Fighting Tiger

I love catching public transport on those days when bike riding just seems like a bit of a chore. Sure there are the waits, the missed connections and the odd crazy person*, but then there’s also the opportunity to read, to eavesdrop (such a bad habit, i know) and to talk to people.

There’s the one off conversations with grandmothers visiting old friends - or teenage boys who fart loudly and offend almost everyone in the carriage - apart from yours truly laughing on the seat diagonally opposite.

I guess that it’s a bit of an Adelaide thing too - this is a small town, and the scheduled nature of public transport increases the chances of running into the same people again and again. Like Anita, the video games and role playing fan who really didn’t like her job selling showbags at the Adelaide Show . Tonight, when I saw Anita, she spoke about her short-lived job working at Shotz and her plans to study languages and move to Japan in 2012. Then there was Ben, the teenaged film geek who laughed to himself as i politely avoiding the over-familiar conversation of another passenger*. Of course, the next time I saw Ben I introduced myself and promised that the next time an annoying person tried to talk to me I’d make sure that Ben was also burdened with conversation.

There are the obvious environmental and financial arguments for increased trains and buses and trams, but its that occasional feeling of community and connection which happens every so often that makes me want everyone to leave their cars in the driveway, just so that feeling can happen even more frequently.

* the odd guy with developmental difficulties on the train the other day who kept on talking about the boots that i was wearing. “oh, they go up higher!” to which i replied “yep, and you’re not seeing how high!”.