Lost, no just not completely sure where I'm going all the time..

After saying that Brixham could look a bit grim in the rain I thought I might put the record straight and balance the matter up a little and show what Brixham looks like when the sun is shinning, which it does quite a lot down here.

One of the problems when you are driving on a new route is lack of local knowledge on the route. We go out with a mentor, a driver experienced in the route so we know which roads to drive along and where the stops and fare stages are but that doesn't completely prepare us for all the little extras that come along. Take the Windy Corner stop, it is also known as Broadsands Road, Churston shops, Churston Library, Spears, The chip shop and the stop just before the Ring Road. Most stops have multiple names like this and it takes a little time to learn them. We also get asked for local landmarks, hotels, shops, garden centres, car show rooms, pubs, the curly whirly bridge, car parks, parks, supermarkets, schools, MacDonald's, DIY stores, the balloon, the circus (when it's in town), the railway station (there are 5 of them on the 12 route), the Harbour (will you tell me when we get there?), churches ( no they don't burst into flames when I drive past). Now and then I get asked for somewhere I haven't heard of, usually it's something on the lines of, "We've forgotten the name of our hotel but it is up a hill." Almost everywhere in Torquay is either up a hill or down a hill, it's the nature of the place.

Anyway this evening a passenger boarded the bus and asked for The Little Theatre. I pulled my face and regretted I didn't know where it was. The passenger produced a leaflet which suggested that you all come along the see Pirates of Penzance that evening or you would regret it for ever and ever. All the details were there, who was in it, what it was about, what time the show started and how much it would cost. What it didn't say was where the Little Theatre is. Now Wembey Stadium doesn't need an address, nor do the Houses of Parliament; The White House and Sydney Opera House probably come under that category as well, they are definitely stand alone sorts of places. But the Little Theatre? The name it's self does suggest it isn't exactly big, right? Then the passenger said she had been told it was in Babbacombe. I was sitting in the driving seat of a bus about to head for Babbacombe. What could be better? I decided to check but an other driver was using the radio so I set off. A little way up the road the radio fell silent so I send my message out into Torbay at the speed of light in the hope someone could tell me exactly where the Little Theatre was. By now I was at Wellswood a mile up the Babbacombe Road. Turns out the passenger didn't need to go to Babbacombe, just walk 200 yards up the Babbacombe Road, turn right at the lights and an other half mile down that road and she would end up at the Pirates of Penzance. She had a day ticket so I sent her across the road to catch a bus back to town with directions to find the Theatre. I hope she did. Interestingly, Pirates of Penzance was first performed here in Torbay, in Paignton to be exact.