Bus Driver Angst 8.30am

Sunny day (its true that hot weather makes people angsty).

Unlike yesterday when the convoy of 29s was pissing me off - one too full, next one emptyish but not stopping even though we were practically standing so as it had to drive over us with arms outstretched flagging it down - the bus stopped quite easily. Rasta bus driver with a long single dreadlock grey beard.

A white van driver squeezed past him at one of the bus stoops and that really pissed him off (but I always thought the job of white van man was to piss everyone off and so its pointless reacting). As we continued up to Manor House in a single stream of traffic the bus swang wildly across the carriageway lurching from side to side as the bus driver seemed to want to overtake (where would he go though? There was no empty space ahead). Eventually he swang into the oncoming traffic to pull up alongside the offending white van, opened his doors and shouted across to the van's driver, threatening to kick his head in for squeezing by in such a way because it was dangerous and could've caused an accident.

This altercation didn't help the bus driver calm down. Much use of the brakes ensued. Eventually we got to a bus lane, it was empty. We stopped at a stop and he allowed a couple of less full buses to pass him. At the next bus stop we came to a halt to let someone off behind another 29. A passenger decided to take our bus rather than the one in front. As he showed his ticket the bus driver asked him, "Why you walk pass the empty bus and get on the crowded one?". It was a rhetorical question. The passenger looked confused and mumbled something about wanting to go to Gower Street. A sensible explanation as the bus was going to Trafalgar Square while the one in front was going to Camden.

Damn bad start to the day on the bus drivers behalf, I would say. Glad to get off really.