I had a decidedly weird experience on Wednesday night, involving a conversation on the night bus that made me wonder if people are a bit too quick to judge one another. With the possible exception of juries in armed robbery cases.

I was coming home after a gig on Wednesday evening, it was about quarter past midnight and I was sat on the top deck of the 344. I was minding my own business, with my iPhone set to shuffle. A bluegrass song happened to come on, something that I probably hadn't listened to in years. Just as I was remembering how much I liked the style, and was contemplating listening to the whole album, a gaggle of tipsy revellers jogged up the stairs and one sat next to me. This made me a little uncomfortable for two reasons: firstly, the bus was practically empty so why share seats? Second, he sat right on my coat, pinning me so I couldn't move.

Somewhat uncharacteristically for me, I decided to draw attention to it. I took out my headphones and turned to the guy, "Sorry, mate, you're, um, on my coat."

He looked at me blankly for a few seconds, before a woman who I can only assume was a friend of his appeared, leaning on the seat in front.

"You're on his coat", she said, pointing and shooing the poor bloke, who still seemed dumbfounded. When he finally realised, moved and offered an apology, his accent suggested English wasn't necessarily his main language.

I was just about to put my headphones back in, when the woman - whose name I later found out was Helen - suddenly became very interested in my music collection.

"Oooh, what are you listening to? Can I have a listen?"

I couldn't see any harm, so I agreed to Helen's little social experiment and offered my left headphone.

"What's this? I like it." She said, bopping her head.

"Its a bluegrass band."

"Very catchy."

Helen then engaged in a strange a cappella imitation of a banjo, before offering a pearl of wisdom.

"I'm going to take a guess about you. Are you very religious?"

"Not in the slightest." Was my honest reply. Helen seemed more than a little surprised by this. But I began to think about all the coincidences that had led her to this assumption. I was coming back from a gig where I portrayed an office worker, and was thus dressed in a manner akin to a Bible salesman. I just happened to be listening to music stereotypical of a certain part of the southern US big on conservative christian values. And I happened to have my coat sat on by her friend while she was in earshot. All these things came together at exactly the right time to make her first impression of me entirely fake.

Makes me wonder about first impressions. Should we trust them? For all I know, Helen might be pretty quiet and non-judgemental when she's sober.