On a
bus, I wanted the
water jug, so I went towards the front. There was a tall, attractive woman sitting there and she had a small
illustrated book and a plastic cup of water on it. I recognized the book as
Charles Lamb's
essays, which made me admire her more. I went for her water and made clumsy attempts to take it from her without disturbing her reading; obviously it was the wrong shape to be a
water jug, but perhaps this bus didn't have a proper
jug.
She apologetically interrupted her reading and lifted up her book to reveal a keyboard under it, but by now I realized I was making a faux pas and had mistaken her personal cup for the bus's jug.
I went back to my seat, but I was thirsty so made several abortive expeditions up to the front to search discreetly for the jug. This time she had hot water, to which she had added ice, from a thermos on the shelf at the front of the bus.
We got talking about Lamb. I was enthusiastic, and added that I preferred his letters, and explained how good they were.
I got off because I recognized that I was now in Richmond High Street and had been on the wrong bus. This was a mistake I had made before, and I knew the bus continued to the west to Greenwich on the coast, a lonely route with a long wait for a bus or train back. Although I had got off before going that far, I would still not be able to make it to work by nine o'clock. I would miss out on some noding! (I did wish they wouldn't give similar numbers, 343 for 341, to buses that ultimately went in different directions.)
I unpacked my things in preparation for the trip back. I had a plastic lunch box full of brightly coloured small figures, like an over-large jelly baby, but made from bath bomb. These were going to be a node, with a title along the lines of "After we've made enough cock jokes, can we please shut the fuck up and have a serious discussion about..." I forget what, in six to eight words.
There was a bright cardboard packet, the sort you might get a battery-operated action toy in, and it was covered with the usual garish-coloured slogans, but the key words were of course in blue and underlined. The toy was related to my smaller figurines. It also mentioned a live event they were sponsoring, in which the master of the match would be at Hypermaser.
The other thing I unpacked was my cup of tea. I discovered to my disgust this had gone lukewarm, and worse than that, it had a nasty lump of milk in it. Yuk.
I spat it out in the kitchen sink, and threw away the drink all over the sink. My mother asked me what I was doing and I told her to shut up. I looked for the carton with the off milk in it in the fridge so I could throw it away too, but it didn't seem to be there any more.