Still Coach Driving

Thanks for the supportive comments, I have got used to the idea of continued coach driving. Sometimes it can be a bit of a drag, like sitting in a coach park somewhere waiting until it is time to pick the guests up after they have wandered round some town, village, beauty spot or Trago Mills. Or loading 50 cases on and of the coach. I was trying to move a case the other day, and I really mean trying, and a little old lady came up and said, "That's my case young man. Be careful with it." She was only down for a 4 day midweek break, what in god's name did she have in it I wondered. She must have read my thoughts and said she had everything of value she possessed so if she got broken into while down here in beautiful Torquay she would still have all her important possessions. Nice idea but hard on my poor old back.



As the M5 goes over the Bristol Avon you can see a car park on the seaward side of the road. Not just any car park as you can see but hundreds, possibly thousands of new cars waiting for someone to buy them. I had seen like this a lot recently and always thought that white seemed to be the predominate colour. But I managed to take this photo the other day, I hadn't been able to previously as the traffic is usually too heavy but this day someone else was driving. When I looked at the photo I realised that the cars had white covers, presumably to protect from sunlight and seagull droppings. I wonder how long those cars actually sit there before someone drives one away from a showroom under the mistaken impression he is driving a brand new car?


Note; for pylon enthusiasts I used the photo with a couple of pylons in it

New Ticket Machines

Today was an interesting day due to the introduction of new ticket machines. I was due to start at 08:54 and needed to catch a bus at 08:25 to get to work. I had thought about getting the bus before that one so I would have plenty of time to try out the machine without the benefit of the watchful eyes of understanding and sympathetic passengers. But being Sunday the earlier bus was at 07:45. So I set the alarm for 07:45 and caught the 08:25. I may be dedicated but only within reason. Still I had plenty of time, I wasn't due of St Marychurch until 09:21. So I handed in my module which worked on the old machine and received my smart card which worked on the new machine together with complete instructions on how to use the new machine. We have had training but a piece of paper with helpful hints is always comforting. Still with plenty of time I checked with control as to which bus I should take and went up to the park to find it. It wouldn't start. Great. In ten years of collecting buses from the park this is only the second that wouldn't start. Still the bus park is, if you are going to break down, the best place to do it. Plenty of fitters handy and even a few spare buses. But there was a delay and instead of 15 minutes playing with the machine at St Marychurch so I had some confidence I knew what I was doing, I got there with only a couple of minutes before I had to use the thing for real.



Actually, once I got the routine sorted out it went pretty well. The paper feed jammed once. This was due to the fact that on the old machines the ticket had to be gently pulled of the machine. Some people never managed to master this technique and snatched the ticket with the same force a shot putt putter uses to make sure the shot doesn't land on his foot. The new machine cuts the ticket for you but if you snatch before it has cut it can jam the machine.



I went to Teighmouth first thing, on the way back it got a bit misted up so I switched the demister on. This made it worse as I was now able to ascertain that visibility was down to 20 feet (6 metres). And there were still cars out there with no headlights on? The climb up to Labrador Bay is slow anyway and I was only a couple of minutes late into Torquay.



Tree cutting. I mentioned tree cutting earlier in the week. Back in the old days half a dozen drivers would climb aboard an open top bus and drive slowly along the route and hack away at anything that got anywhere near the bus. Being the people that drove buses along the road they did a comprehensive job. Those days are gone and the council do it now. But no one seems to have mentioned to council workers that when it rains trees get wet. And when anything gets wet it tends to make them heavier. And heavier things tend, due to dear old Issac's invention, move closer to the center of the Earth. And branches that do not overhang the road when dry do so when wet. And it was wet on the road to Teignmouth.

Queuing for car parks. Torquay was a fine sunny day today, unlike the road to Teignmouth, too nice to be working as many of my passengers kept telling me. Please don't.They also kept telling me I had a new ticket machine but that is a different matter. Lots of other people also noticed it was a fine sunny day and decided to have a drive to the sea side. One of our larger car parks is on Cary Parade, just past the bus stop. Once some drivers get in that queue you can see in the photo they seem to think we are trying to pull out in front of them so we too can get in the car park. Will they let us out? Well eventually they do but it can be a bit of a pain.