Is public transport worth having?

Is public transport worth having? Yes because it can change your life. I'll tell you three stories.

A couple of years ago, I was in Miami on my own for three days. Three days - that far away in frightening Miami on my own till I met up with my family. The first day, I got on a local bus to go down town and explore. Watching the people on the bus, I noticed s an old man who was chatting with someone else on the other side of the bus, and when she got off he came and sat next to me, which was a bit scary. But he told me all about himself, how he'd come years earlier to the States, and he told me where to visit in Miami, recommending buses to take that would take me all round seeing the best bits. So I followed his advice and for the next two days I saw lots of Miami.
Another story is of when I was at teacher training college in London and would go home on the coach to see my parents in Manchester, sometimes the overnight coach. Sitting sleepily on the coach, the man next to me wanted to talk, but I didn't - I didn't know him and I didn't see a reason to talk with a stranger, and I was happy reading. He moved to the seat behind me. Then he spat at me. I didn't believe it until he'd spat at least twice, and even then it was unbelievable. It wasn't until I changed on to a Manchester bus and he followed me, still spitting, when I exploded, "stop spitting at me!"
The third story is on that coach another time. I was doodling and the young man next to me I sensed was watching, but then he started to write. He got off the coach before me, leaving a post card on his seat. I picked it up and read: he told all his contact details and a little bit about himself, asking me to write. We were both too shy to talk. We might have changed our lives.

Holiday with "strangers"

 This Easter I spent sharing with 20 other people, three three-generation families and an old friend I've known since 1976. She and her husband had been joining this annual Easter meet for decades, he being one of the orginal chaps from uni who would arrange to go on walking holidays staying in youth hostels.  Two years ago they suggested that we join, realising that my husband and I had so much in common with their friends of fifty years. We could not go two years ago, but I joined them last year, a year after my husband had died. 

They're a splendid sociable lot with intelligent conversation that my husband would have enjoyed as much as I do. There's not as much walking as they must have done originally, but they'd do outings that suited the youngest generation, who ranged from five to 19. 

One day we went with kids to The Corris Centre where we could see all the craft shops, Arthur's Labyrinth, or spend three hour down a mine, accessing parts with climbing ropes, and a maze (I liked the best)

Another day, the eldest generation visited the Red Kite centre with some enthusiastic photographers snapping the best pictures. 

 I enjoy people's company, getting to know their lives and interests and worries. I liked all of them from youngest to oldest. What hit me was how much I've moved on from when I joined them last year, cold and lonely and still mourning. This year I'm more settled and happy and warmer - probably helps that I've fitted a new gas fire in our kitchen!

C's not v well. She came banging on the church door at choir rehearsal, to say that she wasn't well and couldn't rehearse. Why did she come out? Someone told me that she got lost the other day and wandered around for a couple of hours, that she's going through a bad patch. Her husband isn't too well either and he's her carer. These are smashing people that I've known and done things with for years. 

C used to do so much and had so much responsibility. She used to run modern dance classes. I'm not interested in modern dance, don't understand it, but I'd do it for fun. Like the first time she taught us a piece for a flash mob. Husband and I and step daughter #1,who likes modern dance all joined in and danced in a very quiet square one Sunday morning years ago. C persuaded us to learn more dancing and we joined in several classes and performances. One was the "March of the Montague and Capulets, which we performed in the dark, carrying candles. I video'd that one. Here is a link to the video on vimeo to see it: Lanterns. Another time, s daughter #1's husband, who's a painter, painted a class rehearsing and you can see s daughter #1 and husband and another student, Hazel - all very recognisable from their body positions.

It's good that we have some records of the fun we had then.