Some good news

Had a nice piece of paper in my 'pigeon hole'. A note to say I had 'earned' my Bronze safe driving badge. This was a result of completing the Smith - System and having six months without a 'blameworthy' accident. I now have to go another six months to achieve my Silver.

Wot no car

'Street back' last Thursday and Friday. Not a bad duty but a bit rushed. Got home about 0000 and to bed at 0100. 0600 the phone rings 'what duty should I be on?' was my first thought. Hello this is Avon and Somerset Police said the lady. Your car has been used as part of an 'incident' A look out of the window confirmed this with four police cars parked in the road. Got dressed and went out to see the Police. My car was a bit sorry looking. The door bent and the dashboard smashed. The police informed me that two people 'high on drugs' had been on a robbery spree and were trying to use my car as the getaway. It's a 'K' reg 205 which doesn't start easily. Any way the long and short of this, is that the actions of these people has left me without a car as the police have taken it as evidence, have caused me to have to change shifts at work so I can get there. I assume I will loose my NCB. The criminals will get..'it's not their fault they are on drugs' we must help them. What a load of B......... I was asked if I wanted to a. claim from the criminal injury and b. claim compensation from them. TOO BL..... RIGHT.

Don't panic

Back at work yesterday and a very nice day is was. 'All Dayer' so had some time in London, so glad I live were I do. People as you know make me laugh. Yesterday morning we had just joined the M4 at J15, on time, when we came to a stop. I could just see it was an accident being cleared. We can't have been stopped for a minute when a passenger came rushing down the aisle. 'Are we going to be in Victoria on time?' Well too problems with that. a. I have do idea how long we are going to be stopped and b. it is still over 2 hours to Victoria. I was very polite and told her I could see no problem. The accident seemed have been a car hitting the central reservation and rolling over. The damage was so severe it must have been well over the 50mph limited for the roadworks. We arrived in London 15mins early due to light traffic from Heathrow to Victoria.
Left Victoria at 1800 only 13 seats left and 10 to pick up at Heathrow.Arrived at 1850 and loaded up. There were loads of 'standbys' (those booked on a later bus) as normal I said I would wait until 1900 (my departure time) and check then. 1900 arrived and I had 3 seats left. Took 3 people on their own. Shut the lockers and, 'WAIT, we are on this bus!!' I don't think so it is now 1900 and the ticket says to be a the departure point 10 mins before departure. I left them in the hands of the Heathrow staff. In theory we can 'resell' or take a standby from 10 mins before departure. In practise myself like most of the other drivers will wait up until time of departure to give booked passengers a chance.