Friday 13 February 2009

Lying in Whitehall

Riding along in the 24 we could hear a pin-striped loud-mouth to his mobile,

'sorry, sorry - be there soon, I'm in a cab...'

the whole deck turned to remark as one,

'No he's not, he's on the bus!'

5 comments:

banned said...

Sounds like a scene from an Ealing comedy, wish i could have joined in too.

Old BE said...

Classic. Was it Jacqui Smith? Did she ask the bus driver for a blank receipt?

Anonymous said...

Must have been a very junior (and completely witless) functionary. I hope the person on the other end of the line heard you all.

Nick Drew said...

wonderful

had I the time to write travelogues or novels etc I should certainly spend a lot of time with my lugholes pinned back in buses, cafeterias and cheek-by-jowel restaurants

I once spent a sustained period away from home eating dinner every night in such surroundings, and picked up enough anecdotes for several volumes

hatfield girl said...

The 24 is a terrific bus for hearing stuff. Loose lips sink ships hasn't entered the consciousness of people-like-that and the route lends itself to their boarding.

You should have been with us last night, ND, out for a curry in Whitfield Street and crushed table to intellectual table (or so it seemed).

'We must consider the Will' said the chap who was only at the next table by definition, rather than reality; in reality we were all sitting next to one another. Collapse of Angel was smothered by more courteous fellow diners. Afterwards I was held to account for forgetting that in London people all speak English perfectly well and hissed hilarity is wholly comprehended.

'You were just as bad on the 73, mamma.' 'But she was speaking in prefabricated, homogenised soundbites!' 'People do. It's one thing for us to discuss discourse at home and quite another for you to lean over the seat and start doing a sotto voce descant on modern London speech.'

Sent back to Florence and a two language universe in disgrace.