Drove the London – Brighton route yesterday and made a bit of an an arse of myself. From the start of Megabus we’d always used tri-axle double deckers like the one pictured at the top of the page. This week we’ve got 5 new coaches at our depot for Megabus. The doubles would not go under a bridge in Battersea which I’d always thought would be the quickest way out to the A3 so now was my chance to try it out. Over Chelsea bridge, left at the roundabout, and then there should be a right to take me to Battersea Park Road. It was then I discovered only left turns were allowed! Ended up going east on the south side of the Thames north over Vauxahall Bridge, west along the Embankment and then south again over Chelsea Bridge to take the route I knew. None of the passengers realised they had been on a 20 minute circular tour, or maybe they were too polite to mention the fact.

We get a little over an hours break in Brighton, parked up near the pier, before the return to London. I walked to Kemptown and went to a delicatessen I’d seen before but never been into and bought a homemade pork pie to take back to the bus. What a pork pie it was! Superb, hand raised, water crust pastry encasing very lean coarsly chopped pork and a jelly to die for. This was the perfect pork pie.

I was so engrossed in enjoying the pie that any sense, other than that of taste, had deserted me so I didn’t hear the bang. The first I knew was the very loud wailing of a Police car, a couple of Police motorcycles and an ambulance stopping within 50 yards of my bus. Then I saw what the problem was – a Brighton and Hove double-decker had run into the rear of another Brighton and Hove double-decker! Looking at the damage it was clear that it wasn’t just a tap but a full attack from the rear. I was due to leave shortly and disliking rubber neckers returned promptly to my bus.