About the only thing Zim dollar notes are good for has been banned.
At least sandpaper still appears to be an option!
Today’s filming
The cameraman (Dan) arrived at my house at 04:30 and filmed me leaving the house and cycling up the road. He had a car so kept leap froging me and then filming my progress unitl we reached Southampton Central Station. He postioned himself near the entrance and was filming my approach when a cabbie jumped out of his taxi and demanded to know why he was being filmed! It was expalined that he wasn’t being filmed – just the cyclist. So I had to go back and make the approach to the station again. This time the cabbie kept flashing his headlights as I passed his cab :-( He was spoken to again and asked please not to mess things up again. Back I went again. Take 3 ……. all went well.
We chatted during the train journey and some of it was filmed. When we got to Winchester Dan had booked a taxi so again did leap frogging to film my journey. The worst bit was when he decided to hang out of the taxi window as the taxi drove slowly in front of, it was on a hill! I wonder if my panting breath will be heard if they show that bit?
At the Stagecoach Winchester Depot it was agreed that Dan could film me parking the fold up bike, finding my bus in the yard and driving off in it. I thought that was the end of filiming me but once I was home this afternoon I was pounced to record my thoughts on how things had gone. I was quite frank and said that when I arrived at work I did feel wide awake and ready to go, I was surprised that with all the riding (I also did a return trip) that my legs were OK but said on camera that that my backside hurt like hell. As I walk round the house my Missus (Essy) keeps asking “Why are you walking like that?” :-)
Stupid bus stops
Here’s stupid bus stop number 1, the first of what may become an occasional series.
The problem here is that the bus stop, as marked out on the road, is exactly the same length as bus give or take 10mm! But this is only a problem because there is ‘no run’ in or ‘run out’ area. The car parked at the rear of the bus is legally parked, as is the car parked at the front of the bus. Whoever made the decision to lay the stop out like this was obvioulsy very familar with large ships and totally unfamiliar with buses. They need to be told that buses don’t have side thrusters to allow docking without either forward or backward movement.
The stop shown here is at a point where two routes join together and if the bus is running on time it is scheduled to wait at the stop for up to 7 minutes. In fact it waits in the road as shown in the photo and causes a bit of chaos. The stop on the other side of the road (you can just about see another bus there) is exactly the same and that bus is also parked in the road.
And to make matters even worse there is a pedstrian crossing in between the two stops on either side of the road!
Things are very bad
We are begining to despair about how best to help Essy’s Mum and sister in Zimbabwe. Absolutely NOTHING is available in the shops and they are literally starving to death eating only a few vegetables a day. Previously we have been able to transfer money to them via Western Union with the specification that the proceeds are paid out in US$, until now this has worked and they have been able to exchange the US$ on the blackmarket or to buy goods in the single shop in their provincial town which has goods for sales in US$ only. Today we sent money and the local Western Union says they now can’t payout in US$ – “you must go to Westertn Union in Harare for US$”. Although Harare is 50 miles away that doesn’t sound insurmoutable until you realise that the bus fare (for a lethally overcrowded minibus) costs Zim$ 2 million and that the banks wont pay out more cash than Zim$ 500,000 per day. In other words it means four days queing at the bank in order to accumulate enough for a 50 mile bus trip, and of course during this time there is no money available for even a grain of rice!
Filming has begun
We are now a road with a 24 hour BBC presence.
Here, talking to Dominic Littlewoood and Tom Swingler, is my step-son Tafadzwa who is thoroughly enjoying the attention.
Some filming was done of him today but his big day comes on Wednesday when they’ll follow him to school on his bike. Some filming of me was also done today but, like Tafadzwa, Wednesday is my major day when I travel to work by folding bike and train :-(
Some people in the road have pledged not to use their cars during the week and have actually had them clamped! To avoid any cheating we have a BBC 24 hour watchman living in this Winnebago type van.
Car Free Street
The road in which I live, Kellett Road, has beeen selected by the BBC to be filmed for a forthcoming ‘Dominic’s on the Case of Cars’. There are 30 houses in Kellett Road and 22 have agreed to be involved. I think it’s this high level of ‘we’ll give it a try’ which led to the road being chosen from the whole of the UK.
Part of the filming which takes place over several days will be me attempting to get to the Stagecoach Depot in Winchester for an 05:45 start without using my car! On Wednesday I’ll be given a folding bike to cycle to Southampton Central Station where the bike gets folded up and put in a bag which I carry on the train. In Winchester I put the bike together again and cycle to the depot. My worst fear is rain! And I bet it takes longer than the 17 minutes it takes by car.