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AIBU?

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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:
Bubblebubblepop · 14/10/2017 20:04

What conclusion? This isn't a complex situation, some hungover girl puked on a coach home from the airport. That's all there is to it

Montacute · 14/10/2017 20:04

Neil Hannon told us that all human life was on the National Express but he never mentioned puking hussies.

DeadGood · 14/10/2017 20:05

Edmund Grin 'airport hobo'

AccidentalyRunToWindsor · 14/10/2017 20:09

Exactly @Bubblebubblepop the downfall of British society is typified by these two girls if you believe some posters!

Slimthistime · 14/10/2017 20:13

used " ambushed by a surprise leaving party - two glasses of wine and wallop"

seems a bit harsh to wallop people for leaving the job....!

Creambun2 · 14/10/2017 20:15

Lets be honest, most national express coach users are common.

BitOutOfPractice · 14/10/2017 20:18

Accidentally in my experience of teenage girls (I have two of my own) it doesn’t have to be “hotpants weather” to wear hot pants Grin

AccidentalyRunToWindsor · 14/10/2017 20:19

That's is true! Fond memories of me wearing hotpants on Xmas eve spring to mind 😳

Montacute · 14/10/2017 20:20

Lets be honest, most national express coach users are common.

Let's be honest, you're very much insulting the OP there.

NotACleverName · 14/10/2017 20:27

Lets be honest, most national express coach users are common.

'K Hmm

I was expecting something really terrible, like they were snorting lines of coke off one another's arses. Not a bit sweary, threw up in a bag and left it there (grim, admittedly).

Mittens1969 · 14/10/2017 20:31

I think people reacted to the OP’s comments about what the girls were wearing, that part was very judgemental and is nothing to do with her. The puking I think had as much to do with travel sickness as booze. They should have been sitting nearer the front of the bus.

Leaving the sick bags behind was gross though.

Bubblebubblepop · 14/10/2017 20:38

Ah ha accidentally I see. So true

BillBrysonsBeard · 14/10/2017 20:42

I wouldn't have cared about the sick as they can't help it, but leaving it on the bus is disgusting.

Agustarella · 14/10/2017 21:22

Something about Thetford, perhaps? I was recently on a National Express from Norwich to Victoria and a couple of families who got on at Thetford were being really loud and sweary, and when we got held up in London by heavy traffic and a big demo they kept complaining to the driver about being late, when it was pretty obviously outside his control.

I've experienced worse on the continent though: broken seatbelts, drivers smoking, a Buddhist monk (!) sodcasting appalling Europop until his free wifi ran out, and the coach being roadblocked and attacked by men holding giant branches, so we had to be rescued by French riot police. Not all in the same journey, luckily.

I'm afraid the only vomiters on the coaches I've been on have been me (when pregnant!) and my kids. We have always taken it with us or disposed of it even sooner. One time I made an Italian driver let me off the coach in some random part of northern France so I could avail myself of a handy poubelle. He didn't want to, but when I showed him the oozing nappy bag full of sick he saw that we were better off leaving it behind!

Coaches have strict rules about alcohol consumption, maybe it should extend to anyone still under the influence, though I don't know how this would be enforced. And not taking sick with you is rank.

I'm in no position to judge though, I once accidentally squirted an entire two litre bottle of shaken-up Aldi cola all over the immaculately clean floor of a local bus in Dijon. The driver was really nice about it but I hope he forgets my face before I have to use that route again!

GrapefruitInfusedIPA · 14/10/2017 21:35

I remember being about 19 and sat at the front of a bus, an hours journey from my best mates house to mine. It had been a crazy night. I threw up, then again, then again... and every single person saw. I was mortified. An old man gave me some tissues, a carrier bag and a smile and I think that was the kindest thing anyone could've done. They're just youngsters coming back from a party holiday.

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