My Bus Ride

I was really looking forward to a three day weekend, then I had to receive summons to a meeting 10 AM on Monday!!! Why are people like this?

So its Saturday and I am looking forward to not leaving the house. Okay coffee? Check. Crackers? Check. Work files? Drat! Left the of work files I burned in my machine in the office!!! I feel like a real genius. So I have to go out after all, the project is due first thing on Tuesday. Gosh I don’t feel much like driving today (that’s really weird) Why not take the bus? All of a sudden I can’t wait to leave the house. I don’t think I have been on a bus in two years! Okay I cheat a little by calling my boy E who I was sure would be coming in my direction today. He was and promised to come give me a lift out to 7-Up bus-stop.

The bus-stop is not as crowded as I thought it would be and soon enough a bus rolls up, the conductor shouting out ‘obalende-cms’ I hop in as he shouts ‘wole pelu change e’ (enter with your change). I have a N500 bill but I am not worried, they always profess not to have change. I wonder how much the fare is from 7-Up to CMS (its really been that long!) Although the bus was empty when it rolled up, I was unable to secure one of the two seats up front with the driver (I am hustle rusty), I was able to get the next best one though; in the row immediately behind the driver. It is advisable to avoid the seat right next to the window because depending on the bus you might have to spend the whole journey leaning towards the right in order to accommodate your head! To my right is a tall slim man and my left another slim man. Good, we will not have to endure the trip cramped like sardines. As the conductor continues to stress the need to get on with exact change, I observe the guy on my right bring out a book and start reading. Gosh I envy him. I can’t read in a moving vehicle, which I think is a shame, what a waste of all that time! PC can and he actually does take the bus to and from work atimes so he can catch extra ‘zzz’s’ on his way in in the morning and catch up on his reading on his way home in the evenings. As we prepare to pull out of the ‘park’ the guy to my right buys ‘Complete Sports’ I sneak a peak at the headlines and it says Mikel Obi’s name is on the Chelsea FC list for the 2006/07 campaign. ‘Is there no one in this boy’s family who can advice this young man?’ I realized I must have spoken out loud (really loud to be audible over the ‘quiet rumblings’ of the bus’ engine) when the buyer of the paper replied ‘I wonder o’ and so Chris and I started talking. I learned his name as he was about to get off at his stop which was just at the foot of 3rd mainland) He is obviously a Mourinho fan (not a good sign) and he is rooting for Barca to win the CL (‘X’ this guy!). As he introduced himself in preparation to get off at his stop he asked for my name and number. ‘My name is Funke and you won’t believe this I don’t carry a mobile phone!’ Of course he doesn’t believe me but he can hardly argue, the conductor is giving him the ‘I can’t believe you are toasting a babe on my time’ look. The rest of the trip was uneventful. As we get to Onikan roundabout, I wished I had brought a bowl so I could buy breakfast (rice, plantain, beans and moin-moin) at ‘Ghana High’. I get to CMS and I know the conductor owes me change, but I am not sure how much. He had given me N400 not long after we left the bus-stop and I am not sure if the trip was N60 or N80. ‘Change me da?’ I ask him as he pretends not to know he still owes me change. ‘Se e ni N10?’ (DO you have N10?) he asks me. I give him the N10 and he hands over a N50 note. Okay so the trip costs N60.

Once at the office I decide to complete my task and leave the office say for say 3. The trip back was on a Toyota Coaster bus and I got the seat up front with the driver (Yay!). Thankfully it was an uneventful trip although I couldn’t help but notice all the cars overtaking us, at one point I was afraid we were driving in reverse! Two okada rides later I was home. It wasn’t such a bad day after all.