Hello and welcome to my Blog, my name is Chris, a bus driver for First West Of England based in Wells, Somerset. I am Chair for the depot branch of Unite the Union. Married to Fiona, we live in Midsomer Norton near Bath, with Boots the cat. My main hobby is Amateur Radio and I hold the call sign G4KVI. I am the repeater keeper for GB3UB and MB7UB. I have a fascination for the weather and all things to do with nature and science. As a Christian I worship at St. Nicholas Church in Radstock. These are my observations on my life, both at work and at home.

16 Oct 2008

Paper Work

There is a saying I use when helping people on and off the coach 'better help you, it's too much paper work if you fall!' It is always said in humour and always if I know the person also has a sense of humour. However this also applies to accidents. Waiting to turn into VCS I had to wait as there were several coaches also waiting. I had stopped in such a way that people could get past, which they did. However one bright spark came up behind and came very close to the rear of the coach. They reversed and went to move round. However they tried to go through me!! Result. one damaged coach and car. I pulled over to exchange details. I could not believe what I heard. Not, 'what were you doing?' but 'oh I need to pick my daughter up in 2 mins!' This is all very laughable, but it took over an hour and a half to sort it all out and fill in the paperwork.

14 Oct 2008

You meet all sorts

First day back after my holiday and a very quiet day, I think half term must have started in some parts. I have to say after a week driving a car I much prefer driving the coach, sounds strange but that's the way it is! Had a decent coach to come back with, one of Bristol's Scania as I said before the drive of these is so much better than the Volvo. However, the one thing I do not like is the lack of a window in the bottom of the door. You have to use a mirror to see the kerb. As with most thing though after a while you get used to it.
One of the things I enjoy with this job is the people you meet. You can get all walks of live and it is always interesting to see what happens when people have to sit next to each other. With National Express if you have mobility problems you can ask for assistance. This means people can have extra help with boarding and help with luggage etc. Yesterday had a couple in the front seats. This was the first time they had used the the coach as they thought they were a little old to use the car. Chatting with them I found out they both played golf and bowls and seemed full of life. As we went round to departures it turned out the gent was 92 and his wife was 87!!! All I can is good luck to them and I hope that I am like that in 47 years time.

10 Oct 2008

A few days away

What a fantastic few days. Fiona has gone line dancing this weekend in Bournemouth and as I had some holiday I said we would go down a few days early. What a good decision. The weather was fantastic and the Travelodge we stayed in was only 5 minutes from the beech. We took Harvey and he had a ball. He has never been to the sea side so had great fun running in and out of the water and then rolling in the sand, this results in one nice clean dog. Not. Thankfully we don't call him 'Teflon dog' for nothing and in no time he was clean and dry.
One thing I did find driving around is that many towns seem to have road systems and signing designed only for locals. I found it very difficult at times to find my way to 'A' as the road sign often pointed to 'B' but you had to know 'B' was on the way to 'A'!
Still a great time spent away and will go down on Sunday to pick Fiona up.

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