Trust me, you haven’t experienced true embarrassment until you’re coming home on a packed London bus: you’re reaching the stop you want to get off at, so you press the wheelchair user’s stop request button. The driver stops the bus and presses the button for the ramp, but instead of sliding out as usual the ramp gets stuck half way. The driver tries again but the same thing happens. He tries and tries but the ramp refuses to extend, no matter what he does. This goes on for ten, then twenty minutes, until eventually the driver is forced to ask all the other passengers to get off the zarking bus! Their angry, contemptuous looks burn into you as they walk past.

With everyone else off the bus, the driver radios for a mechanic. But then, about twenty minutes later, the bloody ramp suddenly extends properly. The driver opens the door and you can finally get off; and you’re left to trundle your way home, now in the dark, reflecting that as much as you admire London public transport, you wish they looked after their aging bus fleet a bit better.