It’s funny how our expectations and assumptions change over time. Coming back from town on the bus, a bloke got on who was chuntering away to himself continually. Time was when you’d have just have thought “mad bloke” and smiled in a compassionate but don’t-come-near-us-just-in-case kind of a way. Now you just assume he’s got a phone handsfree and is having a terribly important conversation.
Now, there’s a whole second argument we could have about how annoyed you get with people talking on handsfree sets (wired or, for some people even worse for some reason, Bluetooth). Some might be surprised, given how many things I do get annoyed about, that this one really doesn’t get my goat at all. OK, poeple who shout on phones are irksome, but provided they’re just talking, what’s the problem? The only difference between someone on a phone and two people on the bus having a conversation is that you can only hear one half of the phone conversation. Big deal! What’s the problem – is it that you can’t eavesdrop properly?
Even more bizarre, though, is the subset of people who don’t get wound up by people with a phone to their ear but do object to people using and handsfree device. For goodness’ sake, why? What on earth is the difference? Answers on a postcard.
Postcards. How quaint! Remember you used to know the postcode for Swap Shop off by heart? Or Tiswas if you came from a -ahem- common household. I’ve actually had TV nostalgia conversations with people the same age as me who said “Oh, I never saw Magpie because we weren’t allowed to watch ITV.” Eh?
Anyway, I digress. The bloke on the bus? After all that: mad bloke.
