Bad Weather, Bad Luck and Delays. Plus a couple of other things.

Well it's Saturday night and it's blowing a gale. 60 mph gusts expected tomorrow from the north east so expect the sea front here in Torquay to be closed at some time around high tide which is around midday. The young farmers didn't pick the best weekend to come and wreak the town bus who cares? Torquay United were seconds away from a win that would have given then a 2 point lead over Crawley but gave away a goal in the 97th minute. With one game left United need to win and Crawley lose or draw. If Crawley win then they get promoted and Torquay are at the mercy of the play offs. Exeter are coming down to Division Two next year and Plymouth Argyle after a very rocky season both on and of the pitch managed to win just enough games over the last few weeks to stay in the league.
Spent Thursday and Friday driving a bus once again. Devonian Motor Service 500 on Thursday to Broadsands and Galmpton which was mostly uneventful except for the 3 O'clock run. Galmpton isn't exactly blessed with wide road, particularly around the junior school. When I went to junior school 50 years ago no one came and picked me up in a car after school. I just walked home like everyone else, come hail, rain, smog or shine. And I managed to cross 3 main roads without getting run over.
If you see a sign which says no parking zone then it pays not to park. Anywhere in Cockington that isn't a car park isn't a place to park. Our hard working parking attendants drive into Cocking as often as the 50 service does and it's always nice for them if it isn't a wasted journey.

And finally, it's almost the end of the month and the plans for the revamp of Fleet Street should be on display any day now. Oh yes, there is yet and other delay with the Torwood St development. That must make it delay number 15 in the last 4 years. I wish the council would delay collecting my council tax as often.

A Ride on a B6, P701 BTA

Years ago, when I first started working for Stagecoach the 12 route was covered by Alexandra B6's. Single deckers, carried 50 passengers between Newton and Brixham. Then Exeter needed the B6's to cover a route that had been running Mercs and Ivecos but passenger numbers had grown and the B6 could carry the extra numbers so Torquay lost them and got a load of not very good, quite old Tridents on the grounds that the 12 service wasn't managing with single deckers. In truth, Exeter wonted them and what ever Exeter wanted Exeter got.

Anyway a local bus enthusiast decided to buy 701, the first of the B6's to come into service which was 15 years ago this week. To commemorate that the owner decided to take the bus for a run along the route and invited a few other bus enthusiasts along for the ride.

I went along just for the ride. I used to like driving B6's and was sorry to see them go.

More pictures on Flickr at Torquay Trivia .

Loads of Cars In Fleet St

What are all these cars doing driving down Fleet St? Have they all decided to play follow my leader, are they all lost? Well no, there was what the police call "an incident" on Friday evening involving two young men and one knife and Abbey Rd in front of the Central Cinema was closed while the forensic department did an inch by inch search of the area. When I was in Abbey Rd it was taped shut, no one could go through, not even pedestrians. A little sweet, frail old lady wanted to go down to the Post Office Roundabout but even she had to walk 200 yds back up the hill, moderately steep to you and me but a mountain to her.

Sometimes I think the police go a little over the top when roads get closed for long periods of time. I know they have to collect evidence and all that but not letting people walk through a road that had been closed for 15 hours by then seemed a bit mean.
Anyway the traffic moved down Fleet Street with out too much of a problem, mostly because there were no buses coming up Fleet Street, they all had to divert up Belgrave Rd.
There are plans coming out soon for the redevelopment of Fleet Street. They should be interesting. One idea to reduce congestion caused by buses getting stuck at the north bound bus stop as they do now would be to do away with this bus stop completely, it isn't that far a walk to Cary Parade and it is down hill all the way. Soon as the plans are out I will have a look at them and of course pick them to pieces.

A Night to Remember and An Hour at the Doctors

Yesterday I watched the film, "A Night to Remember" for only the second time. And a very good film it is too. The first time I watched it was at The Odeon in Withington roadworks, Whalley Range back in 1958. It lacks the colour of James Cameron's remake, called "Titanic" but didn't have an annoying love story running through it.

 

At the time we couldn't understand why it didn't have enough life boats. I still can't understand why it didn't have enough life boats. I mean compared to the cost of the ship a few more lifeboats wouldn't have made much difference. I expect it's the total indifference of those in power towards the struggling masses. Not a lot changed there.

 

Today I went to Chatto Rd surgery to have some photos taken, 4 all together, courtesy of the NHS. I go every year. The photos are of my retinas. I am Type 2 diabetic and having photos taken each year and compared with previous years photos is a guide to how well I am coping with diabetes. Also the sooner you find out there is a problem the better the chance of no lasting damage being done. Diabetes is not an ilness you know you have in the same way you would know if you had flu. Lots of people don't know what to look for and can lose the chance to start treatment early. Starting treatment early can only be a good thing. Diabetes affects 2.8 million people in the UK. It is thought that a further one million people have the condition but are not aware of it.

 

 The main symptoms of diabetes are:
•feeling very thirsty
•going to the toilet a lot, especially at night
•extreme tiredness
•weight loss and loss of muscle bulk

 

Other symptoms of diabetes can include:
•itchiness around the vagina or penis
•recurring thrush as a result of the excess glucose in your urine
•blurred vision caused by the lenses of your eyes becoming very dry
•cuts and sores taking longer to heal

 

Not to be an alarmist but if you notice any of the above symptoms nip round and have a chat to your doctor just to be on the safe side. You never know, you too could have your photo taken by the NHS free of charge. Though hopefully not.

 

 

Three Buildings here in Torquay

Three Buildings in Torquay
The first is Torre Abbey, been here since the 12th century and is having a bit of a face lift. It's expected to take two years so if you come to Torquay this year you will be disappointed if 800 year old abbeys are your passion. Should be good when the work is finished because it was pretty good before they started.

An other possible disappointment is the balloon, or as I should say, lack of it. It used to take people 400 feet up and keep them there for 15 minutes which if fine if you like that sort of thing. Many locals thought it was an eyesore and were privately quiet glad when it got seriously damaged in a storm in January. It was at first announced it would fly again in May, then came the word that it would be unlikely to fly again this year as the people running the show couldn't get a new balloon as they didn't grow on trees. The elected mayor, Mr Gordon Oliver held a forum at which we all invited and said that while the balloon wasn't flying ,Lindstrandt, the company that own the thing wouldn't be charged rent. A week later it was pointed out that due to an ongoing legal dispute Lindstrandt hadn't paid a penny rent all the time the balloon had been flying.
Meanwhile the Gondola, wrapped up in bits of balloon and looking like a disused yurt from the Mongolian steppes, remains. Still an eyesore but at least a bit smaller than the balloon.

Yesterday came the news in the local paper that it might be flying by summer. Maybe they will pay Torbay Council the rent they owe before they start flying.
The third building that gets a mention is the Palm Court Hotel (former hotel that is). It closed down years ago and was supposed to be pulled down and rebuilt years ago but the developer ran out of money. Then 18 months ago someone set fire to it, didn't do too good a job of it because 2 thirds of it still stand here, derelict and, yes you have guessed, an eyesore.

Anyway an other developer has come along and work should start, "Within a few weeks." according to Mayor Oliver.  (dictionary definition of a few is a grammatical word used to indicate that there are not many or hardly any) So work should start in less than 4 weeks or the statement by the mayor should have said in a few months. We shall see.
And finally, the notice on the tree that annoyed me a couple of weeks ago has been taken down.