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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

shocking behavior on a National Express bus this week...

165 replies

WritingHome · 14/10/2017 13:06

I traveled on a National Express coach from Stanstead to Norfolk this week.

The coach apparently stopped at Heathrow and Gatwick before arriving at Stanstead at 8.30am. It was pretty much empty apart from a couple of passengers who were already on there when I got on, including two young girls (late teens / early 20's by their appearance). They were clearly on their way home from somewhere like Magaluf and were wearing clubbing gear (tiny tiny denim hotpants and skimpy tops and sandals. It was a cold wet, drizzly morning in the UK. One of them was wrapped in beach towels and they were both asleep and looking worse for the wear.

I took a seak on the other side of the aisle and slightly in front of then but if I looked across the bus to look out the far window they were in my line of vision iykwim.

The three hour journey began and about an hour into it, one of them woke up and started moaning. Then she was coughing and then I heard what I thought was the sounds of someone puking (!!)

I glanced around and she was using one of the clear plastic airline liquids bags and was retching into it. She stopped and went back to sleep.

They woke sporadically and complained to each other about how they would never drink again and they were fairly roughly spoken - lots of cursing etc. The sick one continued to puke throughout the journey which was pretty off-putting and disgusting.

The worst thing of all was that they got off at Thetford and she LEFT three bags of puke thrown on the floor of the bus and various tissues suffed into the back of the seat pocket. Absolutely grim. I did not see this until the were already off the bus or I would have said something to them. Why could they not have just taken it off the bus and dumped into a bin??

They were young and and older woman (possibly mother of one of them) met them at the stop. If they were my daughters I would have been so ashamed of them!

I was getting off at the next stop and as I was leaving I told the driver in case he just picked the bags up with his hands not knowing what was in them. He looked horrified too.

Afterwards I was cross at myself for not saying something earlier but what could I have said? Stop puking? Hardly likely to have worked and tbh I was pretty shocked it was even happening...

What would you have done?

OP posts:

Shockers · 14/10/2017 14:26

Don't they know it's no longer '63?

brasty · 14/10/2017 14:27

You should have offered them some beer OP. Hair of the dog and all that.

sayyouwill · 14/10/2017 14:27

Yes true, the real benefit of a train though, is you can go into another carriage. But was really replying to comments indicating that because coaches are cheaper, you will get people puking on them. You can get it on any form of transport.

That's why I like the trains. You can move to a number of carriages if you like or upgrade to first class. If someone is puking you can get away.
Typically I do think there is more puking on buses however because people with travel sickness are worse on coaches (at least in my experience)
I exclusively used coaches while at uni to visit home and friends in other cities and since I grew up and discovered the joys of trains I've noticed fewer occasions where I'm subjected to vomiting!

CamperVamp · 14/10/2017 14:28

I think drinking to the level where you are puking in public on a bus and making life revolting for other passengers, let alone the cleaners, IS judgeworthy.

Teeny clothes, no, but drunk-to-puking on a public bus is not victimless behaviour.

Mintychoc1 · 14/10/2017 14:28

OP I'm with you on this one. Throwing up on the bus is pretty yucky but can't really be helped, and a lot of us have done similar in our youth.
But leaving the sick there for others to smell and clean up is really disgusting and very selfish. I don't know how anyone can think it's OK.

I suspect that if it was a mum with young kids, who got off leaving behind a load of sweet wrappers, the majority of posters would be saying it was disgusting and lazy. But it's MN, we've got to be oh so cool about young people getting plastered!

CamperVamp · 14/10/2017 14:30

"Maybe they couldn't have afforded to get a later bus or maybe they didn't have anywhere to go to wait for said bus. Maybe they just wanted to get home."
All true.

Maybe they shouldn't have got themselves in such a state.

brasty · 14/10/2017 14:32

I really can't get worked up over this one.

AccidentalyRunToWindsor · 14/10/2017 14:34

I'm not sure how many different ways it can be phrased...

Everyone thinks it's grim the girls left the puke on the bus.

theancientmarinader · 14/10/2017 14:43

My friend won't let her teenage dd go on the greyhound after that dude started chopping people's heads off.

Oh, and my 3yo once barfed all the way back on the Eurostar. Into a bin bag. I suspect strongly he was wearing shorts. We did take the bag with us.

I got nothing else. Sorry.

ZuzuMyLittleGingersnap · 14/10/2017 14:43

This.
Going round and round and round in my head now.

Thanks, PPs

EdmundCleverClogs · 14/10/2017 14:44

Maybe they shouldn't have got themselves in such a state.

Seriously? Some people on here, you can tell they've never gone 'a bit mad' once in their life. Everything in moderation, no one needs to have too much fun or do anything anyone might judge you over...

sayyouwill · 14/10/2017 14:49

Maybe they shouldn't have got themselves in such a state.*

What a useful statement! It's not like they could go back and undrink the alcohol, but they had to get home somehow. If they didn't have any extra money to get a later bus, should they just have accepted their fate and lived at the airport?

Brittbugs80 · 14/10/2017 14:53

Just be thankful you didn't travel by Megabus.

brasty · 14/10/2017 14:53

Yes

Slimthistime · 14/10/2017 14:54

I'm with you OP

Camper "I think drinking to the level where you are puking in public on a bus and making life revolting for other passengers, let alone the cleaners, IS judgeworthy."

yes. apart from anything else, you know when you're travelling so if you need to drink till you're ill then just do it on a night when you're the only one has to clean up after you. The poor staff. People doing this should be fined really. Or made to go on community service alongside the cleaners.

AccidentalyRunToWindsor · 14/10/2017 14:55

Community service for leaving a bag of sick on a bus 😂

What a valuable use of public resources.

brasty · 14/10/2017 14:56

OP did you log it with 111?

Slimthistime · 14/10/2017 14:57

as for people talking about fun, it's not that weird is it - it was druggie central in my clubbing days but you are considerate about how you behave en route home. Go to Ibiza, don't take anything the last day so you aren't that person the airport staff have to clean up after. It's not that long ago!!!

we can all drink and snort whatever to our heart's content at home?

There seems to be this weird thing now that any public area is the equivalent of your front room.

LonginesPrime · 14/10/2017 14:58

If they were my daughters I would have been so ashamed of them!

If they were your daughters, you wouldn't have had any idea as you would have met them at the coach station looking a tad worse for wear but sans pukey bags!

sayyouwill · 14/10/2017 14:58

The sick was in a bag. To remove it they had to pick it up and put it in a bin. I agree it should have been the girls who did this, but it's hardly like the driver needed to hand shampoo the carpets.

Slimthistime · 14/10/2017 15:00

Windsor - what public resources? Give the transport company the right to issue a £200 fine or ask the person to do a cleaning round alongside a cleaner. Not complicated. Give it the same legality as enforcing penalty fares or parking tickets.

It's only complicated because the system makes it complicated.

EdmundCleverClogs · 14/10/2017 15:01

If they didn't have any extra money to get a later bus, should they just have accepted their fate and lived at the airport?

I wonder how that conversation with a parent would go:

'Dreadfully sorry mother, I have lost all social decorum after my educational and (more so) socially liberating holiday to Shaggaluf, and due to the shame/2000 jäger bombs consumed during the past week, I cannot possibly use public transportation home. My fellow National Express passengers may be too appalled by my 'rough' ways and I cannot allow them to feel embarrassed on my behalf. Therefore I must stay in Gatwick forever more as a 'airport hobo'. It's for the best, I have shamed myself and the British people, and must face penance of not being able to vomit my guts up into a Lidl bag on the 8.40 to Norfolk.'

Slimthistime · 14/10/2017 15:02

Longines "If they were your daughters, you wouldn't have had any idea as you would have met them at the coach station looking a tad worse for wear"

no one picks up that kid thinking they hadn't had a skinful and bunch of pills though do they? So do parents teach any kind of manners around it? You can see when coworkers rock up still full of Saturday night and then get major Tuesday blues!

AccidentalyRunToWindsor · 14/10/2017 15:03

Right...ok. I thought from you mentioning community service we were going to be asking people who leave bags of puke on a bus to do actual community service, with actual criminals.

It's a niche crime but I'm sure the deterrent of having to do community service will be enough to deter young girls from leaving pukey bags on buses in future.

JacquesHammer · 14/10/2017 15:07

Anyone who gets themselves into such a state is totally grim quite frankly.

Drink what the fuck you like but don't inlifct the aftermath on everyone else.

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