Blockage.

Well... that was an entertaining trip home. I get the bus home on a Monday night, and it's usually a pretty cold, dull, with-an-air-of-trepidation- affair... the usual bus trip I guess. As per usual, I got out of work at 5.40ish.., just in time for me to miss my normal bus by about a minute. This never ceases to surpise me anymore... so I trundled off to the bus stop, having clocked the unusually excessive traffic and a few blue flashing lights. Hmm... police... but getting nearer it becomes clear that absolute chaos is ensuing. There are groups of young people crowded to the left of McDonalds. Now on a usual night, they'd be crowded outside McDonalds... but this time, they have something more interesting to look at. I can't see what it is over the traffic, but I could see a a few police standing about in the middle of the road. This is about a three lane road which merges two routes IN to the town centre, one coming from another town, the other coming from the one way system, and about a hundred bus routes. Nothing is moving, and in a fortunate way, this means that the bus I usually miss is standing there. Except it's not that bus, it turns out it's the one before it... which hasn't moved for half an hour because of traffic. On the bus is a slightly nutty but entertainingly liberal woman who seems to be full of life and trying to organise the police who are standing about on the blocked road. I hear rumours of "a man on top of a bus" and "arrests" but no one really knows what the hell is going on. One thing is for sure though, the nutty lady is insisting on trying to find out, and giving a running commentary as to what the plolice ought to be doing.

Fifteen minutes later, I'm sitting on a bus in the dark. The driver has switched the engine off and is reading his paper by streetlight and the odd flash of a police siren. Nutty lady is getting more vexed at the lack of police controlling the traffic and toddles off to "tell one of them coppers to get over here and sort out the lanes". Man, she's funny. Of course, before she went she insisted on getting the driver to promise he'd not drive off without her.

Another five minutes, maybe ten minutes after that... and a few more police are starting to join the rabble, though traffic is no better. Everyone in desperation are ignoring the traffic lights, which keep helplessly switching from green to red but with no one moving under their command. Nutty lady has been up and out of her seat about twenty times. Finally we see a few bobbies running up towards the three or four lanes of chok-a-blok traffic that are being forced into one lane. One needs to be fully diverted and blocked off so that we can move... as Nutty lady and about another fifty passengers worked out ages ago. Finally there is a break in the traffic and we have to wait for a few other cars to nudge their way into line before we can all be on our way home. The driver of the bus in front of us has other ideas of course. He sits there. His lane is FINALLY clear... but he sits there. Cue Nutty Lady, who charges up to the bus in front and starts thumping on the back of it shouting "MOOOVE". Our bus driver joins in, now having switched back on the engine and lights, by beeping his horn. More Police arrive, I think a little bit scared of a mutiny, and they finally encourage the driver to budge. The bus in front gets the hint and we actually make a move.

Fifteen minutes later, I'm in me slippers at home.

Chaos can be highly amusing when you're an innocent bystander just caught up in it all. If I was more tired or hungry it could have been another story, but I quite enjoyed watching the Nutty Lady offer to control the traffic herself. I still have no idea what was kicking off. I'm sure I'll find out over the next few days.