We're all going on a summer holiday.

There I was, sitting on the wall at the side of Newton Road waiting to take over a bus for the second half of my duty when this bus came by, all done up in Devon General livery. The children probably aren't going on a summer holiday but down to MacDonald's for a Big Mac birthday party. They seemed to be enjoying themselves so far.

I hope they got home before it started to rain, which it did later in the day, cats and dogs style. We don't seem set for much sun this year if what's happened so far is anything to go by.

Students; Two Days, Two Incidents.

Wednesday I pulled up at the stop by Torbay Leisure Centre where about 15 people were waiting to catch a bus in the direction of Brixham. They were mostly foreign language students but there were also two gang leaders. One of the students was not wearing a shirt and I explained to the gang leader that the student would have to put a shirt on if he wanted to get on the bus. This is Torquay after all, not Blackpool. Then the student filed on the bus showing their bus passes before going upstairs. However the last two students didn't bother with their passes and I called them back so they could show their passes. They pretended not to understand and stood at the bottom of the stairs while the gang leader explained to them that we have this quaint custom in England of paying for your bus rides. So I watched in the mirror that lets me see what passengers are doing on the bus and what these two passengers were doing was taking two passes from students standing on the stairs. God; I've never seen that trick before, not this week anyway. Now I had three choices, I could pretend that I had not seen this exchange and let them travel. I would sooner walk into Anfield Football ground with a banner saying "Man U are the best football team in the world". Choice two would be to check all the students already on the bus and those without passes could pay the fare. That takes too long and is not fair on those passenger who just want to get to Brixham. Choice three was ask the whole party to get of the bus and wait for the next bus and tell the driver of the next bus to what had happened. At one stage the male gang leader told me not to get too upset by all this. I just told him I wasn't upset; just annoyed. He seemed to think it was all a mistake and they meant to show their passes but forgot. Yeh, right. Like I meant to pay my income tax but forgot

The problem with the bus passes is that the students are not compelled to buy them but once they have spent a day using the buses the realise that paying all those bus fare can be an expensive business and start to play pass the pass. I can not understand why the language schools don't include the cost of the bus pass in the cost of the course. It would save me having to be nasty now and then.

The second incident left me feeling a certain amount of sympathy for a group of students. On the way into Brixham there is a Go Cart Race Track which is popular with people who like going fast. Me I just drive a bus. It is next to the Brixham Park and Ride site which is not actually up and running until next Monday. There is however a bus shelter and in big yellow letters the words Bus Stop are spread out in the roadway for all to drive over. This group had come out of the Go Carts and were standing at, what appeared to them to be a bus stop and wondering why all the buses were driving past without stopping. Well we can't until next Monday when the Par & Ride opens.

I have suggested that a fixed, durable notice be put in the shelter explaining that the stop only works when the Park and Ride is operating but as with many of the things I suggest nothing gets done.

As you can see the Park and Ride does get well used and is cheaper than driving into Brixham, adding to the traffic,and trying to find a parking place. I have heard that it will be there all year round from now on and not just in Summer so no need for the notice after all.

Big day on Saturday for Torquay United FC, their first game as a non league club, a friendly against Plymouth Argle. If they were playing a team made up of Plymouth Argle supporters they might just stand a chance of getting a result. Not a great football fan but good luck to the team now they are in the Blue Square Premier Division and are presently 21st out of 24 according to the BBC web page.

Students and Water

At this time of year Torquay, in common with lots of sea side towns, gets an influx of foreign language students all here to improve their English. I like the idea, the more Europeans who learn English the better. I means when I wander in to some foreign bar in some sun drenched Mediterranean resort and ask the person behind the bar, "Do you speak English?"; they are more likely to say,"Yes."With a Devon accent. Saves me learning Spanish. One English custom I would like the Language schools to instill in their pupils is the idea that in England we queue for the bus, we don't just walk up to the bus and get on ignoring the 20 people already waiting. Maybe they do and the students get forgetful. They get reminded very quickly if they try and jump the queue to get on my bus.

I had had a fairly busy day to day and was on the last trip from Brixham to Newton when the water alarm went off. Now some of our buses do have a problem with the water in the radiators, it doesn't seem to want to stay there. I'm not sure what the problem is but I know it isn't just our depot that has this problem. Anyway, I got on the radio and explained to control who said I should continue to Paignton Bus Station and change the bus when I got there. He also said he would phone the fueler who works there each evening and have him get a bus ready. There must have been a failure in communications because when I got to Paignton there was no new bus waiting and the fueler just said, "There is a watering can in the garage." and walked away. Great help he was. Three watering cans later the radiator was full and the bus back on the road but it all took 10 minutes which wasn't fair on the 50 people sat on the bus while I lugged a watering can full with 10 litres water back and forth 3 times.

One of the things I missed while I was one holiday was the Smoking Ban in pubs which came into force on the 1st of July. Now if you want a smoke with your pint you have to nip outside and hope no one has nicked your pint, or your seat, while you have been feeding your addiction. A couple of questions here, the pub I drink in, the Cider Press in Fleet Walk must have had at least 25 ash trays. Some pubs would have had more, some less but there are 50 000 pubs, bars restaurants etc in the country. That's a lot of redundant ash trays, the bottom must have fallen out of the used ashtray trade recently. Is there now a European Union ashtray mountain some where that we haven't been told about? Can it be seen from space? And, slightly more seriously,what about all those firms that made ashtrays for the pub trade, how many people are now out of work and have the government made provision for them? Bet they haven't.

First Day Back

Sunday morning, bright and early and back to work after two weeks holiday. Because it is early I get to take a bus out of the park which means I have to do a bus inspection and fill in the First User on the defect card. Part of the inspection means checking the water in the radiator. For this we have half a dozen watering cans lying a round the park and the only one I could find had been run over by a bus and was a bit squashed. So I put the defect card on the ground while I filled the radiator and drove off with it still on the ground. Fortunately I had a spare in my bag so when I realized I didn't have a defect card I able to fill in the spare card. Then to my first customer. He wanted a ticket for £1.70 but only had £1.65. Five pence down and I have only been out 10 minutes. A bit further down the road an other driver got on the radio to report that someone had left her handbag on the bus at the Grand Hotel. Nice start to some one's day. Ten minutes later the next bus arrived at the Grand and the young lady without her handbag asked the driver how she went about getting her handbag back. He radioed the driver who had reported the lost handbag and said see was going up Fleet Walk and would be back at the Grand in 2 hours. As i was going down Fleet Walk at the time I got on the radio and told the driver still at the Grand to tell the young lady here handbag would be at the Grand in 10 minutes. Then I flagged down the driver with the handbag and retrieved it from her. So from leaving her handbag on the bus to getting it back took 25 minutes instead of two hours. That's service for you.

While I was away the was a little bit of trouble on Paignton Bus Station with FirstBus staff handing out flyers stating that FirstBus were cheaper between Torquay and Paignton, which is true but not much use if you want to go onto Brixham. Anyway the Police were called and thousands were arrested in the riots that followed. (No, sorry that's not true. I must have been reading the wrong page in the news paper) No arrests were made and a Police spokesman said, "We gave advice and the situation calmed down quickly."
One thing I did notice as I drove along is that FirstBus have put their timetable on all the bus stops between Torquay and Paignton, some thing the never bothered with before. I also notice that there are slightly bigger that the Stagecoach time tables (which have always been there). This is the sort of thing that can completely destroy peace conferences."Why is your flag bigger than ours. This is an insult to the Democratic Peoples republic of Stagecoach Devon." says the leader of the peace delegation before storming out and arming the nuclear warheads. Lets hope it doesn't get to that. By the way, our fares to Plymouth are cheaper the FirstBus. Four quid return. You don't get better than that.

The bus above is not in any war, it just goes every hour for €1.25 to Andorra la Vella 8 km away from St Julia. The top picture is Andorra la Vella, capital town of Andorra. Nice place.

Andorra

Here I am in Andorra on holiday, I have been here before, 23 years ago and much has changed. If you are an out of work builder this must be the place to be. Every where you look there are new buildings or there are buildings going up. It used to be here that if there was a flat bit of land you grew something on it. Now even if there there isnt a flat piece of land you get a big big bulldoser and make a flat piece of land and cuilt either a wharehouse which you fill with millions of pounds worth of beer, wine spirits, tabbaco and electical goods and sell it all to the French and Spanish. Failing that you build a hotel for the ski trade. car drivers are nicer here than in Spain and the road signs and road markings are clearer too.

Home in a few days so a few pictures and then back to the bus driving on Sunday.