(25 Jan 2015, 8:45 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote #21 - Newcastle, Eldon Square to My House - (13:45 --- 14:35) - GNE 6056 - Volvo B5HL/Wright Gemini 2
Ah, an Olympian and a newly repainted bus in one day - time to end it with a lovely long, quiet ride on the 21. We leave Newcastle with only 3 upstairs and about 10 downstairs. We get to Gateshead - 3 people get on. They make the journey unbearable. Uncivilised scruffs. I actually got an inkling, one was an enthusiast - and the other two were his carers...
I got the impression he may have had autism, and I know I've always stood by my rule of autistic people being treated the same - but now I feel different. I know that is wrong, but this...'man-child'...has changed my mind!!
They get on, and runs upstairs, a great big fat twenty odd year old, and starts looking for plug sockets on 6056. He shouts downstairs: 'MAFFEW - THEY DONT HAVE ANY PLUG SOCKETS'...the guy I can only assume is called 'Matthew', gets irritated as they go towards the back, accompanied by a young woman who looked like a scruff. Matthew gets irritated when he finds there are none upstairs, and threatens to get off. He punches the head rests in frustration, and the driver stops short of leaving thinking they were getting off. The woman convinces him to stay, and Matthew notes the fleet number as 'sixty fifty six' - this alone made me think they were enthusiasts. They start shouting about how there are no plug sockets and how they are advertised, and I can hear them through my bloody headphones. I try to relax, but that fat gorilla keeps complaining about how there are no plug sockets.
At Low Fell, the person occupying the front seats get off, and the ape runs down, spilling coke and crisps everywhere...to get them. Matthew and the woman follow him while he sits like a retarded dog...I honestly feel like chucking my lifeless body down the stairs while an Arriva X2 passes. He yells (to his friends who are less than a metre to the side of them) - 'MAFFEW - THERES A SOLAR ON THE X2, LOOK, LOOK!!!'. Matthew: 'Nah mate it's a Pulsar'. Chimp: 'Hew woz a Pulsar Maffew?'. They spend about 5 minutes explaining to him what a Pulsar is....groan...
They get to the Police Station at Chester and the autistic guy starts going on about how he doesn't like the 21 going past here because he's scared of it. Baby. ThetPulsar overtakes us, and he shouts 'MAFFEW - THERES THAT SOLAR AGAIN'...OH MY FUCKING GOD - HE HAS JUST EXPLAINED THAT IT IS A PPPPPULLLLLLSAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!
I can't take it any more as we leave Chester - thankfully my stop is only 3-4 minutes towards Durham. Phew! But nonetheless, he sees the Pulsar again...'MAFFEW - LOOK THERES THE SOLAR AGAIN WHATS THE NUMBER'. Matthew: 1452. Ape: 'MAFFEW YOUR WRONG THATS A VOLVO RENOWN'. Matthew: 'Nah mate, it's a Pulsar'. Ape: 'IT USED TO BE ON THE LIME I THINK YOUR LYING'...I just lost it and bailed...
Made the journey thoroughly disgusting - if I ever see them again I'll shove that bottle of coke down his goddamn asophagus!!!
A bad end to and otherwise brilliant day...5/10.
I'm autistic and I have respite workers every other Saturday, my god, I wish I could end this stupid respite. They constantly remind me of the time - of which my camera displays - then a countdown every 20 seconds - they treat me like a baby and every time a bus comes around a corner - they'll mention it - I've told them to be quiet because I need to concentrate on the photo but they still talk, sing and all that. I just want to be treated like a normal person - not like a baby only because I have autism.
I was at a bus stop waiting for my X21 into Ashington - I was talking to an old lady - she asked if I had any problems - I said that I had autism - when my bus approached she was telling me how to hail the bus - like, really? I learnt how to hail a bus when I was two and started using the Internet when I was three.
I've been at nearly every bloody special school in the north east, but none of them worked. I found mainstream hard to handle - I wish I hadn't fucked it up at first school - I would have more friends than 2.