The lady on the bus says what!?

Deafinitely Girly's country mouse alter ego burst forth with gusto yesterday, and for the first time in a long time, London made me a tad bit claustrophobic.

It was the weirdest feeling, like I couldn't catch my breath. I didn't want to be on the bus, indoors, I just wanted to be on a big green hill, at the top, gulping in lungs full of air.

I think I've been feeling this way since my dream about the Wild West um... Country – since I saw the amazing view from the hill again, the one I used to see every day growing up. I miss that view right now.

I told this to Snowboarding Boy, and he was happy to walk with me as I gulped in the air, focussing on the green things and ignoring buildings taller than three storeys, and do you know what? It's worked.

I woke up this morning soothed by the bustling city around me, fascinated by the cross section of society right there walking along the pavement as my bus pottered past.

Speaking of which, I had the oddest bus ride to work this morning. There were the usual subtitles telling me which stops were coming up, but in addition to this, there was another quieter announcement in a lady's voice that was not subtitled.

It kept being said and I was most intrigued as to what it was. By the tenth or so time it occurred, the first word was clearer and I was pretty confident that it was WARNING.

‘Eh,’ I thought, no one seems very bothered by this.

In the end my inquisitiveness got the better of me and I asked the paper-reading, business-suited businessman next to me.

And do you know what the announcement was saying?

‘Warning, smoke detected!’

Ummmmmmm

Now, as a non-hearing person I am not sure how many warnings a day hearing people hear, and whether they just zone out from these announcements unless it's something they can honestly believe is going to happen.

But this was my first warning of this kind, aside from ‘Mind the gap’ on the tube.

Was I meant to sit there and ignore it too?

In the end I sniffed, and breathed in and out as deeply as possible to see if could detect any smoke. I couldn’t, so decided to join the hearing peeps on this one and sit tight.

But it did get me wondering why the bus company religiously subtitles every single stop that’s coming up, but doesn't warn deaf people that the bus could potentially be about to burst into flames...

Most odd I thought…