Love on the bus.  − 3 December, 2004

I had finished buying all the food I needed. It came to 135 yuan all together.
Chocolate, butter and cheese costing a hefty bundle.

I had everything in my bag, for a brief moment of insanity on board the bus I considered standing the whole way back. I came to my senses and moved toward the back of the bus, there were two vacant seats out of the row of five.
One in the central aisle, the other next to a lady. I sat on the one facing the aisle; it was easiest for the positioning of my very heavy bag.

It was quite a warm day (0 celsius) so I had my nice hat on.
I looked out the window the lady was sitting next to, the sunset was beautiful.
The river was frozen solid as we drove over the bridge. There were people on the ice doing something. Probably preparation for the ice festival.

The bus itself wasn't that packed, a rare thing.
I sat and thought for a while about life and all that mumbo jumbo, when I heard a Chinese voice to my left coming from the lady.

"Shenma?" I said, didn't have a clue what she said.

She said something more...

"ni hen shui" I think, not sure.

"Wo ting bu dong." I replied, with this she was a little sad and turned away from me.
I thought that she was quite attractive, you'd be hard pushed to find someone who isn't here.
She turned her head toward me and started checking me out, it was quite deliberate.
Then she said something else. I recognised the first bit, but not the second part.
I can't quite remember but it was something like "Ne yao shenma..." or something. My memory is hazy.
She started speaking very slowly and deliberately. I couldn't understand all the words, mostly the ones of which were of no use to me.
Then she said something else, I thought I heard a word I'd learnt the other day. Which it turned out to be. I was quite happy as well. I'd been paid a complement.
She then spoke a little English.

"You very handsome."

My positive confirmation. Boy was there a little skip in the beating of the old ticker. I was a happy bunny.
I thought "I'm being chatted up on the bus by an attractive lady." My powers of deduction are also fabulous I considered.

I turned to her and said "Xiexie ni" while laughing.

It's not everyday that I get paid a complement on the bus. I was hoping the bus journey would suddenly go a lot more slowly, as I became very consious of where the bus was.
We then managed to batter out some very crude conversation in English and Chinese, in which we covered names, phone numbers, age and a few other things. She was 18 by the way.

The bus journey rolled on and I was quite enjoying myself. It came time to me getting off. She said goodbye and I waved to her as I disembarked.

I grinned like a big mad thing. I was happy.