I should have looked worried.

Experienced bus/coach driver, hard & conscientious worker, team player, reliable, polite, careful, willing, honest, considerate, long time blogger, keen photographer and good looking, requires employment in the Torquay area.

As you can see the company, McColl's of Argyll, has closed with immediate effect putting me and 65 other people out of work, 20 in Torquay, 8 in the Midlands and the rest in Scotland.

If you know of any gainful, suitable employment going please let me know. Thanks

Today's the day; Maybe.

It's 8:41 Monday morning. The big meeting is being held in Scotland at 12 Noon so I should hear sometime this afternoon what is happening. Meanwhile I am still on holiday here in sunny Manchester and after the running about of the last two days the plan is to go into the city centre to look at what has changed in the last 30 years since I used to live here.

I don't look too worried do I?

The Story Continues.

After speaking with the lady from the administrators last week I was fairly confident that I would continue to drive a coach for ages yet. Then this Monday I got back to the hotel with 40 new guests, some of whom were staying till Friday and the remainder staying till Sunday, the manager told me that they would all be going home on Friday and then the hotel would temporary close for a week while everything was ‘sorted out’. What exactly 'sorted out' meant is anyone’s guess. No trips out were to be arranged, not even the trip to Babbacombe Theatre on Thursday evening, a long held tradition of the hotel this trip to the theatre.

There was an atmosphere of gloom about the place, many of the housecleaning staff thinking of looking for other jobs without waiting for the result of the ‘sorting out’ meeting on Monday coming (16th). Not that I blame them. I was thinking of doing the same. Then came the news that Dawlish Coaches had folded putting about 35 people on the dole, many of them coach drivers, all of whom would be out there looking for work.

So a weeks enforced holiday. I decided a trip up to Manchester would be a good idea, I would be two thirds of the way there, a short bus and tram ride would get me into Wolverhampton to catch a National Express coach for Manchester. Wolverhampton was cold and wet, more like November than August and the coach was 45 minutes late due to traffic on the M5 and M6.

Manchester is a warmer and sunnier, just. My brother and his wife and a couple of friends were going out for a meal on Saturday at a pub, The Lord Raglan the other side of Bury, a very nice meal and probably one pint too much. We were on our way home down this country lane and out of the darkness appeared a cow. This doesn't happen in Torquay.


Anyway as soon as any results come out of the meeting tomorrow I will let you know.

Ginger and the Administrator

An other week gone by, been out in the coach on trips to Plymouth, Brixham and Dartmouth with 40 odd people. When I say old I mean about 40 people, not that the people were odd. Well not too odd any way. When I go to Dartmouth I usually take a book to read while my coach party is taking in the sights and wondering how the locals manage when beer is over 3 quid a pint. Yesterday I got to the coach park and there was only one coach parked up. The drivers said hello and then talked like he had been stranded on a desert island for the last 20 years. I never got to read my book. While in Plymouth I wandered up to the Comet store. I recently acquired a Comet gift voucher and decided to have a look round to see if there was anything I fancied, I figured as Plymouth was much larger than Torquay there would be more on offer. Sad mistake. The Plymouth Comet would fit in The Torquay Comet several times over so I ended up coming away empty handed.

Back home that evening I discovered that Ginger had gone on walkabout again. Last time he was away for 4 days before returning. We were getting quite worried. Now our back garden has a wall about 5 feet high all round it but we removed the gate so the cats, both getting on in years could get out into the wild ground at the back. Ginger struggles the get up onto the sofa of an evening so we figured a 5 foot wall would keep him in so I put the back gate back, hopefully turning the garden into a cat Colditz. When he vanished the 2^nd time we checked the house, no sign, the shed, no sign, the garden, no sign. Looks like his plucky efforts to climb onto the sofa are all an act. Still he turned up a couple of days later without any explanation as to where he had been. He is beginning to treat the house like a hotel. Still likes his food though.

What else has happened this week? Not a lot except that when I went into the hotel on Tuesday lunch there was a strange lady in the office. When I say strange I don't mean she was wearing black leather clothing and 6 inch stiletto heels and carrying an assortment of whips. I mean I had never seen her before, Apparently she works for a firm of administrators and wasn't here on a social visit. She was here to crack a whip even though she didn't have one on show. To cut a long story very short the company is in administration and we can't even nip out and get a box of matches without her say so. She did stress that for the time being every thing would continue as normal except for the problem buying matches. She did say wages would be paid on time and in full. I get paid into the bank on Thursday so at 1 minute past midnight Thursday morning I opened my online bank account and guess what? Wrong, I had been paid. Lets see what happens each Thursday from now on. I am hoping someone comes along and makes a reasonable offer for the company some time in the next few months or even weeks because I can't see this situation dragging on long into next year.

Just an other average weekend

An other mad weekend, Saturday evening up to Walsall dead then on Sunday 4 pick ups in Stafford, Walsall, Dudley and Oldbury. Then down to Torquay with 17 passengers. Waiting for me in Torquay were 55 more passengers who were on their way home. The other driver was also there so he drove back to Wednesbury, where 4 minibuses were waiting to carry the passengers to their homes. However there should have been 5 minibuses but one driver had cried of at the last moment which meant there were 7 passengers wanting to go to Hinckley and Leicester. Guess who took them. So instead of finishing at 6:30 I finished at 9:15 after a mad dash along the M6 and the M69. Road works on the M6, which have been on going for months meant I go back to the hotel after the kitchen staff had gone home but the nice young lady behind the bar provided me with a phone number of the local Indian Take away. Twenty minutes late a very nice Chicken Ticka turned up which went down nicely, with a little help from a pint of Carling.

Tomorrow, Monday it's the same but without a spare driver and without the side trip to Leicester. Tuesday it's just a run from Walsall to Torquay dead (without passengers), Wednesday it's a day off (forecast is for rain all day Wednesday).