A terrible toll

Off again and being Shrove Tuesday I was able to go to the Vicarage for pancakes. Nice for once to able to attend a Church event. However the day was marred by yet another death of a young person on local roads. These seem to be caused by young people being unable to handle their vehicles. I do not know what it is like in other parts of the country but around here the young people seem to be passing their test without having the basic skills that are required to control their vehicles. Maybe it is me getting old but when I was learning to drive around 1981 I was told about the dangers that lurk around every corner and what happens to a road when it rains after a long dry spell. Anyway I pray that the parents of these young people will some how find peace and that there deaths will highlight that driving on the roads is not a PS3 game and that you only have ONE life.

http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/guardian/news/Traffic-standstill-Radstock-accident/article-724229-detail/article.html?cacheBust=6lxRX5kTefb8&success=true#community

Rules

Bit of a quiet few days. Passenger numbers are up but with half term the roads are quiet. It is CSQ (customer satisfaction) week. This involves handing out questionnaires that passengers are supposed to fill in so that NX knows what passengers think. This again puts pressure on the driver who has been told to hand out one to a passenger who has already been given three that day!!!
Still I do my best and explain the situation and most people are happy to fill one in, again.
On another subject, I have noticed over the last week the number of people who seem to have total disregard for the rules of the road. These seem to the ones with the bikes covering all the lights and numberplate, the mobile phone user, the front fog light brigade and the ones that seem never to have driven before. Anyway this has been highlighted locally by this article.

Back to normal

Well almost. Didn't have a coach all morning so had to run 'dead' to London. Could be worse, had my KFC for a penny!! Mind you nearly got caught out. Had planned to take a 15min break at Heston and then have 30 min in London. However trip in to London took over 30mins so had to leave 10min late. Still arrived at Heathrow on time and back to Bath despite the snow, again on time. No frost when I left the depot which was a good job as I am back on the bike.

Snow Cat

Well 2215 and just let Felix in after pushing him out to do what cats must do. And, he is doing a fine impression of a snowman!! Yes it is snowing, again, and blowing a gale so not quite sure what we wake up to in the morning. But I don't really care as I am off until 0900 on Wednesday!! I have to say it has caused a lot of hassle as we have been unable to do our Avon and Lidl rounds so have a lot of catching up this week.
Anyway thought you may like to see how the animals cope with the cold.

Snow Joke

Overnight last night and the weather forecast was for possible snow. Well I think you know the rest. very difficult drive from London. M4 was in places down to one and half lanes with lane three under 4inchs of snow!! Snow ploughs were out interesting to see one in action! Things got even more interesting when we left the M4 at J17, the A350 was very bad and the roads into Chippenham were closed so drop off at Cepen Park. rest of the way to Bath along the A4 was not to bad and arrived in Bath on time! Next problem was getting home. There were no buses operating out of Bath so Fiona had to brave the 8inches of snow and come and pick me up, well done to her. Below are a few pictures of home and the journey home.

snow209

Webcam

I have added a web cam to my weather page. May be a bit shaky for a while until I can find a permanent position for it. Just click on the weather to see the last picture.

Snow

Well like most of you I battled through the snow on Monday. In fact I woke up at 0400 expecting to see loads of the stuff, and there wasn't any! Unfortunately Fiona has been unwell so I had use of the car, roads, apart from some frozen run off were clear and we set off on time. Some of the passengers were very worried about the situation and when they found out there were no buses they bottled and went home. The snow did not start until Membury services and continued getting worse. However we were still on time at J11 so was confident of arriving on time. It then started to snow, a lot. The traffic got slower and the road got whiter. Long and short is that we didn't get into Heathrow until 0905, that meant I only had 45 minutes driving time left, so terminated at Heathrow. Spent the rest of the morning in the rest room watching the world slowly coming to a standstill!!!

When I got home we had no snow but by 2000 there was 5inches of the stuff!! Today was 0341 so very slow into work as the roads were VERY icy. The journey however was fine, very light traffic and arrived in Victoria 10minutes early.

Heathrow. Note the lack of buses