Accessible Olympics and the time the bus driver asked me out

Ok, so I've said what I love about the Olympics, but what about what I'm struggling with.

Honestly, and unsurprisingly, it's the accessibility. From the venue to the TV coverage it's really hard to follow what's going on. Subtitles are either slow or non existent and well that's it really.

Take the hockey last weekend. At the beginning the rules are explained on the big screen. A screen definitely big enough for subtitles and as the same thing is played at the start of each session, it's not like they needed a live subtitler. I'm largely resigned to commentary not being subtitled at a match because of the unpredictability of it, but on TV? Well it should be possible to make them better than they are. And the bbc website catch up facility has NONE. And seeing as I have a day job and can't watch it on TV when it's shown, this means watching it without subtitles online is the best it gets for me.

Why is that?*

*Ahem, BBC!!!!!

Anyway last night the loveliest thing happened to me. I worked late because I was meeting MET Man.

My Mac was playing up, I was stressed, I was cross, everything was taking longer than it should, but when I walked out of the office, I stopped and took a deep breath and reminded myself about something Fab Friend once told me. She said, lucky people aren't really lucky, they're just open to new things, meeting new people and they don't walk around with their heads down feeling sorry for themselves.

So, I got rid of the grump, smiled and walked down the road to meet MET Man.

'Beep'

I stopped, looked around and walked on.

'Be-beep'

'What is that noise?' I thought.

'Be-be-beeeeep'

At this point, amazed that I was hearing something above the drone of the traffic, I looked right and there was a bus driver waving at me.

I smiled at him, as he was very cute, and he yelled, 'Give me your number?' or at least I presume he yelled it as I was lip reading him at this point.

He then started to clutch his hands to his heart and blow me kisses while driving at the exact same speed I was walking.

It made me grin like a nutter – a man was declaring his love to me in the street… well kind of! 

I mean, if I'd come out of work tired and stressed and not resolved to just be happy, I doubt he would have even noticed me trudging along the pavement.

He tried to invite me onto his bus. It was going to Golders Green. MET Man was not in Golders Green. He was in Piccadilly Circus at an unknown location, but that's a whole other story.

I politely declined but was still grinning like an idiot. He continued to drive down the road looking at me, signing the word for phone and mobile in the hope I'd crack and hand him my number. And while I had no intention of doing this, it was rather lovely to think that someone thought I was worth almost crashing a bus over.

In the end however, I had to cross the road and of course his bus was right there at the red light. I waved to him and he blew me kiss after kiss, beeping his horn until I went out of view.

I really believe that it's the little things that can brighten your day. While I don't give money to beggars, I always smile at them because it must be horrible to be ignored day in, day out. If an old lady is walking up my street, I say good morning. There's one lady I see most days and the first time I said hello, she jumped as though I might mug her, but now she's the first to greet me.

That bus driver wasn't to know I was having a crap day but he definitely knew he'd brightened it. 

Smiling costs nothing and it might actually make a difference to how someone's feeling. 

So, while I'm not suggestion asking out random people in the street from buses, let's all do the smiling part, eh?

DG