Non-enthusiast friends

[Deleted]

Feb 4, 2010 20:34:20 GMT @londonn4 said:

Thanks for your encouraging words Bighat!

You are most welcome! Let me know how you get on!

[COBO]

Feb 4, 2010 20:56:36 GMT vjaska said:

Suprisingly, I've never really been taunted about it when I went through secondary school, college or even at work. People thought it was strange but I don't think they could give two hoots anyway. My college class mates didn't mind about it and I even began to explain certain things about buses to them. The funniest was trying to explain to two work colleagues about the different types as non enthusiasts always say this sentence.

"Ain't all buses the same" or "They are all buses though, whats the big deal about it".

I tried explaining the tendering system to one of my best mates from work. He actually had no clue that there was this so called system going on and what shocked me was he found it interesting as well ;D.

That's funny, when I was at primary school and I would have to go on a trip to Central London or some cases out of London Metroline would often lend the school a bus to take us.
One school trip I tried to explain to a teacher the difference between Volvo Olympian and a MCW Metrobus all I got is "there the same bus".

[londonbusboy]

Feb 4, 2010 20:32:30 GMT M1199 said:

another time, I got ridiculed for knowing what time the U3 would pass my house. I mean come on!!!!! If your parents dont drive your gonna get to know what times you can catch the bus from outside your own poxy house!!!!!

MCW ive been asked before how i know my local route comes at 00, 20,40 to Bromley and i said because ive used it at them times so its something ive remembered.

I know my local bus also comes at 18,38,58 from the stop in the town centre home. not hard to remember is it?


I think its stupid people think buses are all the same i mean my non enthusiast friends have said a few weeks back why do the 320 and 261 look the same and i was thinking they are the same bus!!


Another thing i was wating for a 358 the other week and single deck omnicitys are allocated to it but this time a Dennis Dart SLF Marshall turned up and the teens thought it was a new bus!! it was 02 plated lol

[greeny253]

I never got taunted about it at school (namely because it was a developing hobby) but once I started in the bus industry the amount of times I got called a "spinner" was unreal. I just took it with a pinch of salt and it's surprising just how many people now come and ask me for information

[Volvo]

hi everyone. when i was in year 9 there was one guy who at the time was much bigger than i was and was a bully(who used to bully someone who i then became friends with after sticking up for him and started to get involved in buses too). anyway 'pond life' found out that i had a intrest in buses as whenever i was bored at lunch or something say it was a rainy day i would go into the art class and draw pictures of buses cars etc. he knew i was into cars but he wanted to know what was so intresting about buses 'aparently they just take you from a - b' that is it. anyways i coud not be bothered to answer him as he wasn't someone that i was really fond off after a while he started to make jokes about being a bus driver and what is the newest route or newest bus etc. i said i would rather be a bus driver than 'jam' on the streets smoking 'weed' selling drugs etc and end up robbing people or something for a living as while you may find my hobby a joke your life is a joke as you come to school everyday and do what exactly..... use classrooms as a hangout and you go home later in the day having learned norhing. for a day or two more he carried on and i used to laugh it off and remind him where he was going to end up... he soon got bored as none of my friends ever found it and neither did anyone else as he was just a loser.

since then my mum and infact all my family and new friends from college etc found out i am a bus enthusiast and all think it is fantastic plus it is better than resulting to 'street life'. now whenever friends/family don't know how to get from east to west etc my phone rings any new info on buses etc my phone rings and they all know i want to become a bus driver and all encourage me to go for it. now even my girlfriend knows a bit about buses and has taken some intrest ( e.g she now knows the B9tl and VDL Gemini 2 though look the same to her are actually different underneath) but is not ready to join the forum just yet as she isn't that advanced.

oh almost forgot about 'pond life' added me on facebook 2months back. i only accepted to see where he had reached in life since he used to make jokes about buses........ guess what he is doing now...... lives in ilford (from kingsmead estate homerton) and currently on the 'grind' aka selling weed. drugs?.phones. triners etc for money and has been doing that since he left school. while me and my bus enthusiast self got into college and have a proper job. so the joke is on who now?

[Deleted]

Feb 4, 2010 21:43:18 GMT COBO said:

Feb 4, 2010 20:56:36 GMT vjaska said:

Suprisingly, I've never really been taunted about it when I went through secondary school, college or even at work. People thought it was strange but I don't think they could give two hoots anyway. My college class mates didn't mind about it and I even began to explain certain things about buses to them. The funniest was trying to explain to two work colleagues about the different types as non enthusiasts always say this sentence.

"Ain't all buses the same" or "They are all buses though, whats the big deal about it".

I tried explaining the tendering system to one of my best mates from work. He actually had no clue that there was this so called system going on and what shocked me was he found it interesting as well ;D.

That's funny, when I was at primary school and I would have to go on a trip to Central London or some cases out of London Metroline would often lend the school a bus to take us.
One school trip I tried to explain to a teacher the difference between Volvo Olympian and a MCW Metrobus all I got is "there the same bus".

Talking about primary school, i think i remember my teacher telling another teacher what bus to get to Epping and she said "oh you get the 20A"
Of course this is wrong, the 20A was withdrawn in 1982. So I said "the 20A doesnt run anymore, you have to get the H1"
The reply I got was " youre more stupid than I thought"
I remember that well!

[vjaska]

Feb 4, 2010 22:19:54 GMT @truffles1234 said:

Feb 4, 2010 21:43:18 GMT COBO said:

That's funny, when I was at primary school and I would have to go on a trip to Central London or some cases out of London Metroline would often lend the school a bus to take us.
One school trip I tried to explain to a teacher the difference between Volvo Olympian and a MCW Metrobus all I got is "there the same bus".

Talking about primary school, i think i remember my teacher telling another teacher what bus to get to Epping and she said "oh you get the 20A"
Of course this is wrong, the 20A was withdrawn in 1982. So I said "the 20A doesnt run anymore, you have to get the H1"
The reply I got was " youre more stupid than I thought"
I remember that well!

You think thats bad.

Last year, my brothers primary school gave a map out of how to find Turney Road playing fields (just off Croxted Road) for a sports day. It also gave a list of all the local bus routes but having glanced over it, I noticed that it had the 68A on there. Now, the 68A was renumbered 468 back in 1998. What made it worse was that the 322 wasn't on there but instead the 506 was . That was fun explaining to my brother that they both no longer exist

[Deleted]

I have never kept my Hobby a secret and have all ways told my parents, mates, people at college about the fat that I am a Bus Enthusiast people take it as odd or don't care.

I all way get asked directions in college. I take photos of buses on my mobile when I am on my journeys some of the interior of buses and at bus stops I am not the type of person to stand at an area an take photos One time I was at Briton I took a photo of a new Alexandria Dennis Enviro 400 that had broken down and a women thought I was terrorist I just sad I am a Bus Enthusiast.

[john]

Feb 4, 2010 19:07:05 GMT romfordbuses said:

Ah yes, you mean the people taking the pee out of bus drivers because its apparently a low class job (Well better than drug dealers like most of them will be ;D ) but then moaning when there on strike etc

Also have to put up with 'taunts' (i would say abuse but i always play the you live in the UK`s biggest sh*thole, Harold Hill card ;D , always shuts em up as they see Collier Row as a posh area )

For example i got talking to a driver on the 496 yesterday when we got caught in traffic because some dopey woman driver (lol ;D) thought it would be clever to park in the middle of the road in her big 4x4 BMW (lucky we had 4 PCSOs on our bus ) today i got called a saddo (very original : and apparently I'm a bus spotter who stands at Romford Station with a pair of binoculars and a notepad

How the bloody hell do you think i feel when i'm FROM Harold Hil!!!!

I used to get stick if people knew about it. I never told anyone except my very close friends, who have never really abused me, but always knew if they needed info, i would know hands down. The more sensible of my mates know that, yes it's a very strange hobby, but the information that i know helps them out all the time. They know who to come to ;D

As for videos/photo's etc, i've only JUST started taking an interest in that side. However, my interest is for the abnormal sounds/sights, rather than the general so i don't really partake in them so much. Also, i've never used a notebook. Could probably write down the entire NS and RM fleets from my memory if i used all their vehicles regularly enough. Could about 10 years ago ;D

Bighat, never a better word spoken. That could be put to any scenario within life!!

[Deleted]

I have numerous non-enthusiast friends but I also have quite a few enthusaist friends. Though, most (if not all) of my non-enthusiast friends aren't ignorant towards public transport and don't say stupid things like what you mentioned, alex1234.

Some of my fellow students from my school were annoying to my enthusaist friend and I (we were the only two enthusiasts in our grade) saying the same things that you mentioned, eastlondonfan09, but we just ignored it.

It's annoying how many people are enthusiasts of so many different things (like cars, birds, coins etc.) and still, for some reason, can't understand people being public transport enthusiasts and give people a hard time for being a public transport enthusiast.

[greeny253]

Feb 18, 2010 9:03:40 GMT @shovelyjoe said:

I have numerous non-enthusiast friends but I also have quite a few enthusaist friends. Though, most (if not all) of my non-enthusiast friends aren't ignorant towards public transport and don't say stupid things like what you mentioned, alex1234.

Some of my fellow students from my school were annoying to my enthusaist friend and I (we were the only two enthusiasts in our grade) saying the same things that you mentioned, eastlondonfan09, but we just ignored it.

It's annoying how many people are enthusiasts of so many different things (like cars, birds, coins etc.) and still, for some reason, can't understand people being public transport enthusiasts and give people a hard time for being a public transport enthusiast.

Well said Everyone's interested in something as you say but it's always the transport enthusiasts that get the stick - I dare say it's because we have the guts to do our hobby outdoors instead of at home all the time.

[Deleted]

Well at school age i used to get a bit of stick , but when it came to leaving school i was offered jobs working in the ticket office etc by 3 seperate operators because they already knew me and what i was like , whereas some of my peers left school and 12 years later have done nothing to date..... I have worked for 7 transport companies now which maybe looks inconsistent on my CV however the industry has been good to me , by the time i was 18 and old enough to apply for my PCV i was already a controller in the citys biggest bus station , when i was 21 i went on to driving coaches doing tours, national express and eurolines work which as well as being a job was a great lifestyle for someone of that age.Nowadays i am driving tfl buses for go ahead and thinking about a career again as i have done all the travelling etc so maybe i should get some formal qualifications to add to my experience . So you may be getting bullied about your hobby , but like bighat said its your life and your hobby so do what you enjoy and if you want to follow it in to a career in transport then go for it. Once you do so you will find like i did that you will make friends that share your intrests and ambitions

[smiler52]

our pals at transdev London in hammersmith upper bus stn are not fans of bus spotters i know some one who was taking some pics there and they ordered them to delete them but they did not

[Deleted]

Just thought id give a bit of an update.

At my sixth form, it has emerged that a kid in my year is a fan of trains and buses. I was discussing this with about 5 of my friends (who dont know about my bus and train enthusiasm) and they were talking about him like he had some sort of disease. Saying all the usual stuff, like whats so interesting about buses, there all the same etc.
Can't believe how close I was to losing my rag with them!!
After hearing it all, it did make me feel like a lonely wierdo, and it has made me even more determined not to tell everyone my dirty little secret (well, it feels like a dirty secret anyway lol). Then again, I am one of those people that are forever paranoid about what people think of me

I have a lot of respect for people telling their friends about their bus hobby.

[Deleted]

I have always been fairly forthcoming with my hobbies, sometimes to the point of being a bit of a tw*t. Those around me soon got used to me being a bit of a weirdo (and not exclusively in the transport department either) and I didn't really get any stick for it, mostly just innocent curiosity.