29/03/2018
Here is a story of one of those little moments of triumph that are so sweet and perfect. Last week The Little Bus and I had the absolute pleasure of taking a busload of the nicest people you could hope to meet to one of the Ed Sheeran concerts. Traffic wasn't so bad and I managed to drop them off quite close to their gate. I went to a movie nearby and then returned hoping to find somewhere to park the bus and wait for my passengers. It's not easy finding a place to park a bus but I found a spot on a side road and texted my group to let them know where I was. Once I could hear that Ed had finished I decided to try and get the bus at least pointing in the direction we needed to head. This was the start of much weirdness. I ended up being the first vehicle in a street queued for maybe half a kilometre back, all trying to turn right onto Church St. Apart from the fact that there was now a dense, almost solid wall of concert goers crossing this sidestreet, traffic was also completely gridlocked both directions in front of me. I wasn't going anywhere and nor was anyone behind or indeed in front of me. We were all just essentially parked up for the next 30mins at least. I texted my passengers my location and they said they'd walk to me. The flood of humans eventually slowed and the right lane of traffic, where I needed to get to, was just creeping forward but literally only one foot at a time. A small gap had formed in front of me and I knew I had to make an attempt to get the bus into the queue heading north. I inched the bus forwards and instantly a newish ute to my right, heading south, inched their vehicle right in front of me to close the gap and completely prevent any chance of me exiting the sideroad. Not one of us had moved for over half an hour at this stage so I completely understood everyone's frustration but we were all in the same boat. So I just accepted it, everyone just wanted to get home and my group hadn't arrived so there was no urgent need for me to get across the road. It was then that I looked up and saw that the entire family in the ute had wound their windows down and were laughing at me. It wasn't a nice 'haha we're-all-in-this together, doesn't it suck but Ed was totally worth it' kind of laugh. It was a really nasty mocking laugh. I was initially just surprised because in my line of work pretty much everyone I encounter is nice. This family was not nice. I looked away and tried to ignore the jeering. It was all the more unexpected because the mother, an attractive 40-something blonde, seemed to be leading the mocking. Her teenaged daughter in the back seat however, kept up the game for a long, long time after her mother grew bored. When I looked directly at the daughter, keeping my face completely deadpan, she looked at me with what I can only describe as utter contempt, bordering on hatred. It's important to note here that my bus was still stopped behind the give way lines. I hadn't encroached or blocked anyone and even the dozens of vehicles behind me were apparently content to wait, accepting that none if us were going anywhere any time soon. It was kind of embarrassing but shocking at the same time that this family thought encouraging their daughter to jeer at and mock someone was behaviour to be encouraged and applauded. I was relieved when my lovely passengers all turned up and piled into the bus. I pointed out the family in front, the mother and father, who had definitely noted the several burly men getting on my bus, were suddenly riveted by their phones and steadfastly looking down now. The daughter mustn't have realised it was timely to stop the game and now began alternately mocking and staring contemptuously at the teenaged girls sitting in the front row of the bus. It was unnerving. Here's where it gets epic. One of my passengers hopped out of the bus, tapped on the ute's window and very politely asked if the driver could move forward a foot or two. How could they not comply? Johnny, my passenger, then went to the car behind and, again very politely, requested they back up just a smidgen. We squeezed through the gap, the very first vehicle in the right lane, which was now moving, let me in and we were on our way home. The ute was still stuck in the south flowing lane which was still completely unmoving. We all gave them a friendly wave as we passed. It felt great. Politeness and common human decency win every time.
