It is amazing what a difference a few kilometres makes to a demographic. Utilising my freshly acquired knowledge that the new Maxx Outer Link bus service runs closer to my work than the Inner Link (I looked at a map yesterday), I decided to throw caution to the wind, and used it for my commute this morning.
As I stepped onto the bus and present my Hop card to the
electronic reader, my first impression was, where is this bus going? It was
like I had stumbled across a mid-week tramping expedition. Gone were the mustard
trench coats one sees the inner suburb gentlemen donning to keep out the
elements. These bus travellers (see what I did there), were clad head to toe in
bright safety first colours of a Kathmandu catalogue. It was like I had stepped
into the Gortex vortex.
As I found myself a seat, carefully pushing past the mountainous mass
of puffer jackets, back packs and climbing poles, my next thought was where had
this bus come from?
A quick scan at the circular map presented on the wall of the bus
informed me that it had come from places I have never heard of, Westmere, Mt
Albert and Balmoral. No wonder everyone looked so grumpy, how long had they
been on this bus?
Suddenly there was a thunderous roar as
the sky opened up to a downpour. I made it on the bus just in time I thought to
myself. But looking outside the sun was shining. Then the deafening rumble
happened again. What was causing this ear-splitting din? Then I realised it was
the sound of nylon against nylon as man across the
aisle tried to reposition himself in the limited space the bucket shaped seat
was providing him.
I did not have a lot of room in my seat either. It must have been
the lady sitting next to me turn to provide lunch for the 150 staff at her
work. Nothing else could explain the size of the pack bag wedged onto her lap.
As the bus trundled along its route I tried to look around the bus
to see what other differences were prominent from the Inner suburb link I has
caught previously. There was no glow from the numerous iPhones one sees on the
Inner Link as punters update their blog or twitter. This perhaps is not a bad
thing, or maybe people's phones were buried too deep in their Mac Packs to be
able to get out. I was not the only one without much space due to most seats
been occupied by two puffer jacket wearing individuals, where the puff seems to
engulf any available space.
Other observations were the lack of the latest style of glasses,
hair and designer beard. These were replaced with goggles, woolly hats and beards
that looked like they had not seen civilisation for many months.
Needless to say, I was the only
person on the bus in a three piece, and post to my departure the driver would
have been the best dressed.
