Just a thought....
Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

I'm on the wrong bus!

Catching up on the week's notes...


This photo was taken some years back at Serra Negra

I woke up this morning from a disturbing dream. I got onto bus #102 (buses here aren't numbered quite that way) from my 'usual' bus stop even though I didn't recognise the route on the board attached to the side of the bus. Buses here have the main roads of the route written up on their sides - if you're lucky enough to get one to stop long enough to read it, that is. I took this one, being sure of the bus number.

Not long after, I realised the bus was going in the completely wrong direction. I kept yelling to be let off the bus, but no one helped and the driver ignored me. The bus took me on a roundabout  through an unfamiliar neighbourhood, then did a loop up a bumpy, unpaved hill and back down. By this time, I was in tears of frustration.

As the bus, once again wound through another unfamiliar neighbourhood, one of the passengers kept telling me "Sua machina!" Somehow my cellphone had started blaring out a local TV station. I was livid because it meant my battery had been wasted unnecessarily. I had just turned it off when the bus stopped. I was back where I started!

Now dealing with bus routes is nothing new to me. There is the constant fear in the back of my mind that I'll take the wrong bus or metro and end up late. One digit wrong can take me to the opposite end of the city. The concern is worse when I don't know the route or destination.

Right now, I know my destination - or at least, the place I want to... need to be. It's the route that's fuzzy. I feel as though I'm being taken up bumpy, unpaved roads, only to be brought back to reality by local transmissions and to find I'm back where I started.

On the other hand, it may just be that my teaching routine is once again changing and I spent much of the weekend carefully mapping out new bus routes and noting down bus numbers.

15 comments:

  1. You and Bryan My #1 son, he has had dreams the last couple of nights that have been disturbing him as well, Tint! But I am glad that you decided to check it all out and make some notes, better safe than sorry and not have it turn into some kind of movie where it turns out that dreams become a reality (unless you get some handsome and rugged movie star of your choice helping you though it, of course...)

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  2. All my life I wondered if I was on the wrong bus, but... here I am... somewhere, ...so I guess it was the right bus after all...?

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  3. This blog of yours immediately reminded me of a song. Do you know that older song that goes...'starting all over again..."

    Huggles girl.

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  4. Marty, I make note of the dreams I have that make an impression. Most of them are just a kind of clearing house for what's on my mind at the time. I would love a handsome, rugged non-movie star (they tend to be ditzy and unreliable) to help me through. Now there's a thought.

    Bert, I'd say you're in the right place : )

    Hall & Oats, Lois?



    We're gonna make it... : )

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  5. Your mastery of getting around there is so admirable. Being on the wrong bus is almost too trite as a metaphor. Surely a creative spirit like yours wouldn't resort to it?
    In your case it may just relate to sorting out daily life.

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  6. Ien, there's a lot going on at the moment behind the scenes here that I haven't blogged about, so concerns over whether my means of getting there is the right one have been foremost in my thoughts. So yes, it can be 'read' both ways. The bus metaphor isn't a trite one for me precisely because so much of my life revolves around it.

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  7. :)) - yes that is the one - and of course - 'we're gonna make it.....whether the timing was right or wrong.....'

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  8. I'm not big on dreams but I would say that you were so busy with busses and roads and numbers you simply had to dream about it.

    I wish I could remember what I dreamed about. I know some nights I have been dreaming but I never know what about ...

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  9. *Hugs* You'll get here. I'm not concerned about how. I just know it'll happen. =)

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  10. Wrong bus can sometimes take you to a pleasant previously unknown destination.
    Missing the wrong bus good ,missing the right bus bad.Happy you ended up in a safe place. Going nowhere took a long time.

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  11. Wrong bus can sometimes take you to a pleasant previously unknown destination.
    Missing the wrong bus good ,missing the right bus bad.Happy you ended up in a safe place. Going nowhere took a long time.

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  12. I wouldn't mind if you got on the wrong bus, if it could cross the ocean. ;)

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  13. Do you remember that kids tv programme the Magic School Bus? I can so see Tint being on it!! :D

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  14. I always wake up sure I have forgotten something, normally I have too *grins* Know the feeling of being on the wrong bus, used to happen to me all the time when I moved to Copenhagen to study, once took the wrong train and had to get off and go all the way back costing me most of my weeks wages. Darn ! When I first arrrived in South Africa I was sure I had the wrong flight, I somehow did not expect to see tall buildings and towers at airport was expecting a tin shack and lions and elephants. After 35 years here I can safely say it was the right flight it just took me on a hang of a round about ! I know for sure you will get your bus !! Just please pop past me on the way there ! Hugs.

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Tint~