Devon General Rally

Here is a date for the diary. 27 May 2007 at Oldway Mansion in Paignton. Catch a 12, 12A, 12B or if you are coming from Totnes or Plymouth then it's a FirstBus for you, the X80. The Devon General Society will have on display and will be running trips in a number of West Country buses dating back to the 1930s. Starts at 10:00 and lasts until 17:00.

It is a rest day on the 27th so I will be there with the camera and will display lots of photos on the blog. I say it's a rest day but it just might not be as there is an other event happening that day which could change my days off. For Stagecoach in Torbay it is the start of Summer. New timetables and running times will be published any day now. The Duty Boards and our new rotas will be published at the same time or shortly after. Who am I kidding? The new rotas and duty boards will arrive some time on Thursday the 24th of May and if we are lucky we get to look at them some time Friday afternoon. Plenty of notice concerning what could be major changes from the Sunday.

It rained a lot to day. Tomorrow, Sunday is going to be much worse, it will start raining about 04:00 and stop shortly after the Ark gets built. Rain is forecast for the next few days which can only mean one thing. The Devon County Show is next weekend. Web site click here

I was reading on bus driver jimmy's blog about changing drivers. To day I was waiting at Cary Parade in Torquay to take over a bus. While I was waiting the queue went from just me to ten people. Bus came in and I moved forward and said in my loud, official, slightly sympathetic voice, "We're just changing drivers. Wont be too long." It had been a quiet day and the bus wasn't due out for over 4 minutes but I felt obliged to rush with all those people anxious to get on the bus. A while back I timed how long it takes me , 1 minute 45 seconds if I rush, 1 minute 30 seconds if I don't. So seat in the right place, steering wheel and cash try also in the right place and hit lots and lots of keys on the ticket machine until the display says, "Loading Fares".

"All done," says I. The first boarded, wanted Paignton. I'm going the other way. Next, "Where does the 85 run from?" Next Brixham, alas, also going the other way. Next,"What time's the last bus?" Next, wanted Newton Abbot but had fish and chips open in a plastic container. Fish and chips have enough grease on them to give any accident lawer halucinations about big fat cheques. "I'm not going to eat them." Yeh right. You're going to sit there with a bag of fish and chips neatly wrapped up for 40 minutes all the way to Newton and then eat them. You must really like cold food or think I was born yesterday, in which case I wouldn't be driving a bus just yet. Finally someone got on who was going my way and had the money to buy a ticket and wanted to travel now. Quite a relief, all that rushing would have been wasted otherwise.