Hells Bells - it's happened!!

Heather please give us some kind of a clue where you live so I can avoid it if/when I ever move house...

If I didn't talk to strangers... five days a week I wouldn't talk. My husband talks about nothing but trains and football ( I actually like football...go Spurs!! ), but 24/7 IS a bit much.I talk to anybody that is willing to talk to me, at bus stops, railway stations, shops,cafes... doesn't matter where or what you say. If someone has reached out to speak to me I think it's because they need it. So oblige , what not?!? The other two days a week I'm taking and fetching grandkids to and fro schools...and they never stop talking [ sunshine]

I travelled home in the rush hour this week from a day at my daughter’s (don’t drive in the dark so it was a two train and two bus journey). I had to stand on both trains and noticed thst everyone was busy with a phone. Standing where I was I had a good view of everyone. There wasn't a word passed between anyone. Nobody had a book or even a paper. I couldn’t read standing up so just spent the journey watching everyone else. I found it really weird.

The area was up into London and then out again

You could always rely on my DH to strike up a conversation with anyone he met, and, to a certain extent I enjoy passing the time of day with people as well.

On the other hand, I do not like talking if I'm on a plane or train journey. I put my ear-phones in, listen to music to zone out the noise, and like to be left alone.

I grew up in a working class area where it was normal to speak to anyone. When we married we moved into what could be called a "middle class" area, first day I joined the queue at the bus stop and started chatting - everyone looked at me as if I had two heads or was possibly dangerous!

I love a good old natter with strangers . Sometimes it's interesting , some times funny and even the boring conversations can have a good side in the sense it is human contact. It's amazing what you learn sometimes.

If I am in Leicester Kitty and a very, very strange woman strikes up a conversation I will asks if it' you.

I aslo gew up in Yorkshire and spoke to everybody in buses and at busstops. In Germany its not usually done and I've got used to that as well now,
But once in Yorkshire travelling on the bus there was a discussion about teeth and false teeth and the man next to me turned to me asked if mine were my own.

It took me a while to collect myself and answer.

I talk at bus stops, sitting next to people, anywhere really. Had the most interesting conversations, lightened the waiting and journey times. It’s lovely. When my husband retired he accompanied me on the bus but I had to sit next to someone else. When we got off he asked me who the lady was that I was chatting to. He looked amazed when I said I didn’t know her.

Chatting to strangers at bus stops is just showing polite interest and it may improve someone's day. My DH and I don't chat a lot to each other so conversation with anyone is welcome. That's not a criticism, we love each other dearly but he isn't a conversationalist. I think doctors' surgeries are often silent because they are full of mainly worried people. (Those same people can then go I to the surgery and reply "Fine thank you," when the doctor asks them how they are, before getting down to the reason they have come!)