I got on the bus the other day and noticed a new ticket machine - its electronic display actually said 'Good Morning' on it. In other cities where I have lived, this might be used to make up for the grumpiness of the drivers, but in Naval City, the drivers seem to be quite friendly anyway, so I'm not convinced that a new, polite, ticket system is the most useful way to spend the company funds, but this is not really the point of the story.
'That's a shiny new ticket machine', I said, whilst I waited for the driver to sort out my weekly ticket. For this, the machine prints a ticket and then the driver puts it into a little card-and-sticky-backed-plastic wallet. The driver smiled and nodded as pulled one ticket wallet from a large group held by an elastic band.
His smile turned into a look of slight confusion as he discovered that the shape of ticket didn't quite fit the wallet, and then into concentration whilst he carefully folded the paper to make it fit and still show all of the relevant bits of information.
'Ticket is new' he said, with a slight accent (Eastern European?) and a knowing smile. 'Wallet is old'.
