Boring Conversations

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Sometimes I enjoy eavesdropping on the conversations of other commuters on buses and trains. Sometimes however I find myself trapped, listening to the most dull repetitive, pointless, inane drivel imaginable. I recently overheard one man trying to get another passenger to guess what he had had eaten for his breakfast that morning. Had the answer been something unusual or unique, Toasted dolphin beaks, dragon tears, or Dodo-burgers, I might have found the conversation worthy of attention. The guesses given by the other man were unimaginative in themselves,; cornflakes, beans, croissants, etc. When the first man revealed that the answer was a Mandarin, (just a fancy orange) his friend refused to believe him, as if he had eaten a Chinese Warlord Mandarin rather than a perfectly accessible supermarket and green-grocer’s fruit. He called him a great big fibber. The orange-eater still hadn’t convinced his friend that he was being honest even when they got off the bus to presumably do something thrilling like buying envelopes at the post office. Somehow this conversation struck the men as exciting and lively. I was clenching my fists and grinding my teeth to stop myself turning round angrily to point out how downright boring they were. Their whole discussion was such a waste of thought, time and energy. I couldn’t grasp how anyone could fixate on such trivial activity as if it was high adventure. Some people really need to ‘get a life’.