Missing the Obvious

2003
------

After his first few weeks in London, Zibby got in touch with some old school friends who had lived in the city for years. They all arranged to meet up in the city centre one night. Zibby carefully took down the directions to Leicester square, and after a few words to his Aunty, stepped out in his first attempt to use the public transport system on his own.

The first part seemed easy. Get on a bus, and get to Hendon Central. He jumped on the bus, and off it went. Five troubling minutes later, Zibby realized that there were no announcements telling him which station was which! He was in shock. He had been so impressed the tube system's regular announcements, and the clear labelling and signposting of all the stations. How do they expect visitors to know what to do? He thought. With some degree of foresight he had asked cousin Ama what he should look out for as a landmark near the station, but even that did not seem to help him. Thirty minutes later, he was at the last stop for his bus, Brent Cross shopping centre. He had obviously passed Hendon Central without noticing.

Zibby got of the bus and made his way resolutely to the other side, to try again. As they headed off back in the direction of home, he remembered the way bus conductors in Lagos would yell out the name of every bus stop as they approached it, checking for the standard response, "owa!" which would mean that someone needed to get off. That's what this bus is missing, he thought. A proper Lagos-style conductor!

This time, he asked a few people on the bus who were kind enough to tell him when to get off for the station. Stepping out of the bus, he stood in one spot and looked around him, but still could not locate anything that looked like a train station. He approached a group of ladies and asked politely, "Excuse me, could you please tell me where Hendon Central is?" They turned and looked at him, and then at each other. "What?" asked one. "I'm looking for Hendon Central" repeated Zibby. A couple of the girls giggled. "What have you been smoking?" asked another, as they moved away from him.

As they disappeared into the distance, Zibby realised that he was standing under a massive HENDON CENTRAL sign. He chuckled to himself, shook his head and walked into the building. Sure enough, the ticket barriers were round the corner.

Approaching the barriers, he saw people tapping some cards on the top the ticket barriers and walking through, so he confidently did the same with his travel card. Nothing happened. With a small queue building up behind him, he tapped and tapped, but the barriers refused to open. An attendant came over to him, took his paper ticket from him, and put it through a lower slot on the ticket gate. Still nothing happened. Zibby heard impatient shuffling behind him.

"Please take your ticket." said the patient but clearly amused attendant.
"Where is it?" asked Zibby, flustered by his mounting sense of embarassment. As he spoke, he spotted the ticket sticking out yet another slot on the top surface of the barrier. He picked it up and the gates opened. "Thanks!" he said, trying to laugh off his feelings of awkwardness.

He would later learn the difference between oyster cards - which you tap on the reader to open the gates, and the paper tickets such as that which he held on that day.

After an enjoyable time out with his friend, Zibby returned home quite late, but happy. As he walked up the brightly-lit road to the front door, he thought: Many times, the obvious is only obvious because you're familiar with it. He resolved within himself to be more patient with those who displayed ignorance of things he thought were obvious.