The last few weeks I have been boring everyone with Rock Walk. Sorry but it has been the predominant event of the last few weeks. I had a walk around the site this morning and tried out crane driving just incase I get fed up, as if, with bus driving. The crane should be gone by Saturday evening and part of the road open some time next week but there is a big tidy up job still to be done and as I saw today some slabs of rock are unstable and all the face needs to be checked. We would not want a slab of rock falling down onto the road just a bus went by would we. Shame on all those who cried Yes.As usual today has been a struggle to keep on time, during the day not always successfully. One evening comes it gets easier. I was due off Brixham at18:45 and did indeed leave at 18:45. On time leaving Paignton at 19:03 and I arrived at Preston shelter on time. Two boys got off the bus and I closed the doors to go when one of the boys knocked on the door and pointed at an old dear who was running up to catch the bus so I opened the doors and waited. She wanted the Princess Theatre. Now there is a stop across the road from the theatre (see photo below) but we aren't stopping there at the moment.

So I explained this but added that the bus would stop at Cary Parade which is just round the corner. Big mistake, I should have sold her the ticket and dropped her on Cary Parade and then given her directions to the theatre. Explaining Albert Einstein's theory of relatives would have been easier, and more to the point, quicker. Then when she finally pretended she understood what I was saying she pulled out a purse. From this she extracted a five pound note to pay the £2.40 return fare. She then put the note back in her purse and uttered the words ALL bus drivers dread. "Hang on, I think I've got some change. I know you bus drivers like the right money." NO, not at 7 O’clock in the evening when we have more change than the Bank of England. We want you top give us the £5 note. We can give you change about ten to the power 27 times faster than you can find the right money. PLEASE, PLEASE give me the fiver. A search through a purse slightly smaller than a condom packet, a search that lasted almost as long as the search for extraterrestrial life revealed 26 pence, a polo mint and a safety pin. Grudgingly the £5 note was handed over. At Belgrave Road, where the diversion starts an other old dear came up to me. He had heard me trying to explain the concept of "diversion" to the little old lady at Preston Shelter and decided a little bit of knowledge was a good thing. "Where exactly did I go from here?" he wanted to know. So I explained where the bus went and where it stopped. (everywhere??????). "And which way does it normally go?" The sigh I let out could have been heard by humpback whales swimming in the Atlantic Ocean 200 km away though not by my guest on the bus. Never the less I explained. "Oh right." he said and got of the bus. "Doesn't effect me, I'm staying at the Belgrave Hotel (which is on Belgrave Rd, two minutes walk away) and I'm going home tomorrow. Have a good evening"



The other passengers that made me cry got on in the afternoon. A couple we a baby buggy that had about 15 plastic bags hanging from it. Now as soon as I saw them at the stop I knew I could have a problem as I already had two large buggys on the bus. Two unfolded buggies is the max. Any more and they have to be folded and stowed in the luggage rack. "Sorry," said I as I opened the doors. "I don't have room for your buggy, there will be an other bus along in 3 or 4 minutes."

"Oh," said she, "I fold it" By the time the bags and baby had been removed and buggy folded two buses had gone past and grass had started to grow under the bus.



I do love this job.