'A pensioner elbowed me on busy coach and said nine words that left me raging'

A woman shared her exasperation on Mumsnet after finding herself embroiled in an elderly couple's seating predicament on a coach.

She recounted how the pair boarded at the last minute, only to discover there were no seats available together. The husband was "refusing to sit down anywhere", causing such a commotion that another passenger eventually ceded their seat.

Detailing the incident, the woman wrote: "In the end, the lady sitting next to me offers him her seat where there is a free seat behind so he can be sat in the seat in front of his wife. At this point the bus is already in motion as we've set off. So the lady next to me gets up to give him her seat and just as she's about to take her new seat the bus judders, causing them all to almost fall over."

She continued, expressing her frustration: "So I'm thinking, great, now I have to sit next to this man who's causing a disturbance to everyone because he won't just sit down in an available seat."

The situation escalated when the man, having taken the seat next to her, began "elbowing" her. She attempted to "ignore him" and shifted as close to the window as possible.

"In the end, he reached to get something from in his pocket whilst giving me a massive whack in the chest with his elbow which made me so cross that I picked up my bag to put it in between us to act as a barrier to which he crossly picked up my bag again and put it back on my lap," she fumed.

When she mentioned he'd hit her in the chest, he dismissively responded: "Well it's going to happen from time to time."

She concluded her post by asking: "Am I being unreasonable? I understand a bit of light elbowing on a coach ride but he had his elbow permanently in my side before that happened and by this point, I was sick of him not keeping himself to himself."

In the comments, one person suggested: "Sounds like he is trying to get you to swap seats with his wife." Another woman chimed in with: "Could he have been doing it on purpose to make you feel uncomfortable so you let them sit together?"

Another commenter was irate: "How bloody rude of him - the arrogance! Would he have said that to another bloke? Exactly." Meanwhile, a fourth declared: "Nothing that anyone could say would persuade me that it was an accident."