Drifting through life

I have a Seniors MetroCard, (because I'm old enough) and here in Adelaide, seniors travel free all day on weekends and  public holidays, on  weekdays between 9am and 3pm. I work different shifts at Coles, sometimes needing to be on a bus before 9am or after 3pm, so those rides need to be loaded onto my card. When I first got the card, I took it into the metro place in the city along with an assortment of paper multi-trip tickets that still had rides left on them. The lovely lady transferred all those rides onto my new seniors metrocard for me and I've been using it ever since. There was an astounding amount of rides to transfer, I had plenty of multi-trip tickets, since I always used to buy those in bulk when I got my tax refund each year. I don't like to be caught short when it comes to bus ride. (or toilet paper - you should see the stack of paper on my back porch....) Each time I validate, the machine tells me I'm getting a free ride or it tells me how many...

Lady please, just follow the instructional diagram! Here in Adelaide, South Australia, we have small, rectangular, paper, bus (tram, train) tickets. Well, not quite paper, they're more a thin cardboardy thing. Each single ticket is good for two hours after validation, each multi-trip ticket is good for ten two hour rides. We've had them for years, so you'd think people would know how to use them by now. But no!   Time after time, people insert their tickets into the validating machine the wrong way. Either upside down, back to front, or both. These tickets have a directional arrow printed on one side and the magnetic validating strip on the other side. (I have photos, but we all know I can't be uploading any) AND there is a small cardboard instructional image cable-tied to the pole that holds the validating machine.  It's a very clear instruction.   The ticket must be inserted this way! Yet every day those of us on the bus h...