Smiling whilst waiting for a bus

[dulwichflower76]

Why oh why don't people smile at bus stops???

I have often wondered this, especially whilst waiting for my bus in the mornings. We see the same faces day after day, but everyone looks so serious. Wouln't be nice to smile at each other? :) :) so, come on, on Monday morning-SMILE

Flower:))

[Keef]

Surely Monday Mornings, and smiling don't go han in hand :-S

[dulwichflower76]

No, but I bet a smile will make you feel better :))

[Ko]

Good idea. Its a bit like the 'say hello in Dulwich' thread - lets be friendly and happy! (Although maybe not so much on Mondays, but there's definitely something to smile :))about on Fridays!)

[batdog]

Hey dulwichflower,

Try the bus stop in front of cafe nero in Lordship Lane morning days around 8 - 8,30am.

I am sure loads of guys are smiling there.... >:D<

[lordship_bod]

Hi dulwich flower

monday's suck so i find smiling at the bus stop very difficult. however i always manage to give the bus driver of the 40 a smile as it seems to be the same little chinese guy everyday, and lets face it, i dont think i would want his job driving down the walworth road 20 times a day. I take on board what you are saying will do my very best to show people at my bus stop my pearly whites come monday morning(my apologises if this scares anyone in advance) :))

[dulwichflower76]

Well, tomorrow I shall be looking out for smiling dulwich folk:))

I shall be smiling away at my bus stop (the one outside Thomas Moores Hall) between 8.00-8.15(depending when the 185 makes an appearance)

:)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :)) :))

[alex]

I use that bus stop too and have done for years. It's funny - the same people tend to use it, and there's an occasional bit of eye contact, and just as you're about to offer a little smile in acknowledgement, they turn away quickly. Must be my intense stare!

[georgia]

I also use that stop - usually there around 7.30am. Do see the same people there but nobody ever speaks or smiles! Mind you I don't always feel like smiling on a Monday morning! And I know I am not the only one...

[SeanMacGabhann]

ah now - I can manage a smile ;-)

But that's about it.

As for general bus-stop behaviour - you can kind of tell which people would be responsive and which wouldn't anyway. The regulars at my bus stop (opposite The Plough) are the usual mix but if I smiled at most of them they would freak out - but a few of us are friendly enough to do the morning exchange of nods and smiles... sweet really

[Brendan]

You have peeled yourself off the mattress after the bloodcurdling chimes of your mobile phone wake you from a nightmare where you had to put a suit on and go into an office. You put your suit on and get ready to go into the office.

You make coffee. There is no milk. You make toast. You have a 5 minute tug-of-war with a spatula that is insistent on keeping the cutlery drawer closed. You eventually liberate a butter knife. There is no butter.

You give up on breakfast and leave, taking the rubbish out with you. You groggily throw the recycling in the wheely-bin. Your social conscience kicks in and you fish the cans and bottles out of the rank bin. At least this is better than last week?s mix-up with the laundry basket and the toilet.

You set off down the road, nimbly side-stepping around the dog poo and standing in gum.

You cross Lordship Lane and are nearly killed by a diesel-belching juggernaut with big yellow letters emblazoned on the front saying Peckham.

All this and you have not even got on public transport yet!

Please smile at me on Monday mornings. I really need it.

[citizenED]

Funny - since initiating the "say hello in East Dulwich" thread, i have continued to be as upbeat as usual on the street, greeting most people i pass and with a similar 70/30 sort of response as reported in that first post. But i got my come-uppance good and proper recently, and that was at a bus-stop. I was the second person to get to this particular stop - as i approached i slowed down and the woman sitting there briefly glanced up at me so i said good morning to her....big mistake: not because she was violtile in her response but because she swiftly looked straight back down again and i became completely paranoid that she thought i was a weirdo/stalker/maniac. So I had to sit there until the bus came trying not to look at her, self-consciously reading my book, oh so quietly, to demonstrate that i was actually a perfectly harmless guy, but fully aware that she was aware of me. And it continued, in my mind at least, but hopefully not in hers, until she alighted from the bus and i thanked God that I was not getting off at the same stop as her. (to that woman I offer my sincere apologies for any distress i may have inadvertantly caused)

Something about bus-stops dulwichflower?

citizen

[Louisa]

I think compared to other cities around the UK, London remains one of the most standoffish and miserable. I dont wish to be nostalgic, but there was a time when people in London were more friendly to each other. Or least, it appeared that way to me. I have travelled the country up and down left to right many times, and I have to say certain cities rank very highly on the smiling and happiness factor. I have found Glasgow, Cardiff, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Bristol to all be the happiest cities i've visited. London doesnt rank last, that goes to Luton and Dunstable I think, but still, we do all need to smile more (says she who has a face of thunder 90% of the time) ;-)

[SeanMacGabhann]

As a non-Londoner I am regulary surprised by how friendly people in London can be - certainly any equivalent sized city will have it's anonymous/cold side but generally I think it's not bad at all, considering

I grew up in a place which I consider to be uner-friendly, and appears to be to this day. And yet when I take friends there many say they find it a little bit, if not unfriendly, then a little bit fake sometimes... so it goes to show how we percieve our home can be different to how others see it

[Keef]

When I lived in Liverpool I was amazed how friendly people where, and how many "hellos" and smiles I'd get! The first time I went up there I was lost and asked (nervously) a lady for directions... She was so nice, and almost walked me to the bus stop. I remember thinking then (this was 1996 when I was 17) that I wouldn't get that in SE London!

Not saying there are no friendly people here, but in general I think people are too busy rushing around and worrying about things to stop and be friendly...

[dulwichflower76]

Well, I was smiling away, (must of looked slightly odd-especially for a Monday morning), one person smiled back, others just didn't make eye contact.

Well, I'm still on my mission to get folk smiling at my bus stop:))

Flower:))

[Andyng]

I think compared to other cities around the UK, London remains one of the most standoffish and miserable.

Yes your sure right Im originally from up north people dont even open doors for you when your right behind them

but at the end of the day you wont see these people again so it doesnt bother me as much now.They dont

even say thanks either when you open doors for them

[lordship_bod]

i'm all for more smiling, but its hard to smile when people are pushing in front of me in the bus queue....