Now a Coach Driver.

Should change the name of the blog to coachdriving now but I'm not going to, it's been busdriving for too long to change. As I mentioned a few days ago I applied for a part time job diving a coach for one of the hotels here in Torquay. It's three days a week, two of those days are basically dropping of and picking up guests in the Midlands, that's Sunday and Monday and on Thursday evening taking those guests who wish to see a show to and from Babbacombe Theatre. Couldn't be simpler. Anyway I started on Sunday with a quick tour in the morning round Dawlish and Teignmouth then a trip up to Bristol where I meet an other coach driver. He had guests going to the hotel and my passengers were on the way home. To save all the passengers swapping coaches we, the drivers, just swapped coaches and I drove back to Torquay and the other driver headed north. The tour in the morning was dry with rain approaching up the Channel but it did stay dry. Then as we set of in the afternoon it started raining and didn't stop. All the way up and down the M5 nothing but rain.
There were a lot of new things to learn. The first being how to work a tachograph. Buses don't have tachos, the driver has a running board which sets out his/her running times and bus operators have to make sure these times don't contravene drivers hours. One thing I learnt was how to set up the tacho with my smart card. This records any driving I do automatically and checks to see I don't go over the time limits that are set by EU regulations. One thing it doesn't do is automatically register when I am on a rest period. I have to remember to do that myself. Very important I take 45 minutes break after a maximum of four and a half hours driving and if I forget to press the right button the tacho will think I haven’t taken my break and nasty things will happen. Cruise control, I know lots of cars have cruise control now a days but I have never used it before. Once on the motorway I switched it on and it felt a bit weird trundling along at 95kph without pressing the right hand peddle. Soon got used to it though. The retarders were different as well, on the bus the retarders kicked in automatically when the brake peddle was pushed down, on the coach there is a lever to operate them so you can slow down without pressing the brake peddle, just pull the lever. Neat. Getting on the coach was different as well. Coaches tend to carry passengers who have lots of luggage and this gets stored under the seating area. This does mean the passengers on a coach are fairly high up a the travel along which has the benefit of giving then a good view but it does mean there are 5 or 6 steps to climb up unlike modern buses where you can walk straight on. Does tend to make loading and unloading a coach a lengthy process. It also meant the coach driver, me, tends to sit much higher up than a bus driver. And lastly, an other new thing was driving past people standing at bus stops, never done that before.

Don't Crap On Our Beaches

Dog owner furious for being fined after he let his dog loose on a beach. (Head line in local paper).
Down here most beaches have a ban on dogs during the summer months and all such beaches have notices informing their owners of this ban. But one dog owner, a local coast guard seemed to think because his dog only wanted to play with the children he could ignore this ban. Yeah right.
Ian Pedrick, the landlord of the Hope and Anchor near Kingsbridge and one of the Hope Cove coastguards, received a £200 fine and ordered to pay £50.70 in costs from magistrates after his dog was seen on the beach several times. Maybe he though because he is a coast guard he was above the law.
I once stopped a bus at Penn Inn roundabout and a dog, not on a lead, boarded the bus. The owner then got on and I told him he needed to put the dog on a lead before they could travel. He looked amazed and claimed the dog was under his complete control. Someone should have told the dog that as it was running up and down the bus jumping up at passengers and in it's own mind having fun. But this dog was a pit bull terrier type and several of my passengers were not at all happy. The owners then stated that he couldn't put the dog on a lead as he didn't have a lead. No lead, no travel said I. The rest of the conversation was too unpleasant to report here, it is a family show after all.
I recount that little incident here to show how some dog owners seem to have so little regard to how other people view there little monsters. One of my earliest memories as very small child was being scared by a dog and ending up at the Manchester Royal Infirmary being held down by a nurse while two stitches were put in my head. Probably more frightening than being attacked by the dog. Back then it was common practice for dog owners to let their dogs out in the morning to roam the streets bored out of their minds hanging about on street corners in gangs scaring little old ladies and small children. Times have changed but some of this idea still lingers.
The big problem of dogs roaming free is toilet time. Dogs, unlike people who want to go to the toilet, will if they are out side just squat down and do it. If the owner isn't actually look at that moment then a pile of something unpleasant ends up on the beach where children are playing, hopefully without having to worry if they stand in something nasty. With some owners, even if they are looking when the dog craps, the same messy pile will remain on the beach. Please keep keep your dog off the beach and our beaches clean.

MSC Napoli, Gone At Last.

It's arrival sparked interest around the world. Not only was the event it's self so unusual but the scenes of mayhem and looting over the following few days, which local police appeared helpless to stop, and did little to improve the image of the South West. Getting the Napoli on to the beach at Branscombe Beach took less than a day. Getting rid of the wreak took two and a half years and cost about £100 million. Living in Torbay I did look at the map which showed the route the stricken ship was towed along and note how easy it would have been to bring the ship in to the Bay. It might even have occurred to who ever was in charge on that night that Torbay would have been a good place to beach the Napoli. Remember at the time it was expected the ship was about to sink but if beached it could be repaired and later re floated. Torbay would have been a more sheltered spot then Branscombe. Well if the idea did cross the mind of who ever was in charge that night to come into the Bay thank you for thinking of Branscombe. Sorry Branscombe.
Being towed to it's long resting place at Branscombe.

Ten minutes after coming ashore.

The most famous looted item in history, a BMW motorbike. With looter.

After all the containers had been removed.

The back of the ship being cut up in dry dock in Belfast. They should have cut it up into small pieces and sold them for souvenirs.

For all the interest it caused when it got here it's final departure gained a two minute film on BBC Spotlight and a mention in the Sidmouth Herald.

Brixham and Coach Driving

I had a day out in Brixham today. I always enjoy Brixham but it is a 40 minute trip on the bus. When you are driving the time goes much quicker than for the passengers. I think so anyway. 40 minutes is a long time just staring out the window even with the iPod for entertainment. Then when you get there all you want to do is get of the bus. Particularly today, it was sunny and warm for a change but the heating was on full blast on the bus and it it became a bit uncomfortable. It isn't the drivers fault, in a car if it gets too hot you turn a dial and the temperature goes down. On the bus the driver gets on the radio and asks for an approved person to come out to the bus and lift the engine flap and turn a tap on the engine. Then the heater continues to pump out hot air for an other 15 or 20 minutes before the bus begins to cool down. The driver can not open the engine flap because when the buses were fairly new a driver decided to turn the heat off. He managed to open the flat and turn the tap but couldn't close the flap again because no one had told him how. So he used brute force and the engine flap fell off and a notice went up saying drivers were not to open engine flaps ever again.

So when we got to Brixham this afternoon all we, the passengers, wanted to do was get off the bus and breath in a few lung fulls of clean fresh Devon air. Could we? No. The bus couldn't get to the stop because a coach had stopped on the bus stop to let some passengers disembark so they can have a wander round the town and spend loads of money in the pubs, chip shops and gift emporiums.

Eventually we got of and staggered down to the Harbour. This is the Harbour. How come the tide always seems to be out when I decide to go to Brixham?

Oh yes, one other thing, a week or so ago I saw an advert for a part time coach driver and I applied for the job. Yesterday I went down to the hotel for a test drive, just to see if I can actually drive a coach. Well I can and I am just waiting for a phone call to tell me if I have got the job. If I do get it I promise never to park the coach on the bus stop at Brixham Bank Lane. Torquay Strand, well that's a different kettle of fish completely.

Mobile Phones

If you come to Torquay and want to sit on a deck chair you could be sitting on a work of art.

Six weeks ago I went to the local Vision Express for my bi annual eye test. I got my first pair of glasses about 4 years ago now and they still seem to be working OK so I was hopeful I wouldn't need new, expensive glasses. When I went in I was sat down in front of a machine with my chin on a rest and told not to fall asleep. To make sure I didn't the resident torturer shot some blasts of air at my eyes. She then gave me a clicker and told me to click every time I saw a light come on. Still couldn’t have a quick nap. Then on to the chart and lots of magnifying glasses to see if I could actually see the chart, which I did manage in the end.
When all this was over the optician said, “ There hasn’t been any change in your eyesight so we wont be stinging you for a new pair of glasses, but.” Dramatic pause here. “The pressure inside your left eye ball is a little high. It should be below 22 and it is actually 23.” He went on to explain that this increase in pressure is an indication that I might have glaucoma and he was going to refer me to an eye specialist at The English Riviera Hospital (formally known as Torbay Hospital). Yesterday I went along. I’m not saying it was crowded but I overheard one woman say to here friend, “I’m getting good at these crossword puzzles since I been here, lots of practice.” Anyway I got to see my specialist and after peering through a fancy machine at my eyes he proclaimed his inability to find even the slightest sign of glaucoma. He did stress that the optician had been right to refer me as early detection was the best thing and that I should continue with my regular check ups every couple of years. Which I will.
And now for something completely different. Earlier this year I went to Australia to see how that nice Mr Rudd was getting on. Before I left I got on to Virgin Mobile in Oz and got free a sim card with $20 airtime. Cost $20. This meant I could use my own mobile phone to make phone calls in Australia without giving Orange back in the UK hand fulls of cash. Sorry Orange but I am sure you have more money than me. When I got back to the UK I had less than a dollar left so I had timed it nicely. Now my partner is going to America soon and he asked me if I could get an American sim card for his phone. Well the phone was the first problem. Mobile phones in Europe and Australia use different wave bands than in America so he would need a tri band phone, one that picked up 1900 mega bits, we use 900 and 1800 mega bits here. But tri band phones are available here, you can pick one up for £20 but it will be locked to a net work so you wont be able to put an American sim card in when you get there. Not unless you unlock the phone first. There are hundreds of companies out there in internet land offering to sell you a code to unlock your phone for ‘From 99p’. So unlock the phone and buy a sim card. Not that simple. In this country as in Australia sim cards can be got for free, you then buy as much or as little air time as you want. Lots of companies in the USofA will sell you a sim card but then there is the airtime to buy as well. As my friend is only going on holiday and only wanted the phone ‘just in case’ and to phone home now and then it will be cheaper to stick with his Orange sim card and send ‘wish you were here’ text messages every day. Unless anyone out there knows better....
PS It’s raining again, Showers, some heavy and prolonged was what the forecast said.
PPS The new phone has just this minute arrived so I will spend the next few hours happily (or otherwise) working out how to set it up.