A Bus Spotters Wet Dream, But A Nightmare For me!
Have you ever had one of those days, when you feel like you are totally jinxed and no matter how hard you try things are never going to go your way. Well yesterday Friday the 22nd of August was one of those day for me.
I was quite literally jinxed by London Busses of all shapes and sizes, including single decker busses, bendy busses, the Gator Bus and even the infamous Ghost Bus all transpired to get in my way and fuck up my photographs. No matter how hard I tried, there was nothing I could do to get picture without a bus appearing in it.
Maybe bus drivers all over London have got it in for me after the little rant I had against some of them when I wrote my article Why Are Bus Drivers Such Assholes In London. I was only being honest and giving a little bit of constructive criticism, where it was due.
It was a perfect day for taking some pictures in London, the sky was mainly blue and clear. So I thought I would go and take advantage of this and get some pictures of various iconic and beautiful sights around London.
I must have taken around at least 100 pictures where at the last second, just when I thought I had the perfect photo and I had pressed the button to take it, a bus would appear and ruin it. I have decided to preview 10 pictures ruined by busses, in order to appease the great bus god.
I got off the tube at London Bridge and headed straight for Tower Bridge, which must be one of the most beautiful and famous bridges in the world. Tower Bridge was looking particular good, with the blue sky as a background and after a little bit of walking around, I found the perfect position to snap a few pictures of the bridge. I snapped my first shot and what appeared in the picture but a bus. I shrugged it off and took another, same thing happened again and again.
I then headed onto Tower Bridge to enjoy the view and see if I could snap a few interesting pictures. As soon as I got on to the bridge, I noticed two girls with the most amazing booties in the world were walking along on the other side of the bridge. I had them lined up perfectly with the River Thames as a back drop, it was pure art, as good as anything I had seen at the recent Vice Exhibition in London that I attended. Just as I snapped the shot, a dam bus ruined the picture.
I walked along the north bank of the River Thames in search of the perfect location so that I could get some pictures, which would feature, the River Thames, London Eye and the Houses of Parliament in the shame shot. I felt that with the beautiful blue sky in the background, they would look amazing. Well that was the plan. I eventually found the perfect spot and if it wasn’t one bus ruining my picture it would be 2 or 3 at the same time. I don’t know what bridge it was the busses were going over, but every time I set up the shot, and took a picture, you guessed it busses would appear out of nowhere.
It was the same old story when I arrived at the Houses of Parliament. I lined up a perfect shot of a beautiful entrance to the building and a double decker bus came hurtling past. It wouldn’t have been so bad but those advertisements on the side of the bus for the movie Final Destination, were just too much for me.
Next on the busses hit list for me, was when I lined up a nice shot of the rear of St Margaret’s Church, I waited for about 10 minutes for the traffic to clear and just when I thought the coast was clear and I snapped my pic another bus appeared out of thin air, to spoil the day.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I was just about to take a picture of something that I have now forgotten, when the most haunted bus in all of London, The Ghost Bus got in the way and ruined another perfect shot.
I was walking up Parliament Street, when I thought it would be good idea to take a picture of the heavily armed policemen standing inside the steel gates that seal off Downing Street and Gordon Brown from his many happy supporters. I was standing across the road, when once again the coast was clear and I had a nice picture lined up and then just at the vital second another dam bus got in the way.
I wandered up towards Trafalgar Square and I was hopefull that things would get better for me. However the blue skies were starting to cloud over a bit and my battery was running low on my camera, but never mind I had at least a hundred pictures featuring busses. It was like bus heaven as I walked toward Trafalgar Square, they were everywhere. I lined up the Statue of Charles I and Nelsons Column in my viewfinder, things were looking good, it was going to be an iconic picture. It wasn’t because a big ugly Double Decker bus just had to appear in the background.
I had a good look around, there wasn’t a bus or even car in the my way, nothing could go wrong this time. I lined up Admiralty Arch and I blinked and took the shot and I couldn’t believe it when the Gator Bus invited itself into my picture.
I was busy enjoying myself watching Zigmund and Froyd, a magic act that is part of the One Magic Summer event currently taking place at Trafalgar Square. I must say that these two guys put on a fantastic and very funny show. I don’t need to tell you what happened when I took a picture, you guessed it Abracadabra a bus had to appear in the background.
My battery was ready to die, the rain was ready to lash down and my final picture had to be one of busses galore. This last picture was the only one that was actually meant to have any busses in it and don’t they all look pretty. A couple of old classic Routemasters, along side one of those ugly monster bendy busses and a single decker bus that was intent on running me over!
I know a day like Friday would have been like a wet dream for one of those sad, lonely and deranged bus spotters, but for me it was a day in hell. I maybe need to head to church on Sunday and get my soul cleansed or something.
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