The bus incident - A smelly tale

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No problem

While waiting in a checkout line at a grocery store, this dude behind me stunk like road kill. A rotting carcass on a hot summer's day smelled better than this guy.

When he'd turn away, the stink subsided. When he turned my direction, I almost gagged! His teeth were an ugly yellow-brown. Well, actually he didn't have many teeth left. I suspect his teeth and gums were the source of this mind-numbing stench.

I seriously would have gotten off the bus and waited for the next one. Or else i would have had to hold my breathe the whole bus trip! I'm glad i drive my own car cause taking the bus stinks. Not only do you have to smell other ppl's body odor but you have to put up with their lame attempts at small talk.

lol - reminds me of something my uncle once said. He is an Aussie, lived in Durban in the 1970's - 80's. He thought the only good thing about apartheid was you could sit in nice smelling buses.


oops am I allowed to say that? Oh well, I'm an Australian, what do you expect - lol

Haha did you know I came from SA? I am now an Australian citizen though, as of a few years ago.

A few years ago, I was walking back to work after having lunch. I noticed a smell like sewerage near an old car and it must have run over a turd. But then I noticed a woman and man walking towards the social security office. The man had these really old trousers that looked as if he'd got red dust all over the back of them.

But when I got closer, I realised he had s**t himself and had obviously been in that condition for hours at least. The woman must have been his wife or girlfriend. People were moving away from them and I'm sure when the couple got to the social security office (Centrelink), the other people in the queue would have let them go first.

I don't know what anyone could have done with him. It was cold - he would have had to be hosed down. He also nearly got run over so must have been drunk. I think they were homeless. Either the woman had no sense of smell or she cared for the guy so much she ignored the smell.

It was shocking! I don't know how she stood the smell. I agree that Australia has a better social welfare system than many other countries but a number of people fall through the cracks. We have a man who scrounges out of rubbish bins and is a hobo but he used to be a highly regarded solicitor before he developed a mental illness.

NB411, believe it or not - some mental illnesses do cause a person to be unable to make proper choices. Deinstitutionalising such people means that their family doesn't necessary want or have the capacity to, look after them. If they don't take their medication, they hallucinate and such, and often end up on the streets.

Before judging them so harshly, you might be thankful that you don't have a mental illness.

no, but I just looked at your entry in "getting to know each other".

You are from SA but now in SA -lol (or have you moved to Brisbane already?)

There are quite a few Sarth Efrikan families at my kids' school. I like them (they make me look "politically correct", like standing next to fat people make you look thin - lol), but I expect coming to Australia would be quite an adjustment. I know when my uncle returned the exchange rate was about 1:1 and he went from a very large house in Durban with live in servants to just an average house here.

Yeah mate, I live in Brisbane now It's rather pleasant I must admit.

Coming to Australia was one of the hardest things I have yet experienced to be honest. It was a difficult adjustment because I had no idea what to expect and of course I have Aspergers Though I sound like an Australian with some subtle deviations. We had a live in maid that my family treated very well. We also had a gardener who was an illegal immigrant from Zimbabwe, though he didn't live on the premises. You native Australians certainly have had a tough life doing your own dishes and washing all along

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Pandora, yes I probably could have been more pleasant about it. I don't have a mental illness, though I have a lower threshold for offensive sensory inputs than most people do i.e. non-autistics. The factor I had the biggest problem with is that he was going to sit next to me. Actually touch me and impregnate my clothing with his smell. Which would lead other people to respond negatively to ME thereafter.

I can easily deal with picking up dead rats, cleaning up vomit, taking out the garbage, picking up dog poo and so on. The difference is that I am choosing on my own terms how close I come to these things. I never actually touch them with my hands or any part of me. I can't imagine what I would do if someone threw one of these things at me. I just hope they can run fast LOL.

yeah I know, and its something most Aussies will not give you any sympathy for.

I remember my grandmother talking about WW2 and how that due to the war, domestic servants were discouraged (banned?) and she and my mother had to adjust to doing household chores.

You should be kind to smelly people.
Offer them foot powder a breathe mint, whatever it takes.
Remember smelly people are people too!
They're just smelly