Tuesday 11 November 2008

What was that girl doing on the 45 bus?

Travelling up to town, as you do, from the wastelands of South London past the Elephant, on the bottom deck of the 45, I notice this girl, sitting opposite, headphones in ears, fiddling with her mobile.

I was already feeling a bit sick, sitting on the bottom deck over the engine, getting a nice hit of diesel fumes, facing backwards, swaying from side to side as we went round the corners.

She was about 17, travelling with someone who looked like her mum, and she was using her phone like an iPod. What can she have been doing?

I'm told by our new media guru that she might have been doing any number of things from downloading her favourite song collection via GPRS to listening to some tunes that she had side-loaded earlier - whatever the hell that is.

She could have been perusing a collection of dodgy pics or be on-line playing an MMORPG. She could have been paying a bill (though at 17 that's unlikely as she's probably a student and doubtless sponging from her parents) or updating her profile on Facebook.

She could have been uploading a video to You Tube or reading her e-mail. It seems the opportunities to consume new media whilst on the move are now almost endless. God forbid she might even have been simply making a phone call!

That's great, but it still doesn’t stop other people’s musical tastes being imposed on my aural sensitivities.

I’m placing great hope on Boris’s plans – how about either silence or compulsory Verdi?