In my day petrol was 42p for a gallon!

I caught the national express today and usually I sit down and immediatly pass out, or I'm enveloped in my music, enjoying my solitude, as I said in my previous Blog which I felt ran on a bit long, I'm now taking public transport without the comfort of my 2745 varied songs. I boarded the bus and sat down next to an elderly man and I asked whether the seat was free and he said yes, we drove on for a while and he started a conversation with me about how busy london was and how he was currently on a trip from Dover to Solihull, I remarked how it was a bad idea to get a coach going through London seeing as the traffic builds up at the time we left and remarkably as I said it we we found ourselves in a considerable amount of traffic.
He said he usually drives through from Dover but had an operation on his hand and quite liked the idea of being driven for once, I know your thinking why the hell am I writing about this stranger who I didn't even get the name of, i'm writing about this experience because I became amaingly interested in the ways of communication, I hardly had said two words to this man and here we were having a full blown conversation, about how the last time he took a coach was when he was 7, around the early 1950's!

I honestly learnt from this man, like did you know back when he was first driving i'd with 42p you could buy a gallon on petrol and a pound could get you 3 litres with change, not sure if that was an exaggeration but damn! How in dover you used to be able to get to france with your car for like a fiver, now it's drastically changed to 20 pounds each way. During this coversation I think I gained a slight distaste for our current finacial enconomy. I can only liken the conversation to that of a transaction between a client and a prostitute....yeah I know your thinking wtf, not that i'm experienced but he was like the prostitute and I was paying, with general conversation, about current times and my life, for information that I wanted to hear, I wanted to communicate both parties getting what they wanted, he a sense of chatting and being listened to and I, well listening really.
It's weird how we choose to block ourselves out from something so interesting as other people, other peoples lives are sometimes just simply crazy, when there was silences I went against my n natural nature and picked up the conversation fanning the flame rather then letting the sparks of the converation die. He even waved goodbye as he got off the coach and looked through the window at me.

I genuinly felt like I had gained an insight into another persons life and I liked it.