Life in Catford - On the buses

My knee operation took place on the 20th December and therefore I have been living a very different pace of life since then. I have been using the buses to get to work and hospital appointments so here is a blog on life in Catford - on the buses.

There are 5 different bus routes (the 124, 284, 181, 202 and the 160) that I have used this week to make the journey to or from work. At times the buses travel through Catford at walking pace and definitely slower than the bicycle but for someone like me who is now walking very slowly and not able to drive or cycle the buses are great!

It is a great place for meeting people, some I know, others that I just get talking to. People are very friendly, yes even in Catford. I like the social side of buses but I found this morning that it is a challenge to write on a notepad whilst on the buses. I had some thoughts that I wanted to write down but such is the constant movement and start/stop nature of buses it is almost impossible to read what I had written. And also for my recovering knee the buses are a challenge due to being thrown all over the place when standing up. At those moments I need my crutches mostly to show to others that I have a need to sit down.

Buses are usually busy which leaves me with one big mystery of the buses in Catford. There are very few adverts inside the buses and most of the spaces are taken with 'how to behave well on the buses'. However on the outside there are loads of adverts, on the back and sides of buses and at the bus stops. It is obvious advertisers don't like to advertise inside the buses. Perhaps this because advertisers don't travel inside the buses or maybe it's because the people inside are not regarded as important enough! Admittedly there are lot of students and people with freedom passes but when there so many people inside with nothing to do but look at the sights of Catford they may well take notice of adverts. Churches often advertise on the back of buses but I've never seen churches advertised inside a bus. Perhaps those who make these sorts of decisions should get inside a bus themselves. Travelling by bus is not cheap so why the discrepancy?

In a matter of weeks I will be back on my bike and my days of bus travel will be over. There is much I will miss but I will be financially much better off with the bike.