You Have No Choice

[teacake44]

So you need to get from A to B, and the best, and cheapest way is by coach, it will take two hours to reach B, and you have been allocated the inner seat of two, so that puts you in the middle of two strangers. Do you try to make friendly conversation with either of the two other passengers, or bury your head in a book, or newspaper you've taken along with you, or try to be sociable.

[spathiphyllum]

I try to nap. I do not communicate to those around me unless they communicate to me.

[New Judge]

When they strike up a conversation tell them you've just been released from prison after serving ten years for a violent sexual assault.

[Patsy33]

Both..

[banker_frank]

I would reply to conversation but certainly not start one.

[teacake44]

bf, why would you not start one?

[spathiphyllum]

Because if you try talk to people on public transport... 8/10 times they look at you like you've just spat on their nan.

[CrapAtCryptics]

It may be the cheapest but not always the quickest. I avoid buses wherever possible as some people either bathe in cheap perfume or dont wash as often as they should.

[ladybirder]

Says a lot about you that does Spath;-)

[bobbs202]

I'm one of life's *chatterers* but I truly believe you can read when someone doesn't want to chat to you

[spathiphyllum]

LadyBirder, it may well do to be honest. However, on the London underground, that is my experience.

[spathiphyllum]

I'm sociable with people who i want to be sociable with. I can be quite antisocial to those who i don't.

[Cloverjo]

Once you start talking to someone you have to keep up the conversation all the way through. I’d say hello then get a book out or try to nap.

[retrocop]

//I can be quite antisocial to those who i don't.//

What do you do Spath? Throw a milkshake over them, have a good laugh and have it away on your skateboard!

[retrocop]

I recall reading an escape story from a German POW camp. If managing to get tickets on a train the escapee,if he didn't have a good command of the German language, would start furiously picking his nose. He soon found he had the seat to himself and no need to converse with his fellow passengers. The Germans hate nose pickers. :-)

[spathiphyllum]

No. I would simply sit with my head in a phone, or stare out of the window. I may offer a smile that says "don't worry, i won't bite... But i certainly won't be communicating with you". I don't like small talk, so i see little point in communicating with random people on public transport.

[KARL]

CrapAtCryptics, I think teacake may be using the US parlance: Coach=economy on aircraft. The three adjoining seats configuration sort of gives it away.

Personally, I am not as averse to conversation with strangers as several on here evidently are and if I felt so inclined I would strike up a conversation just as easily as responding if spoken to. I am still in pretty good touch with people from different countries whom I first met and had conversations with on trains, aircraft, etc. I hope to visit a Japanese friend before long, he and his wife visited us last October - we first met on a flight between Rome and Athens over 30 years ago. My/our other such friends have also visited each other.

[Mamyalynne]

Say hello and then see how things went.

[teacake44]

Do you not think that a single hello dies in a second.?

[Mamyalynne]

If it dies and goes no further then you have your answer, that's the point.

[teacake44]

KARL. Coach uk, two seats either side of coach, its just a scenario, I could have allocated a middle seat on an aircraft, with three seat either side, much the same situation, but much closer together.