Odd things that happened to day

First we had the Grand opening of the new, rebuilt Lydl store on Newton Rd. For weeks we have had minor problems down by the store as the car park has been reduced in size while the rebuilding was going on but to day was chaos. The main road there has Yellow lines either side and normally is clear of traffic. To day, even though NCP Parking Attendants were patrolling, both sides of the road were full of parked cars. Not one parking ticket was issued. Why not I hear you ask? All the blue badge holders in Torbay had turned up and they can park just about any where they want. And they do.
It doesn't say much for the Bay when the main attraction for all the disabled people here is the reopening of a food store. I had some Lydl baked beans once, 4p a tin and they tasted just like 4p. As well as this lot there were people who had come from yards away for this grand re-opening and were lined up in the middle of the road trying to get in to a clearly full car pak from both directions will a grim determination to get in and sample what ever cheap samples were going and never mind if they blocked the road. Please Mr Lydl, next time you re open your store hire a couple of police persons to direct traffic.

Then on the Post Office roundabout some idiot parked his 20 tonne van and blocked the road while he wandered off some where, Torquay came to a sudden stop for ten minutes before he came back and drove away without a care in the world.

Then in to Paignton where we have a diversion due to road works. This diversion means we have to turn from Hyde Rd into Torbay Rd, a very tight turn at best of times. Yesterday I spoke to someone fron the Town Hall about the fact that Blue Badge holders were parking on this corner making it very difficult for us to get round with the buses. He said he would get on to the police and get them to put some No Parking Cones down. With all the blue badge holders down at Lydls I didn't expect to find any there to day. There were. Some people are determined to cause chaos and when you have a go at them they just smile, point to their badges and say, "I can park where I like." And then walk down to the sea front 300 yards away.
Oh yes, there were no cones any where to be seen.

Then came the news over the bus radio that the end of Shipey Lane was close by the junction of Newton Rd. There is a railway bridge just round the corner and a body had been seen on the railway line. Shipey Lane was closed for 3 hours.

Then as I was driving up Abbey Rd I noticed that 4 or 5 young men (in their twenties) were pushing an other man about. He saw the bus coming and ran up to the bus in some distress, he even tried to press the emergency entrance button to get on the bus. I opened the door and let him on and closed it before anyone else could get on. On of the other men shouted some thing not nice but then walked away and I drove of up the road. The men who had boarded the bus was very grateful, promised me a pint, he also had a ticket which I punched.

Just an other day at work.

Oh yes, I handed my NVQ folder in a few days ago and I got it back to day, marked. I haven't had a look yet, too scared.

Bus Driver's Hours

This subject is now closed.

To day at work I heard a story that may or may not be true. It concerned a bus company situated at the Liverpool end of the East Lancs Road with a name not greatly different from a John Ford movie staring John Wayne. The story suggested that about 84 drivers and the bus company had parted in lest than amicable circumstances.

Any one out there add anything that may throw more light on this event?

DVD Recorder and Internet Shopping.

Last December that nice Mr Blair sent me £200.00 so I would vote for him; sorry so I could keep warm. We decided the best way to keep warm was not to move from in front of the TV all winter. With so many repeats on the these days (as a TV watcher since 1953 I can affirm that nothing has changed in that department) we decided to spend the heating allowance on a DVD recorder so at least the choice of repeats would be our own. Switch on computer and ask Empire Direct to send us a DVD in return for heating allowance. Please don't tell DWP or they may want the £200 back. DVD arrived complete with Instruction Manual which I now know was first written in Japanese, translated into Apatche then into Latin, into French, into Urdu, into Spanish,into Glaswegian and finally into English. It wasn't all these translations that made impossiblele to follow; it was the fact that the person who wrote it in the first place had never even seen a DVD recorder. He worked as a chicken farmer in Kamogawa.
The arrival of the second DVD recorder meant we had to set it up once again. After looking at the instructions for several hours we decided that this time it might be better if we threw the book out the window and not the recorder. Any way the recorder works fine now and have just watched the 2nd episode of Big Red Bus which I missed on Thursday as I was working.

PS this years heating allowance has been put toward air fare to Australia; dont need too much heat there. Again please don't tell the DWP.

Windy and Wet

When it is dull in Torquay it is dull. After a few days of dry cold weather to day we had wet windy weather. First a sign at the bus station got the wind treatment. Fortunately a keen eyed member of staff spotted the sign and was able to quickly secure it before any damage was done. Then down the road at Livermead a drain got blocked and a poor council workman had to clear the blockage without being washed away by the tidal wave created by passing buses.

Then two passengers who had come down to Torquay for a long weekend got on the bus and asked if it was going to get any better. I told them it was but if you click here you can see I was stretching the true a little. Well a lot really.