Routine

Routine can either mean something that is dull and boring or it can mean a way of doing things to ensure they get done. It can also mean both. I am very much a creature of routine and knock me out of that routine and I am dead. Take today. My usual routine is to arrive at work and walk into the Pay in Room, put my module in the machine to sign it on and stand and wait while it does sign on. Then put my signature on the sign on sheet to prove I have actually arrived at work. Finally pick up my running board which lists all the times and places I have to go to today. Then, having checked at what time I must leave the building, I can now indulge in the favorite pastime of most bus drivers , standing around having a chat. But today as I arrived I decided to have a cup of coffee so up to the rest room to do battle with the coffee machine. I am now dangerously out of routine. Into the pay in room with said cup of coffee gained from the wonderful coffee machine (I have to say that, it is rented by the Union and if I say anything nasty about it the Union may stop me using it) I start chatting with one of the controllers who is cleaning the cash machine. Sign module on? The though never enters my head, neither does sign myself on on the sign on sheet. Not until, that is, I get down to the bus, put my module in and this appears on the ticket machine screen,

"NOT SIGNED ON."

in BIG letters.

Do I panic? Of course I do. I also burst into tears, neither of which helps. So I turn to those who are paid tons more money than me for help. The Controllers. Now there are three ways of dealing with this situation, apart from panic and tears that is. The first is to run back up to the payin room with module and sign it on, 3 minutes back up, 15 seconds sign on 3 minutes back down. Take me about 10 minutes and I would be unable to move for an other 5 minutes but that was back when I was young and fit and Harold Wilson was leader of the Labour Party, God knows how long it would take now. Second I could wait for the next bus to arrive and nicely ask the passengers, "Due to a problem beyond my control." they wouldn't mind changing to the next bus please and then driving round the block and back to the depot and signing the bloody module on. Now I am not keen on that idea mainly because it upsets the passengers and it upsets the driver behind who has to do my work and it upsets management because they have spent a fortune printing emergency tickets so why didn't you use them type of questions would be whispered in my ear while rubber truncheons and thumb screws would be removed from desk draws and placed with menace in the pending tray. So I suggested going to Newton and back using emergency tickets and some one could sign a spare module on and hand it to me as I passed the depot on the way to Brixham. What a good idea said the controller. Off you go.

As it happened the spare driver was just about to take a bus up to Exeter so she followed me up the road and got a live module to me.Thanks spare driver And I only had to sell one emergency ticket, all the rest were free passes or megariders. Could have been a lot worse. Next time I want a cup of coffe I will sign on first, promise.