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.

6 Dec 2009

Bike update

Thought you might be interested,or not, to know how the motorcycle is going. Well, very well at present. It is now nearly two years old and in daily use. As you may know it is a Chinese HT125-8 and many people think they are cheap so will fall apart. Like anything they just need to be looked after and keep on top of repairs. It so far has cost me under £2000 including the cost of the bike new, and still does nearly 100mpg!!!

Eastenders

Interesting watching Eastenders this week. When they have certain stories they have a 'if you have been affected' ring this number. However the story line contained an accident caused by the driver falling asleep at the wheel. As over 300 people are believed to die each year as a result of this perhaps it should have. Still road safety does not seem to as 'sexy' as, say teenage runaways or drug abuse.

28 Nov 2009

Bath Traffic

Overnight last night and for the first time ever had to take a break at Heathrow. First problem was in Bath on the trip to the Uni, this put a 20min delay before we even started. Why can no one in NX see the problems this stop causes? Especially when up to 20 buses an hour come and go!! So with a 20 min delay off we went. All OK until J15 and then 'M4 Closed J10' came up. I had to go to reading at J12 to pick up 2 so was planning to go to J10 and then go down the M3. Approached J10 and the traffic was heavy but not the end of the world. Most traffic was going down towards the M3 so asked the Police man where the M4 was closed. he advised me to use the A4 and rejoin the M4 at J8/9. So that is what I did. We then arrived at Heathrow at 2130 which did not give enough time to get to VCS so 45 min break had to be taken. Most of the passengers got on the 501 or caught the tube so was empty into VCS. Finally arrived at 2311 which even with a 9 hour break meant I could not leave until 0830. Today was Ok until Bath. It took nearly an hour to get from the A46 into the Bus station. It is 2 miles!! Had the '5's' after my break and it took 45 mins to get from the Bus Station to Sainsbury's, 1mile. The cause of all this is the Christmas Market and our local councils complete inability to  grasp the gravity of the situation. Maybe they think if it looks busy it will bring people in!!!

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