Wet and Windy

To day, as the BBC weather forecasters predicted was wet and very windy. Several trees came down, two of which ended up on the road way. The first fell out of Rock Walk which overlooks the front here in Torquay. It came down just missing two parked cars as it plunged to it's death at 7:00 am this morning blocking the road. Later out at Strawberry Bends on the way to Brixham another member of the arboreal fraternity also decided that enough was enough and ended it's days blocking the only road in the area big enough to take buses. The local council acted with remarkable speed and both roads were opened very quickly. Well done the council.

Double decker buses come under the category of high sided vehicle. High sided vehicles are often reported blown over on Motorways in the kind of winds we had to day. 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. It was also raining cats and dogs. It is very unlikely that a bus will be blown over due to the fact that most of the 11.5 tonne weight is low down. I have seen pictures of buses leaning over at 15 degrees without falling on their side. That doesn't stop them being blown about in high wind and we have a stretch of road on the way to Brixham known as Windy Corner and it certainly lived up to it's name to day. Not dangerous but you needed to concentrate.

Rest Day

To day was a rest day. So I get up and after a quick cup of coffee and a bite to eat I get my hair cut (a number two, nice and short) do some shopping down at B & Q ( a DIY store, not my favourite but the closest) Put some shelves up, back to B & Q for more shelves, cut the wood and drill the holes and decide I have had enough DIY and go to the pub for a couple of pints. Home in time for tea and slump in front of the telly, exhausted. More exhausted than if I had driven a bus all day.

Why do they call it a Rest Day?

Back at work tomorrow thank god.

Preston Road Works (3)

The car you can see circled in yellow is on the wrong side of the road and is blocking said road. I'm not sure how he got there as there are enough signs saying two way traffic; except that is in the road you can see on the right just behind the red van which is where he came from. The driver must be the only person in Torbay who didn't know there are road works going on here. The second problem as I drove through is shown by the photo below.


The two cars in front of me are displaying one of the two annoying tendencies that drivers show when stuck in traffic jams. The first is to get as close to the car in front as possible as this gives the impression that they are making progress. The second is to move out under the mistaken impression that by having a look at the problem ahead will some how make it go away. Note; the white van driver (everyone's pet hate) hasn't moved out and has left me plenty of room to get past. Might have problems getting past the bus though.

Enough on Preston Road Works. Unless there is a real big problem there over the next week.

What else has been happening recently, Oh yes, still raining. It has rained ever day so far this year. Getting to be like the Amazon Rain Forest. And last night the temperature fell right down to 11C. Which is the warmest January night time temperature on record. Either Global Warming is on it's way or as most Western Governments hope, it's just a glitch in the weather. My money is on the global thingamabob.

Preston Road Works (2)

The road works didn't get going until early afternoon and I went through from Paignton towards Torquay which wasn't too bad. However I would like to have hard words with whoever decided to allow parking on one side of the road through the diversion. This is what happened; some guy was heading for Paignton when he spotted a parking space so he stopped and tried to reverse into the space but he wasn't very good at reverse parking and took 3 attempts be for giving up and driving off. The next driver thought, "I can do better than that." and had a go. By this time the traffic was grid locked. Nothing was moving. True the second driver was better than the first and managed to end up parallel to the curb but about 2 feet from it. Result, the bus behind him could not get past as there was a 38 tonne truck coming the other way and it took several minutes while this mess was sorted. Then I had to pull into the bus stop which was full of no parking cones so I had to stop 2 feet from the curb. An other HGV was behind me and he pulled out a couple of feet to pass me and "Oh my God, Look what's coming the other way." HGV number 3. Result more grid lock. So come Torbay council, get a load of no parking cones from some where and and stop all parking through the diversion.

Some buses were delayed, I was about 15 minutes down at one point but I did hear on the radio that others were upto 30 minutes down. Why can't they do these road works on Christmas Day and Boxing Day when we don't run a bus service? Make it easier all round.

Preston Road Works

This is Preston, in Paignton not Lancs. Normally what happens here is we turn left at the lights ahead to go round the one way system in to Paignton. From to day for 8 days we will be going straight on, the wrong way down a one way street. This is due to road works in Seaway Road. I haven't been out there yet but I will be taking a good book with me to work today as we are expecting long delays. If you drive through Preston please find an other way to go for the next week or get a good book.