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.
This is what Victoria Parade by the Harbour in Torquay looks like since yesterday after the council had moved on with the chain saws and diggers and removed a considerable amount of vegetation including lots of palm trees. Torquay is famous for it's Palm Trees so the action came as a little bit of a shock and was yet an other example of our wonderful council's lack of understanding of public relations. The reasons the council gave for cutting back on all this formally living matter include unsociable behaviour but were unable to itemise exactly what the unsociable behaviour was and rats. It was also part of a spring clean in the Harbour area.
This is what it used to look like. Many people have commented that while they might be in favour of the change it was a little unsporting of the council not to have told anyone about the chop before it happened. The council responded by explaining that there had been a press release on the councils own web site and it wasn't their fault if no one bothered to read it.
Be warned, TREES are DANGEROUS!
