Old ladies on the tube

A good few weeks ago, I was travelling on the tube, and a pair of ladies, probably in their 60s, boarded the train. They were just slightly taller than 5 feet, and quite stocky. Now, the following may sound ageist and sexist, but I find it very disconcerting to hear ladies of certain age swear in public. I know that people of all generations and all backgrounds swear, irrespective of their gender, and I always feel a little uncomfortable about people effin’ and cursing crudely in public, but witnessing a pair of ladies swearing in loud voices somehow made me cringe. Their hearing was probably becoming harder, so to compensate for it, they talked as if they were shouting, sitting across in a more or less empty carriage. Their conversation was of no interest to other passengers, but because of the volume, could not but be overheard. As if to confirm some sort of stereotype, the topic of the conversation was bingo and the people who turn up, or for some reason, the effin’ bingo.