by Sometimes London’s most reliably unglamorous location produces the most genuinely charming moment
Dear diary, of all the places this city could have produced a genuinely charming moment this week, it chose the number 38 bus stop, in the rain, while I stood there looking, I can only assume, thoroughly unremarkable in my work coat with an umbrella that has clearly given up on its one job.
A stranger struck up a conversation while we both waited, starting with a perfectly ordinary comment about the bus being late, which is roughly a constitutional requirement for any conversation started at a London bus stop, and somehow, over the following twelve minutes of genuine delay, turned into one of the more entertaining conversations I have had in weeks.
Why This Surprised Me So Much
I think there is a specific, low expectation that comes with any bus stop interaction, given how frequently these attempts go nowhere or, worse, go somewhere deeply unwanted, so a genuinely good conversation emerging from this particular setting felt like finding a really excellent meal at a service station, wonderful precisely because you had braced yourself for so much less.
We exchanged numbers before our respective buses finally arrived, going in opposite directions, which felt like exactly the right amount of romantic inconvenience for a story that started this unglamorously.
What I Am Choosing To Take From This
I think the actual lesson here, if diaries are meant to have lessons, is that London has a genuine habit of producing its best, most unexpected moments in its most thoroughly unremarkable settings, bus stops, delayed Tube platforms, the queue for a coffee you did not even really want, precisely the moments you have stopped paying proper attention to because you assumed nothing interesting could possibly happen there.
Whether Anything Comes Of It
I genuinely have no idea yet whether this turns into anything beyond a lovely twelve minutes in the rain, but I have decided, for once, not to overthink it in advance and simply enjoy that a bus stop, of all places, managed to be the actual highlight of my entire week.
More unexpected London moments, bus stops included, always at Londonish.
SOURCE: https://londonish.uk/feed/
