Off and on

On the day: 
17/05/2012 


On the way: 
The bus stops. 
A desultory troop of travellers leaves the shelter and shuffles towards the front door. Nooo rush. 
A woman steps out of the bus, neatly dressed and comfortably - jeans, a khaki coat over a forest green fleecy top with some logo where the breast pocket might otherwise sit. She stops, turns and calls as you would to a child. They follow. Gradually. One. Two. Three. 
A hunched man in olive green corduroys on a deep red mobility scooter chugs up; will he require the ramp? No, he's off under his own steam, no further delay there. 
Another woman, curly black hair worn up, blue all-weather jacket, appears at the exit and ushers out her brood. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. She follows them, consults the first woman, then looks back up the stairs. More children. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine... As she turns a flash of green is visible at her collar. Sigh. It's a school outing.
 A youngster steps up onto the low wall of the parking lot of an onlooking apartment block, adjusts his baseball cap, places one oversized white trainer between the loops of fencing, and boosts himself over to the pavement, then walks to the open front door with a studied lethargy, denying any previous urgency. He reaches it as the last few children step off onto the pavement. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen. 
He hauls himself wearily onto the bus and searches a pocket set at the calf of his too low-slung cargo trousers. He finally produces a  travel card - the world is his Oyster if he can overcome his affected ennui to claim it - and he sets off for a seat. 
The doors start to close. A trim, bearded fellow in a navy tracksuit runs up, and past, in the opposite direction. 
The bus pulls out and heads for the next stop, four or five blocks up the road. It pulls in and the doors open. 
A handful of heavies lift themselves from their communal bench and set out for the front of the bus. 
A hunched man in olive green corduroys on a deep red mobility scooter chugs up... 


On the pod: 
Speechless - Lady Gaga 


On the front page: 
Euro crisis hits mortgages (The Times)