401

I saw my ancient friend Vera di Campli san Vito on Monday, we both work in the same place, it was around 6 pm and she asked me why I was walking on that part of campus, and I said I'm going to get and we said it at the same time - 'the 401!' We agreed it was a tremendous innovation (she lives in Seddon so of course she is happy to take advantage of a quicker way to N Melbourne as am I). I said I don't know what I'll do at the end of semester when they stop running it (which I naturally assumed they would as they waited till 1st day of semester to start running it) and she had a little brochure she was using as a bookmark and she said no, look, it will just be a reduced service.

I mean we were like a full-on suckvertisement for public transport, sans mention of mowing anyone's lawn.

Part 2 came yesterday when I was on the 401 and a girl behind me said to her travelling companion, 'this is a great service!' Everyone is happy. I was particularly happy because I had got off my train where I had sat across from a huge man in tight light green pants with an enormous black case/bag/holdall who had been talking to himself with conversational intonations for some time. You know when someone starts talking in public and you think, 'gee I really hope they have just somehow silently answered the phone?' In this case I didn't want to look but ultimately glanced and no, he didn't have one.

And just to make it worse, he was talking in a foreign language.

Then you're on the 401 and you think, maybe he blew us sky-high, we're in heaven and this is it.

PS: The power of the internet, or me in particular, is quite amazing. Two hours after posting the above (or boave, as we say online) I was at N Melbourne and for the first time had to queue to get on the 401. Looks like I'll have to find some new obscurity to champion.