Yesterday, I was obliged to travel once again on public transport. I enjoy these little adventures because one meets the most um ... 'interesting' people on buses. Yesterday, I even met a couple of chickens.

The thrill began when I arrived at the bus stop and stood next to the shelter for some shade. Yes, even in winter the sun is hot in this place. As I stood there, I heard footsteps rustling the leaves behind me and turned to see who was there. I saw no one, until I looked down and spied the face of a black rooster. His companion was directly behind him and together they were looking at me, mid-stride, as if I had caught them trying to sneak up on me. 

My avian stalkers stood there, looking at me as if I were about to dispense some great truth about life and the universe, their yellow eyes fixed on me, their little faces turned at an angle in a quizical stare. I decided they were waiting for me to turn around so they could stalk off unobserved. I turned away from them and sure enough when I turned back, they were gone. I then saw one, poke his head around from behind the bus shelter and peer at me. His feathery cohort again, directly behind him. They looked for all the world as if they were expecting me to speak to them. Perhaps I should have. They might just as easily have been planning to mug me. 

Then the bus came and I left them to their fowl pursuits. Sitting on the bus that day, I pondered the question:

 What is more depressing than listening to four girls, (who could not have been more than 17) loudly discussing their avid interest in boys, getting drunk and welfare payments? Is it that they then went on to berate a friend because she doesn't like to get drunk? NO, the answer is: watching them get off the bus with their small babies.

What hope for the future of the species?