Insight

I had a staff meeting early this morning so I caught the bus into Broadway. At Croydon a man with a black guide dog got on. I've seen him on the bus before and have sat next to him once or twice. Anyway it was one of those newer buses and I usually sit on a window seat about two rows behind the back door (the ones that are rasied up on the steps) with the vertical railing next to the seat in front (so you have easy access to the stop button). So even though the bus was pretty empty, the guide dog chose the seat next to me, and I spent the rest of the bus trip chatting with the blind man (whose name is Ian), with the guide dog (whose name is Ink) sitting on my feet...I was rather surprised at first that Ink wanted to squish up against my legs and lie on my feet, but it wasn't overly uncomfortable or anything; he was a very nice dog.

Anyway when Ian and Ink sat down next to me I said hi, and Ian asked if we had talked before...and in fact we have talked before, cos once I sat next to him on a crowded bus on the way home and was rather surprised to discover a dog squished in the corner...but anyway, I wonder if he recognised my voice or if he was thinking about someone else, cos he asked me if I did dentistry (which I guess is pretty close to pharmacy as far as courses go...).

He also picked up that I had an accent, which I guess is something people wouldn't normally say to me, but for him he could tell that I spoke another language at home...Which I thought was pretty cool, considering that I've been in Australia for most of my life.

I asked him how they knew when to get off the bus (cos I've seen them going home before and the dog always gets up at the right stop), and he said he's been living in the area for more than 30 years so he knows the road pretty well, and the dog gets into a daily routine as well, but sometimes when he hasn't been concentrating they have gotten off at the wrong place and have had to ask where they are.

He works around Town Hall in the telephone industry, and he's been in that for about 37 years. I didn't really understand all of what he said, but I think he used to do switchboards and stuff, back in the days when they were around, and now he does some form of software programming for phone systems or something?...like when you put people on hold and transfer calls and stuff, I think he knows how to make all of that work...which is pretty amazing, I wonder how long it took him to learn his trade...but I guess he's been doing it for a long time. And he mentioned he uses computers as well... hmmm how would that work? Anyway I was too polite to ask...

So that was my cool bus ride for the week...we talked about other stuff as well, like having pets, and working in pharmacy, and other various things...I was half asleep when I got on the bus but I was wide awake by the end...it's cool to meet interesting people who want to have a chat on the bus =)