Adjusting to the No12 Bus

Lets go back to the first week I boarded the No12 bus 1 year ago.
Being the 'fresh' Londener that I was and new to the 'oyster' world I waited at St Giles Church for the bus to arrive. Upon its arrival I climbed into the 3rd entrance of the bus, at the back, choosing this one in excitement as never before had I had more than one entry option on a bus. Instead of greeting the usual smiling bus driver and exchanging money for a ticket, I was greeted by an angry looking (because I solely had seemed to hold up their journey by boarding the bus) and staring mob who relcutantly let me on and an electronic pole to which I swiped my oyster.
After wrestling my way to the back of the bus for a seat I sat down and observed the bus and its crowd.
By the next stop my feet had grown quite hot from the engiene below and had become quite uncomfortable after trying to rearrange my feet in a cooler position. I had now learnt which seat not to pick again and had also understood why this seat was the only vacant one upon my arrival - this is something else that I have learnt over the past year that whilst aboard the No12 bus, everyone is out for themselves and that no-one is willing to offer a helping hand.

If a seat is wet, no-one will warn you before you sit down, instead 20 minutes later when your stop arrives they will watch your wet bottom disembark the bus. If you begin to board without realising that a buggy has yet to unload, I mean how could you with 50 people blocking your view, they will watch amusingly as your are rammed back off the bus by the huge backside of an angry mother that thinks you have no manners to wait until people have got off the bus first.

So back to the first week of the 'pleassure' that it is to ride the No12 bus, I began to notice how no-one would swipe their oyster when boarding the bus, except the odd person that looked like they had a story to tell and knew better not to. 'Have I just wasted £1.20?' I thought, 'is this bus free?' Everybody seems to pass the electronic pole without a care in the world. The next week when my nan came to visit I had to show her this so we sat in the first 2 seats at the back door and watched people as they boarded and seated themselves without paying. This bus IS FREE, I could not belive it, I had moved to an area in London where a free bus operated, however it was not until the next week when things became clear.

I boarded the No12 bus, this time from the middle set of doors ( I liked to spice things up a little) and walked strait past the oyster bay and stood in the middle of the bus -here balance is the key, as here the bus has a circular station that moves seprately from the front and back of the bus at every turn - after a few rides I had got the hang of it. So a few more stops and more people joined the journey, the same actions commence. As we approach Elephant & Castle I noticed everybody cautiously looking out of the window. Suddenly someone gasped 'checkers!' and leapt towards the oyster bay, this seemed to provoke others to do so. I looked around confused yet slightly panicking, when the man opposite me said 'swipe yur card gurl!', thankfully it was the desperation in his eyes that convinced me to follow the masses and swipe.

As we came to the stop at Elephant & Castle and the doors flung open a hand stopped a small Chinese lady that had been fumbling around in her bag as she went to swipe her oyster. As she looked up you could hear the chorus of 3 voices, 'please present your tickets for inspection'. The bus full of people looked helplessly at the lady with her wrist in the hand of the Ticket Inspector, sorry, Transport Policemans hand.

From that day I learnt to always swipe my oyster card as I boarded the No12 bus as:

1. it is NOT free
2. a journey where you constantly look our for Transport Police is tiring
and
3. the one time when the people of the No12 bus are not only out for themselves and willing to help you is when it comes to cheating the Transport Police!