On the buses -

- or in this case, on the tram. Or a babe in the woods. Or a country bumpkin is bewildered.

So we were in the city and had been dropped off by car, confident that we could make our way back to the suburbs by public transport. We'd done it before (once or twice). Armed with our Seniors Card we'd been on the bus and knew the drill.
Although we knew it was free on off peak time, we were prepared to pay the extra to stay in town to visit the art gallery. We'd done it before. Headed to the front door of the bus, waved our Seniors/Metro card and been told how much cash to pay for a paper ticket which we then inserted into the cute machine for the beep of approval.
Mind you, one time when it was just after the appointed off peak time, the driver just waved us on telling us to take a seat. I  guess sorting a ticket was too much trouble for him.
So there we were in King William Street and realised we could catch the tram. What could go wrong? So there we were clutching our Seniors cards and I had my purse with small change and....
The tram went whooshing  along the platform and stopped so we had to enter the very last door. It was before 4 pm but the thing was crowded. We peered at the instructions and saw that it was free to ride to Victoria Square. There was a ticket validating machine but we only saw a couple of people use it. When we got to Victoria Square the announcement said that from there on we needed a validated ticket. Where to get one? We were standing swaying and holding onto a pole with not a chance of getting to the driver who I thought would sell us a ticket. Nope - the drive is blocked off in their own little world unlike on the buses. We spotted something about a ticket machine and maybe the picture was about getting a paper ticket . The arrow pointed forward and there was still  not a hope of moving forward to where it might be.
Eventually we got off at our stop in a moral quandary. We really would have been happy to pay but how to do that escaped us. We use public transport so rarely that I haven't wanted to load money onto my card but we didn't have the process for getting the paper version. My conscience is not happy. When I saw a tram the next day I just wanted to throw money at it.
On a sweeter note, I stood balancing precariously next to a pole which I clutched desperately ,but after some people got off there was a seat next to a young woman, so I sat down. She looked at me, stood up and said it was so 'my friend' could sit next to me. There is a sign saying seats need to be relinquished for old geezers like us but no one had moved until she did. How lovely!