Daily Prompt – In Transit

Train stations, airport terminals, subway stops: soulless spaces full of distracted, stressed zombies, or magical sets for fleeting, interlocking human stories?

Why can’t it be both? This is one of those ‘glass-half-full’ scenarios…

Daily Prompt – Edge Of The Frame

We often capture strangers in photos we take in public. Open your photo library, and stop at the first picture that features a person you don’t know. Now tell the story of that person.

He generally introduced himself as Kane, but to his friends, he was Khaneesi. His parents were migrants who came to Australia in the late 90’s when he was a child. They came here fleeing rebels who terrorised, raped and murdered those in their home village, and the villages around them. By moving here, he had an opportunity to do things that you and I take for granted: have a bed to sleep in, a roof over his head; food to eat, and clean water to drink. He got to go to school and get an education, and make friends, and grow up living as an ‘Australian’.

But for some reason, he seems to have forgotten that he’s catching the train to work, and not riding his scooter. Or his arms are just too tired to carry it.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/edge-of-the-frame/

24 July – Bullet Blogging

At the conference and pressed for time? Blog in bullet points: tell us 10 things about your day.

 

– slept through my alarm. Didn’t want to get out of bed
– busy, yet productive day
– spent the morning booking flights, hotels and car hire for work colleagues
– giant cup of tea and giant smoked tuna and cheese toasted sandwich with my best girlfriend, crazy cat lady
– opened my packet of peanut butter tim tams
– worked through lunch moving boxes upstairs
– 3 mandarins for lunch
– wrote a few blog posts
– called customer service regarding our fancy new blender
– weather turned foul later this arvo and brought string winds and heavy rains
– parts of South Melbourne now flooded
– had to jump over puddles to get to the tram
– now have wet socks and shoes
– all trains delayed
– just want a hot shower and giant cup of tea in bed.

Daily Prompt – Frame of Mind

If you could paint your current mood onto a canvas, what would that painting look like? What would it depict?

I’d paint something abstract, and use colour to represent mood. But how do you convey the feeling of people-catching-public-transport-are-so-fucking-stupid-it-makes-my-brain-hurt’?!?!?

Daily Prompt – Wrong Turns

When was the last time you got lost? Was it an enjoyable experience, or a stressful one? Tell us all about it.

It’s rare for me to get lost. I’m always the navigator.

Daily Prompt – Rare Medium

Describe a typical day in your life — but do it in a form or in a medium you’ve rarely — if ever – used before. If you’re a photoblogger, write a poem. If you’re a poet, write an open letter. If you’re a travel blogger, write a rant. (These are all examples — choose whatever form you feel like trying out!)

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/rare-medium/

Daily Prompt – Game of Groans

Think about an object, an activity, or a cultural phenomenon you really don’t like. Now write a post (tongue in cheek or not — your call!) about why it’s the best thing ever.

Jeebus, where the fuck do I start… Football maybe? Chino’s? Hipsters? Dumbass people on public transport? Stupid drivers? Fucktards in general…?

Daily Prompt – Worst Case Scenario

Of all the awful possibilities, what’s the worst possible thing that could happen to you today? Now, what about the best?

This isn’t really an open ended question. The ultimate answer to the first part of this prompt, I would assume, would be death. The worst thing that could happen today is that I, or somebody I love, could die.

One Of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days?

Those days where for some unknown reason, everything seems to turn to absolute shit, and by about lunchtime you regret getting out of bed, and wish you had’ve just stayed there.

I’ve only been up for a whole 25mins, but I’m already regretting it.

It started with me throwing my eyelids open as I lay in bed, shouting out a long and panicked FFFFUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK!!!! see it was 7:59am, and I should have already been halfway to work. That, and my alarm went off at 6:30am!!

…great. Ugh.

I think I then got ready in the fastest possible time in the history of, well, ever, because I was dressed and out the door within minutes. I double checked my bus options and powered down to my alternate stop and caught the bus.

…which was like stepping into a sauna.

Turns out the heater on the bus is on. Mainly because the driver turned it on, and then accidentally broke the switch, so he can’t turn it off. So now we’re all sweating like pigs. Oh did I mention there are no opening windows on this bus??

…awesome.

Oh, and to add to this glorious start to the day, the bus is full of teenagers.

*cue loud groans of frustration and over the top eye rolling*

At this precise moment I contemplated getting off at the very next stop, but then that would require waiting another 18mins for the next bus, and at this rate, I’d be lucky to make it to work by 9am.

I don’t think you can possibly imagine how much I cannot stand teenagers in general. They’re just so… Feral. Blocking the aisles, being loud and abusive, climbing over seats, hitting and punching each other…. And that’s just the girls. It’s like these kids have just been collected from some kind of uncivilised remote island and they’re being let loose in society for the very first time.

They remind me of that scene from Planet of the Apes where the apes break free and go wild and terrorise the city… That’s what they’re like.

And I’m pretty sure they’d love to fling handfuls of their own shit at each other.

All I wanted was for the bus to crash and explode and end my misery. Not literally of course… But fuck, just get me off this bus ride from hell!!

Bus arrives at the train station, and then all of a sudden the fresh air hits me like a slap in the face! Ahhhhh what a relief!! I make my way through the station to my platform and when the train turns up, I choose the carriage, walk through the doors and instantly regret it, and weigh up whether I have time to jump off and race to the next carriage before the doors close.

Why?

BECAUSE SOME DIRTY FUCKER CANT CONTROL THEIR BOWELS AND FARTED ON THE TRAIN JUST BEFORE THEY GOT OFF!!

You bastard!!

10minutes later, the stench is still there, lingering just long enough to piss everybody else. One woman pulls out her ‘perfume’ and begins to spray it around her… Then like a series of dominoes, a few other ladies do the same.

It’s like walking into the perfume section of 😜Myer (big Aussie department store).

…sometimes I think I prefer the stench of an anonymous fart – only because now the train smells like candy-scented hooker which, let’s face it, is just as bad.

I get off the train, walk through the station and head down to the tram stop. Normally I’ll walk from the station to the office, but I’m running late today, so I’ll catch a tram. 2 minutes. Great.

So the tram turns up and it’s packed. Like, I’m talking packed. Sometimes I think we could give the Japanese a few tips on how to squash people onto public transport. I’m not sure what it’s like in other cities, but here in Melbourne, when it comes to people catching transport, particularly trams, they just seem to lose all sense of logic and rationale and become so completely fucking stupid. As a relatively normal person, if I see a packed tram coming towards me, then I know that I simply can’t get on it and just have to wait for the next one. Others, however, either completely ignore that fact, or treat it like a challenge. I think there’s enough room in the corner for one shoe, so that must mean I can get my entire 100kg+ body in there as well! because that’s clearly how it fucking works. Dude, just wait for the next one. These retards make my head hurt.

Needless to say, I didn’t get on the tram and had to wait for the next one.

Now I’m ten minutes late, I’m sweating in all the worst places and don’t have a change of clothes and I smell like a hooker… And I haven’t even gotten to the office yet… It’s not too late to turn around and just go home, right??

Daily Prompt: Talking in Your Sleep

Have you ever eavesdropped on a conversation you weren’t supposed to? Tell us about a time when it was impossible not to overhear a conversation between people who didn’t know you were there. What was the conversation about? How did it make you feel?

Catching public transport, you always hear conversations that you really wish you could unhear. For me, they’re always the ones that are just full of waaaay too much information, and all you wanna do is start gagging… or perhaps just throw up on them from divulging such graphic and disgusting information in such a loud voice, in such a confined space. Sometimes I actually think that people do it on purpose, just to point out something that they’ve done. It’s kinda like bragging, but you’re actually bragging to an entire train carriage full of people.

I’ve kinda already touched on this subject before, and although it is only one of countless conversations like this I’ve heard, it’s one that I actually managed to document, because it was so traumatising hehehe.

That conversation in particular made me feel quite uneasy. I just wanted a shower to wash away the filth. It was gross.

This is why now I always have my earphones in and the music playing so I can continue to avoid these situations, and prevent being subjected to the trash on transport.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/prompt-sleep/