Where do you sit when you get on a bus? Is your go to place the front or the back of the bus, or do you not care?

I tend to head for the seats just above the stairs before the wheel, and if the back of the bus looks full then I'll sit close to the back doors - but for some reason last night I wanted to sit down the front, and when I couldn't I just kept walking to the back and sat above the wheel. I'm glad I didn't go any further back, because I would've regretted it so much.

Picture this. It's past 6pm and it's dark, and you get on the M10 to take you from UNSW to a train station. It's quite full but you manage to find a seat down near the back. After you sit down, three other UNSW students walk on and do the same, except two of them sit in the second last row and the third girl stands.

Now there's a lady.

Not any ordinary lady, but one who was being very loud and kept insisting that the third girl sits next to her at the back of the bus. It was pretty clear to everyone else that the uni student was quite reluctant because the lady's language was so crude and frankly I would be extremely cautious and if this happened to me I'd be desperately trying to find a way out. After telling the girl that she's harmless and 'if anyone harms ya I'll be the one to hurt them', the girl sits down with the expectation that the lady's comment that she'll even 'shut up if [the girl] sits down' will be true.

It wasn't. The lady pulled up her sleeve and put her arm forward, and kept talking about how a relative had just passed away and she'd inherited a really expensive bracelet. Casually she'd throw in a few passing comments like 'You're a good looking boy' and 'You have sexy legs bitch', until the three uni students, discomfort clearly written on their faces, moved down to the front of the bus.

At the same time, I'm stubbornly looking ahead and resisting the urge to turn around to watch what's going on.

Phones are a great way to avoid social interaction, non?

Now we're almost out of Kingsford when a guy and a girl come on and walk straight to the back. The guy seemed a bit out of it, but responds to the lady when she talks to them.

Cue trouble.

She just wouldn't. stop. talking. I did not need to find out so much about you from your loud, obnoxious, almost one-way conversations with strangers - it's great that you've got a tattoo that says "swipe your card and pay as you enter" and that you're not ashamed of being a prostitute, but you don't really need to shout it to the world and disturb everyone else's commute home after a long day at work/uni/out etc. It's fine to be proud that you can do the splits, but it doesn't mean you need to demonstrate in the aisle of the bus. It's great that you think that the girl has a pretty face, but to encourage her to be a prostitute? I don't have much to say on that. But I don't need you shouting 'smd' in its full glory several times during the bus trip either.
And clearly these two weren't having any of it either - they said bye and went to stand at the back doors of the bus. The guy and the lady almost had a confrontation on the bus - she kept pushing him verbally and he kept telling her to just sit down, except she wasn't having any of that. Luckily, the girl kept putting herself between them and telling the guy to let it go so it was mostly just her walking up and down the aisle.

A confrontation between the lady and the guy almost happened on the bus - she kept saying 'C'mon show me one. Just one throw' but the girl put herself between them and kept telling him to let it go, and eventually they all got off the bus on Oxford Street.

Moral of the story? This kind of stuff can happen anywhere, any time.

With love, a-sleep-deprived Sarah x

*All images in this post belong to their respective owners.