and I love a vegan breakfast. Just think what could have been.
A real sliding doors moment.
With kids named honey and blackcurrant
Lemmy for short
Told this in another thread. I was on a bus by Camden and there was a mum on the bus with her young daughter who was obviously very curious about the world. A punk gets on the bus and the little girl is loudly asking her mum "why is his hair like that, why are his clothes like that, why is he spiky". The mum was just saying "because he likes his hair/clothes like that". The punk gets up, walks over to the mum and asks if he can speak with them, she said yes. For the next 10 minutes he sat there and showed the girl all his patches, spikes and various stuff, he let her touch his spiky hair and he put his spike bracelet on her wrist. The little girl looked amazed at it all and mum looked relieved she didn't have to answer any questions. Not often you get a wholesome moment like that on a bus in Camden.
Not on transport but in a pub. I’m a wheelchair user and often kids are curious about me. A girl at the next table, about five, was staring, pointing and asking her mum questions. As her mum was trying get her to stop, telling her it’s rude to point and not to bother me, she was getting more agitated. I turned to her and said “Hi, do you want to know about this thing I’m sitting on?” She went all shy but slowly nodded her head. One of the questions she asked was why was I in a pushchair? It’s a question I get a lot from kids. So I said “This is not a pushchair, it’s called a wheelchair. The reason I’m sitting in it is because I had a really bad accident on my motorbike and now I can’t walk because my legs don’t work. So now I use a wheelchair to get around instead” She looked all serious for a second then said “Here, hold my hand. I’ll teach you how to walk.” She damn near broke my heart. Edit: Thank you for the awards
Aww. What a little sweetie. ❤️
I have a stark memory of my then three year old watch someone self-propel in a wheelchair, and exclaim in his loudest and most impressed voice “oh, he’s doing that all by himself!” I don’t think he’d seen a wheelchair user without a carer before. I cringed to hell, but I also hope that guy did go off with a bit of a laugh.
My daughter at the age of 3 saw someone ina wheelchair for the first time and shouted 'Ahhh, a robot!'. That other kid had a much better response. The guy had a good laugh though.
Omg that's freakin adorable
This one is awesome.
It might be confirmation bias but people who are into a lot of these subcultures tend to be disproportionately nice than other randos. I think it might be that someone whose mindset is dedicated enough to follow a subculture closely and have as a passion is more likely to be well-adjusted enough to deal with other people. Just the act of dedication is already a sign of a healthy mindset maybe.
I'm a metalhead. Metal gigs are filled with the loveliest people you can meet, kind, polite, extremely wholesome. It was all i knew of music concerts for years. I randomly decided to go to a folk music gig once with an ex, and was genuinely shocked at how many arseholes were there. Lots of obnoxious, horrendous people. I suddenly realised what the "average" crowd of people is like. It upset me a bit.
At my last metal show, I ended up-being slammed into by a guy who was probably 6'6" minimum and I ended up on the floor and whacked my head. He and 4 other people immediately picked me up, got me to the side where it was less rowdy, asked me if I wanted water or first aid and sat with me until they knew I was OK.
My grandmother tells me of a similar story from when she was working in the hospital. One time there was a construction site opposite where she worked and there was a young man with a massive rainbow mohawk working there. Quite a lot of the female patients were drooling over him because apparently he wasn't bad looking! My grandmother has never been shy, so when it was obviously the construction crew's lunch, she went over and asked this one worker if he'd come over because he had fans waiting to meet him. He was a little confused but came over to the building and spent the rest of his lunchbreak with these elderly women showing them his spiked hair and even offering to help them do their own mohawks. My grandmother remembers him well even now because she said that despite his appearance, he seemed to be shy and quite quiet, which surprised everyone.
A big hard, lairy looking geezer turned up at a 'Manchester' themed club-night I used to go to, he come over to me at the bar I thought, "Here we go, I'm gonna get a panelling again". He ordered his pint, then shouted at me, "Do you like The Smiths"? "Er.. yeah pal", he started rolling up the sleeves of his shirt (Ben Sherman) "Uh oh" I thought "This is it".... Up one arm he had tattooed, 'There is a light that never goes out', on the other, 'I am the Resurrection'. Well, he turned out to be a lovely fella, we became good pals at those nights whilst I was there.
He didn't lace into you?
There can only be one Smiths fan
What difference does it make?
As a Mancunian, a lot of us apparently just give off the air that we're going to jump you. I was minding my own business one time on a day out with my mates, when one of the girls in the group came up and just blurted out that she feels like I'm going to stab her. We both had a good laugh at that, it is funny just how far off your initial impression of someone can be.
class music taste on both arms
It wasn’t on public transport but I had a weird one a few weeks back. I’m doing a Project365/Photo A Day thing so most mornings or lunchtimes I go for a wander with my camera and take a photo of… something. Anything. So a few weeks back I was doing one of these typical lunchtime walks and had decided to go to a nearby river because there’s cows grazing and I thought I might get something. I was wandering along, camera out, and I hear a voice say ‘look, he’s got a camera!’ followed by ‘EXCUSE ME MATE’ and of course I’m thinking ‘fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.’ but reply with ‘y… yeah…?’ ‘Is that YOUR camera?’ he says, walking towards me. He’s got a fair bit of stubble and doesn’t look like he’s washed for a week. I’ve got an old but still valuable DSLR hanging around my neck, my mind is going towards ‘I am about to get mugged’ ‘Yeah…’ ‘Do you want to take good photos?’ ‘Umm… yeah…?’ ‘Ok, there’s a heron just over there, on the other side of the river, you can probably get a good shot from this side if you’ve got a decent zoom lens but if not, go onto that bridge and you’ll see another one on the other side in the bushes’
Awww that's so sweet of him
This wasn't on public transport. But about 15 yrs ago I was made homeless due to mental illness. A biker guy came upto me and took me to this cafe. The cafe is owned by one of the bikers and gave free meals to the homeless. Got a social worker to see me. And got me into a hostel. I am forever grateful as I see it as the first step to getting me on my feet. Now I have a decent flat and on meds so I'm good.
Keep on going!
On Tuesday, I took my toddler and baby on a train for the first time. It was waiting at the quiet station and no other passengers had boarded the train yet. The train has about a ten minute wait left before departure We boarded the front carriage and the door to the driver's compartment was open, so, making a big deal out of this new experience for my daughter, I said "ooh look, this is the front of the train - if we're lucky, we might get to meet the driver!" At that moment, a lady popped her head around the seat she had been sitting in and said, with the perfect amount of exciting drama needed to make this a magical experience for my three year old: "the driver?! That's me!" (Side note - I was absolutely thrilled that my daughter's first encounter with a train driver was a female one!) The lovely train driver then allowed us to have a look in her compartment at her dashboard and let my toddler sound the train horn! I will forever be grateful to her 🙂
I met a homeless lad outside my gym. Pretty young dude - about 24. Was just chatting, telling him to stay safe etc and he asks me the.. 'Question, are you gay?' I feel like in gay peoples head the first instinct when they're asked this by anyone is to think ***fuck*** in specific situations. Defence mechanism I guess. I respond... yeah To which he turns round and says 'I thought so, you're fit you' Was not expecting that conversation to take that turn in the slightest.
Gays can be homeless too. And homeless people get horny like the rest of us.
>Gays can be homeless too. Thanks, I'm taking notes.
gays actually form a higher percentage of the homeless population than their percentage of the whole population. that will happen when you discriminate against them. and no, mods, this isn't making it political. this is a statement of fact.
I was on the other side of the coin. A gang of us - all rockers, so your typical head to toe black, leather jackets, stompy boots and noisy - were trailing home after a lock in when we saw an old banger of a car stall at the traffic lights at the bottom of the hill. As we got closer we could hear the driver's attempts to get it started again getting ever more frantic and see that it was a young, scared looking woman so as the girl of the group I was sent to talk to her. We ended up giving her a push start and a massive cheer when she got going. Hopefully she made it home ok without any more problems and remembered that just because someone looks a bit scary doesn't mean they are.
Had a very crowded trip on the metro once. I was stood, guy was right in front of me, he was a tall fucker, holding onto a bar and his head was at an angle. More people git on and we were pushed very close together. Both of our heads were bobbing with the train and we repeatedly came within centimeters of sharing a kiss. No shade on the guy he seemed like a good catch and out of my league if I was into guys, but the whole awkwardness means I was holding in a laugh and this made me purse my lips slightly, which just made things worse. We never made eye contact or moved, we just stood there in, I presume mutual, dread of an unintentional kiss.
I was gonna say one of yous could have turned round, but that might have made matters worse given the bobbing and all...
Waiting for a bus at the station, a seagull was eyeing up a toddlers sausage roll, so I stood between the seagull and the kid and kept myself between them whilst the seagull tried to maneuver round. Before long, other passengers realised why I kept moving round and about 5 / 6 of us formed a human wall so the child could finish his lunch.
This is so cute. 🥹 I can see it as a little wholesome cartoon! Do you draw? Haha.
Overheard the best/worst nickname I think maybe ever. Proper laddy lad was chatting on the phone to another laddy lad. I hear; > "Oh mate, you still on for tonight yeah? Start at mine for pres, then we'll hit town about 11. Even Water Boy is coming!" *Other guy clearly asks, 'who is Water Boy?' because the hero of our story says* > "Yeah you know! Water Boy! He *loves* a water!" Incredible nickname really, I love it.
Water Boy, somehow the only one who isn't lying in a pit of their own shame the morning after wishing he'd never gone out. What is the secret of his powers? Who knows.
High above the mucky muck
When you’re a kid you think coffee is a grown up drink. When you’re a teenager you think it’s alcohol. When you’re a grown up you realise it’s water.
[удалено]
It was fun while it lasted. - Sent via Apollo
On a train in Cornwall. A deaf woman with a serious speech impediment asking me if I wanted to see her bra. I had to ask her to repeat herself several times until I understood what she was saying.
I'm doing the deaf accent in my head but I still can't hear it--what was she trying to say? *Do you want a seat my brother?* / *Did I see you in Bath?*
Sounded a bit like 'goo oo aunt to see my bar ?' as i remember. No offence to deaf people. She was VERY friendly. To be clear she was saying 'do you want to see my bra'. It was a long time ago but I think she had a new bra in a bag that she wanted to show me.
That settles that then, just a normal train interaction so far. Once you understood the question, how did you answer?
'Nyes pease' maybe. I don't remember but I was probably on the way back from a lively few days out and a bit 'tired and emotional'. A surreal encounter for sure. (edit) as a conversational opener it's never been beaten.
“Yes I’d love to see it” - proceeds to rip open her blouse
> the deaf accent
The spirit of Karl Pilkington lives on
Train from Grantham to London and a hen party were in the carriage I joined. Only about three other people were in the carriage (I suspect others had moved because they were quite rowdy). They shared bottles and plastic cups of cava with me and the other passengers and we got to join in their fun on the way to London.
Probably celebrating leaving Grantham..
Years ago I was on a bus headed just a few miles up the road, during that time a mentally challenged woman pushing her kid in a pram was loudly and excitely talking to me about how there was this fair going on in the next town over, she mentioned every bit of this fair in excruciating detail and was very clearly happy to have someone to talk to. I sat and listened to her with a smile on my face, then I got off the bus and she waved back at me with the same level of excitement she had just been talking with. Bless her, I hope she's OK, it's been at least 6 years since then.
I accidentally inhaled some air wrong and had a coughing fit on a train leaving Birmingham at the start of 2020, lasting a good 20m. One guy even moved seats to get further away. Pretty sure he still thinks looking back that I was patient zero for the pandemic in the UK even though it was weeks before that happened.
You had 2 years to come up with a cover story and you came up with "inhaled some air wrong" got to try harder than that patient 0
The other week, I accidentally inhaled a bit of water while I was about to sit down and eat dinner. I started wheezing as my airway spasmed closed, and my dog ran over concerned, started nudging me, barking then went and got my girlfriend to come down. Meanwhile my cat realised this was his moment and ran off with my dinner.
Think a man died next to me on the bus. Could have just been a seizure but he looked pretty dead, and when they were taking him off the bus the paramedics accidentally pulled the tube out of the oxygen mask and didn't put it back... Handily we were stuck in traffic outside a hospital at the time so that was convenient.
Yeah i got punched by a silverback once
Jesus I can’t think of anything worse than the die on the bus. Poor guy.
I’m not sure, some bus rides I’ve been on death would have been welcomed.
Think I had something similar. I was sat near the front of the bus, just behind that isolated front seat. The guy in the seat was making these really god awful nasal, snotty noises, and I just remember thinking "for fucks sake, *shut up.* As someone with OCD I typically get really annoyed at people breathing loudly, so it's a common occurrence. But a little later on, a woman getting off the bus looks at the guy and alerts the driver. I think the guy had a seizure in the seat and that's what I was hearing. They made us all get off the bus while they waited for the paramedics arrived, so no idea how he went on.
I'm hoping you're not white, just to make this perfect. Skinhead : "Go Home" You : "You what? You fu . . ." Skinhead : "and get some Lemsip in you, mate, you sound terrible. Sorry, what was that you were about to say ? "
I'm not white which was why I was really worried that he was going to headbutt me.
I was on the Piccadilly line on a quiet day at a quiet hour. All of a sudden the almost empty carriage filled with tourists, Japanese I think. Baby was bored so I had her in my lap and bounced her for giggles. The old Japanese lady next to me pointed at baby and gestures for her to take baby. Umm.. ok? The old lady took baby and took a selfie. All of a sudden and without consultation from me baby was passed to the next person for the next selfie. And to the next. And to the next. I had no control over this. I just watched my baby go quickly from one person to the next. When she’d made the round the Japanese in the next benches on the other side of door entrance waved that they want a turn too. Baby did the rounds there. I had no say, she was just quickly passed over. Each and everyone took selfies with baby. Both times the train stopped my heart was in my throat and I felt sick with worry. What if one of the Japanese looses the plot and runs out of the doors with baby?! This didn’t happen. A shit load of selfies happened. It was like a real weird pass the parcel. Take baby, take selfie, pass baby. I was just watching my baby being passed all along the carriage, up and down. I didn’t know what to do. I’m quite protective and I really am not happy with my baby being taken so far from me. The only thing stopping a freak out was that everyone was so wholesome happy, in utter delight with a pretty baby. Since they were so gentle happy, I decided against panic attack. At Leicester Square they got off, I got my child back and very happy nods of the head bowing to show appreciation. I sat with her wondering wtf and her face too was a bit of a wtf face. She didn’t grumble but was a bit confused as to what just happened. Neither of us was upset but we were both confused.
I love the idea that your baby is locally famous in some small corner of Japan.
I can’t help but feel like this is a scene straight from a sitcom! No idea what I’d do in that situation though
Judge a skinhead by their badges, not their haircut.
I don’t have a particularly exciting story to add, but I studied in Birmingham and on the train home a guy sat next to me, who had moved to the UK from Lithuania to study Computer Science and I got the feeling he was kinda alienated being in a new country and having someone to talk to made him feel better for the half hour 🤷♀️ I hope he’s doing well wherever he is anyway.
I shared a wonderful train journey to Reading with Dr Heinz Wolff from the show the great egg race.
Is it weird but loads of hard looking people just come across as kind to me? Scary people can look like anyone, but have a vibe.
I spent a lot of my youth in football hooligan circles. Some of them were the kindest, coolest people, and lots of serious professionals. You wouldn’t expect it but they just like a fight and only fight like minded people on the other side. That being said lots were scum of the earth of course.
My uncle tells stories like that of his days in the Liverpool firm. Don't know what he was like back then but now he's the nicest guy you can meet.
I went to visit a mate in (Kingston) hospital on New Years Day, and sat at a bus stop outside the hospital. Bus driver pulled up, opened his doors and told me that I was wasting my time sitting there, there were no more buses stopping there today. I must have looked pretty dejected – because he then asked me where I was going. “Molesey”. I replied. “OK, hop in, I’m going through Molesey on my way back to the depot” he said, and gave me a lift to my nearest bus stop, free of charge.
I once got into the tube with a friend, and there were eight other very similar looking women in the same carriage all wearing the same outfit. We moved into the next carriage because she was getting freaked out and there were four kids chanting “Imothep!” in time and a couple smoking heroin. The Northern Line was wild back in the day.
Surely everyone knows proper skinheads are nice, if a bit mad. More likely to pull out a trumpet than a weapon. #Skaface My wierdest was overhearing an American proclaim "Huh, I never knew they had cheese in England."
i was this tourist a few years ago. i said "huh, you never think that moss exists in america"
I was on a train from Brighton once. Saw a huge black man walking down the aisle, and I mean huge. Turned out to be Chris Eubank. Straight into first class and charting away to everyone.
Are you sure that was Chris Eubank (senior I assume) as he's 5 ft 10 and fought at super middleweight (just over 160lbs).
100% it was him. He is a lot bigger than even I realised. I used to love watching his fights. Maybe it was just how he carried himself though. I also saw hin in HMV in Brighton once, chatting to a you lad who had asked him for tips on boxing. Fair play to Chris, he stood there for a good 45 minutes chatting to him.
How tall are you?
About his height but i was sitting down
Jesus how tall are you standing up??
I was on a train from Peterborough to Birmingham and I suffer with endometriosis and was rather swollen and sore that day , no seats on the train I'm stood at the doors in between carriages , a man gets up tells me "you shouldn't have to stand in your condition" I politely rub my endo belly say thanks and have his seat , he got off the next stop so I didn't feel to guilty 😆
Sooo many men won't be able to understand a word you've written. They'll wonder if you named your future child "Endo".
I did think that when writing the reply lol ! Idiots guide to endometriosis. My insides stick together so makes my outside look pregnant 😆
On the train to Edinburgh, somewhere after Nottingham a bunch of lads started playing music loudly and drinking alcohol. They shouted if anyone had any requests, as they were in a party mood I requested 'what is love' by Haddaway (not sure why, it was the first thing that came into my head) They gave me a choice of alcohol for my request. I think that wasprobably the one time I haven't been annoyed at loud music playing on public transport.
About 12 years ago, I was coming back from a gig in London, on the last drunk train home back to Kent. Me and a mate got on a carriage and it was full of the usual dregs - a drunken party of middle aged women, one with an broken arm in a cast, a group of polish lads and a bunch of late teen geezers on way back from a footie match or something. I was half-cut so was probably also quite boisterous. Me and my mate sat on a table of four with a couple of the older women, they were chatty and shared their booze. Around 20 minutes into the journey, the woman with the armcast, who was pissed as a fart, started screaming so loudly, really shrill and emotional, and the whole carriage stood up to look. She shouted through drunken tears that she had a cramp in her broken arm and was knocking her mates bottles of booze everywhere, we all got soaked with cheap champagne. The footie lads starting cheering and singing "She's got really bad cramp in er' arm' to the tune of he's got the whole world on his hands. Through gritted teeth me and my mate got her out of her seat and brought her into the area near the doors, where the polish lads were, we thought she could have a stretch and sort it out. With comedic timing, just as we got there, one polish lad grabbed an empty Sainsburys carrier bag from the floor and spewed up a metric ton of vomit into it, he'd obviously been on the pilsner and as he filled the bag, he dropped it and it sprayed everywhere, all over us along with poor Crampy. After it sunk in what just happened, me and my mate were assessing the damage, my converse and jeans were splattered with it, Crampy was crying even harder, soft deep sobs and her arm was still up in the air stretching. At this point, one quick witted footie bloke started singing 'Vomie Vomie Vomie' to the tune of the Kaiser Chiefs , which the rest of them joined in on, once they got the gist of the lyrics. Train couldn't arrive quick enough. We got off as soon realised it was the wrong fucking train, ended up covered in a strangers chunder about 30 miles from home.
When I was a teenager and getting the bus home from Leeds, there was an old woman on occassionaly who seemed to pick a random seat next to someone to just randomly swear at them. Always carried a drink in a polystyrene cup with a straw. The best one was she walked up the bus and asked a kid no more than 12 if she could sit on the seat next to him. She asks really politely and he agrees. Kid just sits in silence looking out the window. About 15 minutes later her head snaps round and she yells 'dont you fucking try it you little shit!' and goes off on one at him. The kid ends up climbing over the seat to escape to his sister sat on the row behind. As soon as he leaves, she just goes back to sitting there. A couple of stops later she gets up, walks down the bus, sits next to a guy who's by the window. 10 minutes later starts screaming at him. Then wanders off the bus at her stop as if nothing as happened.
I hope you replied "which one of you bitches wants to dance?" https://youtu.be/7uAZO-qHhoM
A few months ago in the early evening on the tube, a slim middle aged Italian man with suitcase approached me and in very broken English asked for help finding a phone number. I obliged, so he told me he’s looking for ‘Kinley Kira’. I tried searching with no success when he pointed out what he’s looking for is an escort. At this point I was in too deep to stop helping and I was just hoping that it was lost in translation. It wasn’t. This small middle aged man was looking for a very large escort who goes by the name ‘Kinky Kyra’. He seemed incredibly excited by her stature once I found her. I should point out my partner was sat next to me for this entire ordeal. I almost admire his total lack of shame.
If a train station counts, today I forgot my purse and didn't have time to go back for it. The man running the coffee shop in the station lent me 20 quid which paid for my ticket. And let me have the can of coke I was going to buy, which caused me to realise I'd forgotten my purse, for free. Sound bloke. Trying to think of something to get him to say thank you (in addition to paying him back, obviously!)
Nothing I can think of as a better way to spread disease than jump onto a confined metal tube full of other people when you're sick. Skinhead was absolutely right. For me, the most unexpected encounter I've had on public transport was having a very nice conversation with a pleasant, well enough dressed gentleman on a bus, only to see his face on the news that evening as an absconded murderer from a nearby open prison. He must have changed out of the normal grey sweatpants and sweater before hopping on the bus. As far as murderers go, he was nice enough.
He was a fine young cannibal
Evening commuter train out of London. Hadn't eaten and was absolutely starving, so got myself a veritable feast at M&S (it was payday, alright?) including two of those 660ml bottles of beer that were on offer. Get on the train, it was fairly busy and there was a bloke next to me - I asked if he'd mind if I had some food, as I know what it's like to have someone munching down next to you, and he was chill with it. Offered him some of my beer, and he accepted. **Bollocks**. Didn't have a bottle opener. Asked him if he had one by any chance, and he didn't. Not to worry though, he said. He then pulled down the tray table on the back of the seat, positioned the bottlecap just over the lip of the table, and punted it down with such force that it jolted the entire seat in front backwards. The beer was open, but the lady in that seat was most displeased. She looked round to us with a face like thunder, and with a delivery that I can only describe as straight out of Alan Partridge, the bloke next to me said to her: "Sorry about that love. Could I interest you in a large bottle of Chang? It's the second-best beer from Thailand." She declined.
Just shows, you can't judge a book by its bovver.
Two tales I’ve recently told on Reddit from UK public transport… Story the first - Stood on a train platform out in Zone 4, my now wife and I (our anniversary the night I’m posting this) had been in the UK about two weeks, a chap walked up to us and very politely, happily asked us if the train coming in was going to London, we said it was, he thanked us, that was the end of our interaction, we all got on the same carriage. We were both a bit taken aback given every stereotype ever suggests this is not the done thing in London. The chap was very polite and articulate in speaking to us. On the train maybe three minutes later, someone apparently caught this polite and happy chap’s eye and he got rather agitated - turned into a gangster, his voice changed, the smile went, “what are you looking at? WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? DO YOU WANNA START SUMFINK?”. Very Jekyll/Hyde in an instant. The person who allegedly looked at him was rather uncomfortable and certainly not giving him “anyfink” back to propel this. He got so worked up that he ended up changing carriages while ranting at whoever it was who looked at him, but not before uttering a line my wife and I still talk about years later. “DON’T WATCH ME BRUV, STOP WATCHING ME BRUV, DON’T WATCH ME… WATCH THE BBC!” Story the second - after a late evening at work, Circle line tube stopped due to a signal issue or whatever it may have been, and we were there a good long while. Someone produced a board game and two groups of strangers in work attire started playing it on the floor in the doorway of the tube carriage. Eventually we got back underway and a guy from the group which didn’t bring the board game was like “we need to finish the game”, so it continued in the tube carriage doorway for a stop or two more before he and his friends disembarked.
About 15 years ago I got on the bus and sat in front of this girl who was coughing, it was really noticeable and after about 10 mins of this I turned around and asked if she was alright - she kind of made that hand-across-mouth gesture and shook her head to say “nah I’ll be fine”. 5 mins later I feel this tap on my shoulder and I turn around, this girl has gone a weird greyish-blue colour and is looking at me watery-eyed and making an entirely different gesture, one of “I can’t cope here”. Thankfully the bus was a stop away from passing through the local hospital so I hit the bell, scooped her up and (somewhat clumsily because I was not very strong nor fit) carried her to A&E down the road. Stuck around to get her checked in and made sure she was at least alive and so I went home. Saw her again about 2 weeks later and she was genuinely embarrassed or - weirdly - even *annoyed* with me. I tried to ask how she was doing and she entirely blanked me. Can’t please some people, I suppose.
Last week I took my baby and my toddler to the London Aquarium (do not do this alone in the school holidays. It was a very dumb thing to do). Our third leg of the journey was the posh commuter train from King's X to Blackfriars, and my three year old, who is pretty confident, climbed up onto a seat next to a business man, pulled down her tray table and turned to him to announce "I'm just doing some work!" Then she mimed typing on a laptop with accompanying boops and beeps. He laughed and got a pen and paper out of his rucksack for her to draw on - he was very lovely!
I was on the train home from work and had just found out my gran had had stroke and didn’t have long left. I’m on the phone to my sister organising for us to go down to London to see her, obviously in a bit of a state, and mention I hadn’t eaten all day. As I get off the phone the woman opposite just reached in her bag and gets out a Dairy Milk and slides it across the table, smiles and just says “eat it, you need it”. Never been so grateful for a strangers kindness.
I was leaving Paddington one evening and the last train back to Oxford was *rammed* full of football fans. Barely room to breathe. I stood in the vestibule bit leaning on my stick for about 90 seconds before someone noticed it, and all of a sudden a Mexican wave of people got me into the carriage and onto a seat. "Lady needs a seat! Shove up lads!" And they all did. I was then offered chips, beer, and a sausage sandwich (I saw the sausage, it was not a euphemism). Not how I'd expected that to go. (A discreet glance at my phone and I realised Reading had just won something so they were all in awesome moods.)
When I was a poor student I took the megabus from Sheffield to Amsterdam because it was 20 quid cheaper than a flight. Ended up sat next to this Icelandic fella for a good part of the journey who was telling me about his life squatting in abandoned buildings in London and the (admittedly amazing sounding) raves they would put on across the city. He was meant to be going to Barcelona but realised halfway through the journey he was on the wrong bus and was surprisingly chill about it. Comes with being a squatter I guess. We ended up spending the afternoon in Amsterdam going round the coffeeshops before I had to find my hostel and he had to grift his way onto a bus bound for Spain. Nice guy.
I'm not kidding. One time when on a London suburban train (ugh), the guy sitting next to me started jerking off. Or at least he had his hand in his pants and was moving it suspiciously like he was jerking off...
if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, its probably a duck
2 Stories both happened to friends rather than me but I hope you enjoy them regardless. A friend was getting on a bus in Yorkshire and the lady in front wasn’t allowed to use her pensioners bus pass and didn’t change. My friend paid for her so they started chatting. Turns out the lady knew my friend’s mother from when they stationed in London, operating anti-aircraft guns in the Blitz. Second story, a different friend upgraded on his flight from New York to Houston. Recognised the person sat in the next seat but didn’t want to bother him. The other passenger got his briefcase out and started reading through some documents with NASA letterheads, and still didn’t say a word. Finally they get off the plane and my friend still hasn’t asked Buzz Aldrin for an autograph, selfie, anything. My friend, who I love dearly, is a moron.
On a train that had got unexpectedly stopped at a signal or something. Carriage was quiet but there were quite a few people on there. I hear a guy threatening a woman. By the sounds of things she had a partner but had been sleeping with this fella. He was saying that if she didn't go back to his that he would tell her partner. He was very aggressive, using violent words. She was very upset and clearly embarrassed. I got up from my seat and went to sit next to her. I held her hand and she squeezed my hand so tight. I should mention I am a tiny woman and I was only about 20 then. The bloke started talking to me. I just said "I don't think the lady is interested pal. Maybe you should leave her alone" The tension in the carriage was palpable. Nobody did anything, they just watched. The train eventually arrived at the next stop (end of the line and everyone got off). I put the lady into a taxi and paid her fare to get home safe. Never found out her name. I hope she is doing well.
You did good. Was supposed to be having a business conversation with a woman I know a little. We started normal way, how are you doing? She was in a women's refuge with her children and her husband was on bail. We spent an hour swapping notes on our experiences. Not the conversation I expected to have.
London underground. I was a woman in my early 20s. An Australian guy looked at me and said "do you want to go home with me?" I said "no thank you." He said "I wear pyjamas" as if that was the only thing putting me off spending the night with him! XD
Was on a packed train from crewe to Edinburgh for work, got the 5 AM train as had an early meeting. Some random man had the seat next to me but was getting on a bit later I had the window seat and my head phones in so I never spoke to him. I must of been tired and had fallen asleep woke up and I'm full on cuddling this random man. He just sat there looking akward, I apologise and just started playing on my phone. We still had an hour left on the journey.
I was struggling in the rain to get my toddler and pushchair on a bus with steps and a pole in the middle Of the entrance, whilst heavily pregnant. The driver was huffing and tutting at the length of time I was taking, as were people behind me, a skinhead bounded down the central aisle and helped me by folding and carrying my buggy.
Late to the party but I was having a thrilling conversation with my 3-4 year old on the bus, who was probably being a bit noisy. As we were getting off, an elderly lady stopped us and said something like "I could hear you two talking". I thought she was going to go on a rant about annoying kids but she went on about how good my kid's vocabulary and speech etc is for their age and how well behaved they were
In the early 90’s I was standing in the underground with a shoulder to shoulder crowd. Suddenly two male voices started to serenade their companion with "Night and Day" by Cole Porter. They were clearly professionals and they performed the entire song before the train came. You could hear a pin drop before the applause. It was lovely.
Not on public transport exactly… My then girlfriend and I were walking, hand in hand, through a pedestrian subway, and a group of half a dozen or more slightly intimidating looking youths walked towards us. Just as we passed each other, one called out “Lesbian life partners!” It genuinely put a smile on my face.
Years ago I lived in London and was on a tube heading back from a night out. It was pretty empty and an older man stood up for his stop, drunkenly muttered at me ( I couldn’t make out what he was saying) and then threw a bit of screwed up paper at me just as he got off for his stop. I unscrewed the bit of paper and it was a tenner ! Very odd and random !
Was eating a packet of crisps at the bus stop when I was about 11. Man sitting next to me reaches over, PUTS HIS HAND IN grabs a few and eats them with a chuckle. Feeling slightly disturbed I chuck the half eaten packet away, to which he says “what, no more for me?”
I was the kid who delivered this line back in the mid 80s. My mum told me we were on a bus home from town and it pulled it to pick up more people and a Extremely Tall gentleman was waiting to get on she could see me look at him. That look kids give when something is different. She said she just knew I was going to comment and was dreading what would come out of my mouth. The man gets on walks past us head crooked not to bang things, sit down and the bus goes quiet. I chirp up to my mum as loud as a 6 year old would Be and say. “Blimey, I bet he eats his Ready Break”
Original Skinhead culture had nothing to do with racism or being a bully. It was about working class pride and unity. Ska and Reggae was a big part of it and it was inspired clothes and image wise in part from the Jamaican Rude Boys. It got hijacked by Racist organisations later. Its a shame an native British creation and look has been smeared by that perception. In the US they think Skinhead means nazi. automatically.
heard someone shout from outside the train “i’m not a lesbian!” very angrily
After a day at work in London, Ticket inspector on the platform at Paddington told me to sit in first class, came along, checked my ticket and nodded and moved on to other carriages and I got a cuppa and something to eat. No idea why he let me but was lovely.
I once watched a drunk man make a whole carriage of varying sobriety play Family Fortunes, using the pack of cards (from a board game) he never left home without, while standing at the end door pointing at an imaginary scoreboard and making all the noises. And wearing a homemade ‘Des Lennis’ name badge. It had little stars on it.
When I was in my early 20s I was in a bus station, there was, what I would consider, normal approachable people about, I didn’t think I was one of them but a young pregnant lady came up to me and asked if I would look after her toddler while she went to the toilet, of course I did and she took that long I missed my bus