Tag Archives: bus

Re-Wri-Day: Taking the Bus

As I just ranted about another change regarding the city buses I’m taking every day, I thought I might as well feature the original rant in this weeks Re-Wri-Day as well.
What is the Re-Wri-Day?
Inspired by EdMooneyPhotography’s Re-Work-Wednesday and based on the fact that my writing style for this Blog has changed over the past two years I kind of created my own version of this.
But why the strange name and what does it mean?
I’m awful when it comes to puns and I couldn’t help myself but to turn re-write and Friday into one strange word: Re-Wri-Day. Sorry…
But in conclusion: These posts are supposed to be always published on a Friday, but not necessarily on every Friday, just the Fridays when I feel like editing an old post beforehand.
And what am I doing with this?
I am taking my old posts from the beginnings of writing this Blog or just former posts and read them again to see what things I can change or add. They wont necessarily be actually re-written, but some changes will be made.
In the Re-Wri-Day post I’ll also give you a couple of thoughts on why I had chosen the topic and stuff you might be interested in.
So, let’s have a look at the first post regarding buses: On the Road: Taking the Bus
Right at the beginning of the Blog I had thought up the On the Road category as I was still driving between my place of study and my place of work on a regular basis. This however changed when the actual studying (attending lessons and such) part ended.
What now became my means of transport were the city buses and I had a couple of things to tell about them.
The post is pretty much a rant on what is good and what is bad about taking the bus, so with the re-write I tried to form a better structure for the post and even give it some headlines. I also re-phrased a couple of sentences that sounded quite awful. There even was one where I asked myself „What did the author want to tell us with this?„, which is kind of a remnant of my A-level days were we had to analyse and interpret a lot of stuff…
So basically I was unsatisfied with what I wrote in the original post and as I had new complaints on top of that I thought it fitting to ad the Re-Wri-Day this week as well.
And now I am off to see Schandmaul in Berlin. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter

On the Road: Taking the Bus – Take Two

A couple of months ago I ranted about taking the bus and I really wish I could say that what I am about to tell you below is a really elaborate April Fools joke…but I’m afraid it isn’t…

The rough route to work...

The rough route to work…


 
For the last four and a half years I took a bus line to my workplace that directly connected the district I live in with the district I work in and a second one that drove into the opposite direction.
But as of today those two no longer exist.
What does exist are two new separate lines that cover half of the route each.
As I really like sketches I tried depicting the scenarios in what you can see on the left.
The green line is what it used to be, one cycle of bus lines that connected both districts. The red line is the connection of my living-district to the Central Station and the blue is a for me important part of the one from there to my work-district. The round thing symbolizes the ring we have surrounding the city centre, but I wont get into that right now as that would be to much off topic.
This morning the old lines where no longer in business and the new ones had started. A small part of me is proud that I did manage to make out the differences with the new lines and knew what I would have to do to get to my usual exit this morning, without having read about it somewhere. Sometimes I do like my ability to think things through based on little, but significant information, even at unearthly hours.
This whole change leaves now me with two choices when it comes to my stop, both of which are quite inconvenient in comparison to what it used to be like.
The choices are:

  1. Get out at the Central Station and switch into the other bus for the remaining stops.
  2. Get out at, before or close after the Central Station to walk from there to my workplace.

For someone who is far from being a morning person or let alone fully awake while taking the bus, a walk could wake me up a bit more, but I fear I am far too lazy for that.
On the other hand it probably will be difficult for me to remember switching the bus line in the first place for a couple of weeks and I’ll end up at a station where I do have to walk from before taking a full detour.
Another option I have, where my laziness might get in the way even more, is to use the upcoming better weather to get my bike to a check up and then actually use it to get to work; which is easier said than done if you live on a hill where going down is easy, but going up is awful…
Even though I complain about this change, I still do understand why it was necessary.
Further into the work-district a huge construction side started working today, so the traffic jam that area will cause will be quite long. If the complete cycle would still be taken by the buses this would cause enormous delays for the line to my living-district. Therefore the thoughts put into the alternative routes and the change itself is way more understandable than what I complaint about in the other post, but that does not mean I am supposed to like it.
I like my conveniences and especially a proper routine for certain things, so if you take that from me I will need some time adjusting and figuring out how I want to go about creating a new one.
The last few days have been pretty rough in regards to that and adjusting is kind of my top priority right now. It’s after all not every day that you change from being a student to be a full employee with a Bachelor’s degree. 😉
Still, why can’t this be an April Fools joke and my old lines have returned tomorrow? 🙁
I’d like that…
PoiSonPaiNter

Bad Wolf Day 2013: "Hiding" Spots

As I told you this morning, today is Bad Wolf Day! (Find out more about it in the last post).
And as I now have placed all my slips of papers I’ll be posting the pictures of the „Hiding“ Spots. (They are both below and on my FaceBook page you can find on the right side)
As I’d also like to talk a little bit about them you can find some notes with the pictures and additional thoughts below the Gallery.


Well, I had made 11 slips of papers, one for each Doctor, but somehow #10 and #11 – for whom I had rather fitting spots, just slipped away and started off their journey on their own…
#10 blew away when I was about to put #9 into place and #11 probably fell out when I had put #2 into the Manga. Therefore only nine where actually placed. I kind of see this as a sign, as it was the Ninth Doctor that encountered BAD WOLF. 😀
Through this I kind of could change the places I had in mind for the other Doctors, that did not have one at that time.
But let me tell you what I had in mind:
#1:
My first idea for him was, to put him in a book in the library, but as I looked for what was available, I not only discovered that our local library did not have anything from the series, but that it in fact only had one novel from Torchwood…
Beside that book I also found two interesting sounding books with „Who is who“ in their title – one about Science Fiction, the other about British History.
Unfortunately the latter two were no longer among the public inventory and would have to be ordered and that’s not what I wanted…
Anyway,  I then decided to pick another Doctor and put him somewhere more fitting – and don’t ask me why I only had the idea for the Sixth Doctor first….
As I wrote for the picture Germany used to have huge yellow telephone boxes and I kind of miss those as they were more fun – yet more warm and filthy – than those glass and pole thingies you can see in the picture.
#2:
Where to place him was unknown to me for quite some time. Then I remembered that I had just bought a copy of Kazue Kato’s OneShot collection Time Killers and I simply hoped they would still have some issues in the bookstore.
As I wrote for the picture the store used to be called „Weiland“ which is approximately pronounced as: „Vailand“ – just with the weird way of pronouncing vowels in German – and it still reminds me of Valeyard…even though it was the Sixth who had his introduction I still picked that place for two…
#3:
This was the first paper I placed today and it was also the first where I knew where to place it.
I don’t know why. Okay, I think it was about the same time when I thought that #11 should have gotten a place in the bus as well, but still the first on my list.
And as I wrote above the slip of paper for #11 just vanished between placing #2 and #9…guess he did not want to take the bus…
#4:
This one was certain from the start as well. I wanted to put him next to Doctor Who DVDs, as I am looking forward to finally seeing his episodes/seasons, but as you can see and read above, there where no such things and the help I asked did not even no what Doctor Who was…(thought it was an interpreter…)…
Anyway, I instead found many seasons of another doctor (and yes, that’s the price season eight has in Germany), so I put him with those.
#5:
Number 5, the celery man. 😀
And therefore he needed to be placed where there is food and preferably vegetables. 😀
Originally I thought we would go to the soup bar, as we did quite a bunch of Mondays before, but the soup did not sound that tasty, so instead we went to the place with the fake plants.
(On a side node: The black fabric in the background are My two colleagues from the post before the last one 😉 )
#6:
This one had the note „telephone box“ next to it…but it ended up in a Hamlet novel – a version I actually read in grammar school – where I wanted to put #10s after much ado (I at first wanted to put him among Pratchett novels, then among the Harry Potter books I could not find and lastly among the Shakespeare works).
But for some reason his paper flew away when I was trying to get #9s…so #6 got his place.
#7:
Seven actually made it into the Torchwood book I had found in the library.
It was nice seeing the library for the first time after it had to move due to reconstructions in their old place. Confusing, but nice. And the woman from the reception did not know Doctor Who either, but they might order some stuff now 😉
#8:
As #8 was the Doctor that came to being in an Hospital – if I remember correctly – and the building is also called House of Doctors (a Medical Centre) I thought it was just fitting…
Besides Doctor Who is also partly a children’s show and that part read: paediatrics. I wanted to hang it near a sign saying „Humanmedizin“ (human medicine), but I could not find any…or it was too high for me to reach…
#9:
As soon as I remembered the wolf-statue I just had to put his paper there. After all it was him who encountered the BAD WOLF. 😀
Well, as #10 and #11 went missing and as I said what I had planned for them before, this is all.
I still don’t know if I participate on the 11th again and if anyone replies from one of my papers, but it was fun. 😀
And if I participate again I take the companions names and put them according to that.
I already know where I would put the one for Jack 😀
For Rory too, but for that I would have to ask IceWolf to get his paper to the Roman Museum I talked about in my travel report (Through a bit of Germany ’12). 🙂
Maybe we’ll see us with the next Bad Wolf Day 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter
© Copyright for the displayed goods and the statue lie with their creators.

On the Road: Taking the Bus

As I am currently not driving that often with my car – except this week I in fact was, but only for familial visits – I thought I might as well write about my other means of transportation: The Bus; or more precisely: The City Bus.
One of several possibilities of public transport that probably shows a similar attitude towards its passengers in all kind of cities in all regions of the world. It is somewhat like trams and underground railways, just with a different atmosphere due to its seat layout. Well, and the attitude people have towards it is probably pretty similar everywhere as well.
Anyway, I’d like to talk a bit about my experiences with these things.

Helpful but untimely

I have to say if you do not have a car – or a proper place to park your car or the money to pay the gasoline bill that comes from too often using said car – public transportation can be pretty helpful.
That is, if their timing is right…
Using public transportation means, you are bound to take them at a certain time and not whenever you feel like it. They have a fixed schedule and nothing will change said schedule.
Not even standing right before closed doors of the vehicle and asking for entrance and the driver SEES that you do so and refuses to let you in, but never mind.
They’re a good thing for reducing costs for gasoline and the traffic in general, but there are quite a bunch of problems accompanying them. The City Buses in the German cities where I have actually used them look pretty similar: They’re either Articulated Buses or a normal version of those. The inside depends on how young/old the bus is. If it is a young one you have a huge area for baby buggies and wheel chairs. (Basically meaning: The younger a bus, the more spacious is this area and the less seats you have.)
Still, depending on when you use the bus, this area and the whole bus is pretty much cramped.

Annoying changes

But this is a thing that the bus company in my city kind of just re-invented…
When I returned from studying in the end of last year they had made some pretty annoying and ridiculous changes.
First of all: All people – except those that would use the area(s) mentioned above – had to enter through the first door. This caused people to either just stand around in the front of the bus, so you had to squeeze your way through them or actually walk to the back of the bus as the company had „planned“.
The second thing was: You have to show the driver your ticket, every freaking time you enter the bus.
This however was not as publicly noted as the entrance change had been.
While the first had posters on the bus itself, the second had a hand out for about a week or so – of course a week where I was NOT taking the bus.
So I just entered like always without taking out my ticket and the driver just grabbed my arm and rudely told be to take out the ticket.
As I complained that it was at the bottom of my bag pack, he stayed stubborn. Furthermore, a woman that stood just behind his booth chimed in and told me that everyone had to do this. When I told them that this never stood anywhere she told me that there had been a hand out before. I just grumbled that I hadn’t been there to get that information.
This of course all took place while I rummaged through my bag pack for the annual ticket that by now costs more then one month of my rent.
It is not surprising that my mood that morning was even worse than before as I am not that much of a morning person. A fellow student of mine had to suffer through my tirade back then, but sometimes you just have to let out the bad emotions to come to peace.
Well, or at least stay calm for the next things to follow.
Oh, and they did all these changes for our safety no less! And of course every now and then there are still the patrols to check if all the tickets, that have been shown to the driver – or not if he was not busy cashing other people while you walked in – are correct/existing…
Everything for our safety…suuure…stumbling through the cramped bus, long time-consuming lines at the entrance where everyone squeezes in at the same time and hurried bus drivers that don’t care if the (older) people already found their seats or that there is a speed limit…but I digress…

The Crowd

Taking the bus in the morning however leaves me with three choices, where my sleepiness more or less decides which evil I pick:
– Mainly noisy, annoying school-kids, some sleepy adults, annoying teenagers
– less school-kids, more awake and talkative adults and teenagers or
– quite a bunch of loud, crying, screaming, annoying babies and children and still the adults and some teenagers
If you do not have your music player with you, the ride can be pretty nerve-wrecking. Especially if there are other people that also listen to music but way louder than you or the driver tries to find a fitting radio station and so forth.
Well, I was once the person with the far too loud music, but I wasn’t used to listening via my mobile phone and another passenger had to inform me about the drivers complains. Though I am sure he didn’t really notice WHAT I was listening, as that would have been even more awkward (*cough* it was Edguy’s Sex, Fire, Religion *cough*). Though thinking about this, I never really saw a bus driver ask for quieter music again, even if there were some pretty loud ones, might have been the late hour…
Anyway, a bus ride can be fun too (except all those things above). You can meet interesting people or coincidentally meet pals and/or colleagues.
There are also people that simply greet me because we saw each other time and time again in the bus. There even was a woman for a short time, whose toes I nearly stepped on every time I stood up… >_<
Beside that there are two stories that are somewhat funny regarding this.
The first is about a member of the „group“ I am more or less a part of: I saw her every now and then at the bus, before I met her through the group. I thought the whole time that she looked familiar, that I have seen her somewhere before, but I just couldn’t remember where. When I saw her again at the bus after one of the groups celebrations I actually recognized her and realized that it was the bus where I had seen her before. 😀 By now I saw three people of the group in the bus and depending on the mood and how talkative we felt, we even conversed.
The second story is about a girl that I saw reading in the bus. I always thought about talking to her as she mostly read Fantasy stories, but I never really had the guts to do so. Well, one day I just seated myself beside her and she started a conversation, telling me that she had seen me reading as well…
By now we had one or the other weird bus ride, with me being grumpy and only half-awake and her being far too lively and loud  for my sleepy mind, but it is still fun and a better way to wake up then screaming kids…

But not everything is bad about buses

As I said it can be fun with people you know, but it also gives you time to wake up some more before work. You can close your eyes again and doze off for a short time. Or as I occasionally do: You can scribble down a story/idea that has been on your mind throughout the morning/night/day. I’ve gotten quite used to writing while the bus is bumping through the streets. Though this does not mean I always am able to decipher what I wrote…
Additionally it gives you time to think. You also have that time in the car, but you do have to pay a little more attention while driving, just a tiny bit more. 😉
Think about said ideas, think about what you would need to do that day and so forth….or just listening to the music that is currently playing and let your mind wander…
See there is good to taking the bus. 😉
I don’t really know much about City Buses in other cities – only those I went with – but I guess the perception of other people is not that much different from my own. Everyone is happy to get out of the bus again, unless you have something to write or talk about and would like to continue that.
But what I know a little about are the Intercity Buses in my region: They only drive very rarely (once a day being often) and take long. Would I take such a bus for driving home it’d take twice the time as if I’d take my car, not to get started on the prices….
In bigger cities you also have trams and underground railways. I always get confused about which ticket would be the best for me to buy or which way to take, having people around to show you the way is a pretty helpful thing here 😉
And speaking of underground railway: I’ve read (and saw) in Clive Barkers story from the Books of Blood about some pretty interesting inhabitants of the New Yorker underground railway in the Midnight Meat Train that I do like to mention whenever I take such a means of transport. 😀 (This story even has an interesting watch-tale that I might write about it at a later point.) Am I right to believe that  no one has actual prove of that? 😉
And on a completely different note: This Blog now has a FaceBook Page as well: RandomPoison on FaceBook and if you don’t want to follow this Blog via WordPress, you can keep up to date through that side as well.
PoiSonPaiNter