I can vouch for the survival of this Neanderthal man, I had an encounter with him this morning!

He was driving his small car, accompanied by Mrs Flintstone, in a very narrow road which is obstructed by lots of cars (Thurmond Cres. Winchester for those who know it). As I went round the curve of the Crescent passing parked cars he appeared directly in front of me having driven straight past a gap into which he could have pulled over and we’d then be able to pass one another. I stopped. He stopped. I looked at him. He looked at me. Then he signed that he expected me to reverse the bus round the curve of the Crescent, probably 10 or 12 car lengths with only a couple of inches clearance, so that he could avoid reversing the length of one car into the gap which he’d decided not to pull in to! I think not! He waved his arms, his mouth was moving a lot but I couldn’t hear the words. Mrs Flintstone was also demonstrably agitated but more with him than me I think by her body language. Anyway, no problem for me I’m paid by the hour, not the mile or journey, so I was being paid to sit and wait. After some minutes Neanderthal man decided that he had enough, he got out of the car and walked off. Mrs Flintstone said some choice words to him and he shouted something back at her. By now my passengers were actually enjoying it, this was real street theatre. I just sat calmly wondering what would happen next. Almost to everyone’s disappointment Neanderthal man returned to his car and backed it so that we could pass.

Today is the 3rd birthday of this blog and this is posting number 390. It’s about bus jumping.

Test Valley School has been featured here many times but this is one thing that they’ve not thought of …….. yet!

I’m surprised at how rigid the roof of a bus appears to be. Unlike cars, bus bodies contribute nothing to the rigidity of the vehicle and are simply aluminium sheets and fibreglass panels appended to a rigid chasis. I’d expected to see the roof dented where the kid jumped onto it.

A couple of days ago I posted film of a bus crash in France.

It turns out, thankfully, to have been faked! Here’s how it was done.

A mutation is the collective noun for thrushes but is also applied to fieldfares and redwings which are part of the thrush family.

I was driving between Broughton and Stockbridge, late afternoon, when I suddenly found the bus completely surrounded by fieldfares! Look left and and see nothing but birds, look right and see the same, look ahead and see still more. I was driving at around 35 mph and they were flying at the same speed so it was almost as if they were still except movement was all around as the swerved left and right. Here’s a picture of a small flock which may give some idea of how they look but this flock was much bigger, I don’t want to exagerate the numbers but if there were less than 500 I’ll eat my hat!

The same area has decent sized flock of starlings also currently in residence but they are far fewer than the fieldfares.

Thanks for the picture, Jeff.

It seems the firm have a bit of an identity crisis. One of their web pages has photos of their coaches in which some are sign written with the name ‘Fucker’ and others ‘Fuecker’.

I’m lost for words to express how I feel about this moron. It was posted on YouTube 3 hours ago so I guess the ‘incident’ is recent. I hope the Gendarmes are able to identify the moron from the clear picture you get of his face.