The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round...and round and round and round

My respect for the Transport for London has waned.

Let's start with yesterday. Megan and I went out for dinner at the Outback with a bunch of teachers to celebrate our school getting out of special measures. By 9:30 I was ready to go home, so we left the restaurant and walked to the mall to catch the bus. We got there by 9:35 and waited. And waited and waited and waited. Maybe it's the "Amazing Race" in me, but I really hate just sitting there when I know that there is a faster way. Last night the faster way happened to be walking. The Outback is at the mall by our house. That means that we could have walked home from the restaurant in 8-10 minutes (depending on how fast we walked). I was thinking this as we continued waiting, and by about 9:50 I finally said to Megan, "I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!". Please understand that Megan doesn't walk. At least not if she can avoid it, so she wasn't coming with me. I apologized to her, but took off down the road. I texted Ryan and asked him to come meet me half way. In the 8 minutes it took me to get home, there was still not a bus to be seen. I got inside, got my jammies on, and snuggled into bed. A good 20 minutes later, Megan FINALLY showed up, but not by bus. No, she had finally given up as well, and called a cab. Poor her, she had to pay 6 quid for a cab ride, and still waited nearly an hour for a bus that never came!!!

Then today came. This morning was fine. After school Megan and I walked out of the school, walked down the road just in time to see the bus pulling away from the stop. Ok, whatev, we weren't walking fast (not my choice, believe me!) So we crossed the road and were standing under the bus stop (read - it was pouring rain). We had been standing there about 10 minutes when the next bus came along, except this bus forgot that it was a bus. Even though we were standing at a BUS STOP (as opposed to a Request Stop, at which you need to hail the bus or they may or may not stop) with Megan standing ON THE CURB in bright white pants, with her HAND OUT to stop the bus and two of us standing there, the bus proceeded to fly by without a hint of remorse. He didn't slow down, or even move over into the bus lane and out of the regular flow of traffic. No, he just flew by, with the two of us left in his dust. Needless to say, we were none to happy, not only at being ignored, but also at the fact that we needed to continue waiting in the rain and cold for an additional 10 minutes for the next bus.