Thoughts on a Bus

Today I was sitting on the bus from Russell Square to somewhere else and it passed Oxford Street. I looked out the window and was quite impressed by what I saw. All those people on the sidewalk, silently walking and talking, standing and spending. I mean, ordinarily I would walk too, and inevitably be one of them, but today I took the bus and looking out the window wasn't unlike watching a television screen. There were all kinds of people. Some looked happy, some looked sad.

I guess the majority of them was tourists. People from all over the world who come to London to see the sights, eat fish and chips, drink english tea. Many of them wear I heart London hoodies and move in larger groups. They come to Oxford Street and for some reason spend their foreign pounds in shops they have at home, too. I suppose, things are different for different people, because people are different, aren't they, and to some I can relate to, and others I can't.   

Sitting on that bus today I saw a guy fishing in a trash bin and it made me think about life once more. Of course you see that in Germany, too, but this one was different, sort of unexpected. The man was wearing dark blue leather shoes, clean brown trousers and a matching tweed jacket. He was holding a paper cup when he walked up to the waist-high container, walked straight like anybody else. He threw the cup through the hole and, after a careful look, put his arm through it. 

A few seconds later he pulled it back and was holding a half-empty bottle of orange juice. He examined it for a while, shook the bottle, looked at it some more, and finally unscrewed the lid to add the content to another bottle of juice that he already had. And walking on he looked quite satisfied with his find. Not that his outer appearance was important - frankly, it doesn't make any difference -, but it did increase the effect and I was fairly surprised. It made me reflect and rethink a lot of things.