You will also know that I sit quietly and listen to what's going on around me. The staff at the library are so pleasant and helpful. I know this from listening in to conversations a few days ago.
It's the same in our post office in the village. Staffed primarily by volunteers, there's always a cheery welcome and a smile and they never make you feel as if the questions you are asking are stupid as is usually the case with mine. Yes I do ask stupid questions.
It makes so much difference when you know that if you need to ask something you will be met with a friendly response and a smile.
Talking of which, our bus drivers seem to be a surly bunch. There are exceptions of course but in the main you don't get much response from them, and they are probably treated badly themselves as that seems to be the order of the day in many areas. So, I get rather confused when I see adverts on buses of a man with a beaming smile and an invitation for smiley people to become bus drivers " We are looking for smilers" is the message. Perhaps the companies could do some training on making existing staff smile or is that too much to ask?
I'm old enough to remember when bus drivers were cocooned in their enclosed cabs and every bus would have a conductor to issue tickets and occasionally there was a dreaded inspector who would get on to check tickets. I could never work out whether they were checking up on the passengers or the conductors.
The conductors were the people that pressed the bell to tell the driver to stop and this was usually a small red button set into the ceiling of the bus. They knew when to press it from when people started to get up to move to the back of the bus. Yes the back of the bus. That’s where you got on and off. The front of the bus was shut off with no entrance. Conductors were often great characters, shouting out the names of the stops and often telling jokes and making comments which sometimes were non pc. Somehow journeys in those days were more fun.
Upstairs though there was a huge fug of cigarette smoke as smoking was allowed on the upper deck. That could make journeys unpleasant. I remember the cigarette stubbers which were on the back of the seat in front of you and were used to stub cigarettes out. My how the world has changed.
If you are too young to remember all this, seek out the comedy programme “On The Buses” and it will give you a real flavour of those long gone days. “I hate you Butler!”