The reason for not travelling in the larger maxi-taxi comprising 25 seats is straightforward, they make too many stops creating a very slow agonising journey to your destination.

But the smaller 12-seat maxi has its idiosyncrasy, the events are real and if any one out there have never experienced any of the following, I dare them to say otherwise, or it simply is that they have now started to use the maxi service.

Recently, I was first to enter the bus and my choice was for the back seat that can accommodate three, it being rush hour the vehicle was filled in haste.

A scorching morning it was with traffic at a slow pace and there in front me a window was being shut because of a hair style being blown by whatever little breeze was coming in.

Bowing my head in disgust I also noticed the reasons why I was feeling uneasy, on my right a school girl had her legs wide apart as though in rehearsals for her time in Mt. Hope Maternity Block.

While on my left I was being squeezed by a mother with child in hand, who lived off some muddy red dirt track, because that was the colour that was coming off from his shoes onto my pants.

Breathing heavily out, teeth clenched, cuss words making circles in my mind, my eyes caught the image of Mr. Clean immediately in front doing some bathroom sprucing, rolling whatever nasal waste he discovered between his index and thumb, but not before scrutinising it.

Followed by under-fingernail cleaning and flicking in different directions, eyes and ears nevertheless did not escape unscathed.

The annoyance from commuters not only generates from those directly around you, as two or three seats ahead can also present the most horrible effects.

Like the pretty young miss that sat next to the driver and engaged him in conversation, who in turn kept taking his eyes of the roadway gawking at her low cut blouse.

And the chap alongside her was showing off with technology playing music from his cell, little did he know that long ago transistor radio sounded far better.

And then we had this humongous woman that still does not know that three into two cannot, as she after taking more than her allotted time fighting to climb aboard, plopped down to squeeze the old man previously asking every two minutes if he had reached his stop-off point.

Still on that case, it certainly is not fair to have to pay the same $5 as a fat individual that takes up more space than you, and will compress you motionlessly and mercilessly against the window.

Besides “No eating, drinking, smoking.”I believe that reading of newspapers and sleeping should be added on the prohibition list, because when the reader is viewing Page 3, Page 2 manages to be in your face.

And the greatest fear though, is not the dribble from the man whose head is resting on your shoulder while he snoozes, but if he is a bed wetter and will do so while he sleeps sitting next to you.

What about the one dragging the idiocy out the van, sitting behind the driver, easy payments could have been made, but instead alighting the van he searches for the fare in his pockets -- from shirt, to pants and then remembers it was hidden in his socks.

Sexual harassment though is the epitome from an over the hill woman nudging you in the rib cage with her elbow while searching around in her handbag.

Finally to complete the list of 12 passengers and the things that infuriate, aggravate, make your blood boil, and make you see red, is the greatest offender, the one entering an air-condition maxi radiating a stench like a bag of wet puppies or smelling, on a Monday morning as though it was a late Friday evening.

I am, however, thankful because I often wonder about if there was an additional seat what the irritant would have been or how other people make out with the 25-seater maxi and the possible 25 aggravations?

Strange thoughts of using the Public Transport Service surfaces but, images of grey- haired senior citizens feebly coming on board the bus, armed with canes, umbrellas and market bags, which they stick in the passageway enters my mind.

And it’s back to the small maxi again.