Today is a rest day, I’ve got a stinking cold and a throat like the bottom of a parrot’s cage, so I’ve done nothing other than sit at the computer and fiddle with this website whilst sipping Lemsip. You’ll notice that the time and current weather is now shown for both Hampshire and Zimbabwe. I’ve also added my rota which is a google calender. I set up the calender some time ago in order that family and friends could look it up and know when I’d be around. I gave them the URL but now anyone can see what I’m doing. As it stands it’s only correct up to 25 March, after that the rota changes. If they didn’t change the rota I could tell you what I’d be doing on Monday 11 October 2010 – M3 actually! The calender was very easy to set up requiring just 28 entries, one for each day of the revolving 28 day rota, with each entry repeating itself every 4 weeks. As soon as I have the new rota I’ll update the calender.

Yesterday I drove to Romsey to buy some bedding straw for my chickens. Leaving Romsey there is a mini-roundabout (the raised hump in the road type) I stopped to allow traffic from my right to pass, and was about to move forward, when a bus appeared trying to do a complete circumnavigation of the roundabout! The turning circle of any bus is much greater than the diameter of this mini-roundabout so disaster loomed. Although I had stopped completely before the white line the bus ended up heading for the front wing on my car stopping in a very jerky manner about 24 inches away from me. The bus was a Solent Blueline training bus with several students on board and a petrified looking instructor. The bus was unable to complete the circumnavigation without my moving so I pulled forward and as I did so the bus took another lunge at me stopping even closer this time. I don’t know what was going on but I have two scenarios in mind – firstly, the student had ignored/not understood a possible instruction to take the second exit from the mini-roundabout which would have been OK and what service buses do. Second possibility is that the instructor had told him to do a 360 at the next roundabout forgetting that this mini-roundabout existed! If the student had gone straight over the mini-roundabout there is a great big roundabout about 150′ in front and ideal for turning back on yourself!

There are several methods by which megabus drivers are informed that their jobs may not exist within a couple of weeks. First there is the megabus.com website which you may think is primarily there so that customers can book to use the service. Oh, no! It’s become the drivers first method of finding out what’s going on. Stagecoach, you see, think it’s more important that customers know what’s happening before the staff! Monitoring of the website showed changes on Saturday – from 25 March the 3 return trip trips per day between the South Coast and London is chopped to 1 return. Execept on Sundays when it’s 3 returns! Perhaps I’m really stupid in thinking that they wont need as many drivers as before to operate a reduced service. The second method by which the company keeps us informed is press release, I guess they know we read newspapers, listen to the news on TV, radio etc. so what an opportuntiy it is to keep staff informed by all these media routes. See what a considerate employer we have? Here’s the latest press release about our future http://www.stagecoachgroup.com/scg/media/press/pr2007/2007-03-05/

I may sound rather bitter toward to my *current* employer but the bitterness is directed entirely at the upper levels of ‘management’ (I was unable to write that word without the ‘ ‘ because it may have been taken in its proper meaning). Nobody at depot level had any knowledge of the changes and have requested that those drivers who discover these things on the internet please let them know too!

I’d love to see a Comment from a Mr B Souter, or even Mr A Dyer, but he’s probably in the dark too ;-)

Earlier I wrote about the uncertain future of Megabus from my depot. The Megabus website says “Please note that megabus.com services on the South Coast are currently being reviewed and are unavailable for booking after Sunday 25th March 2007. Please return to the site at a later date to book these services. megabus.com apologise for any inconvenience”.

There have been plenty of rumours floating around as to what is to happen, some were logical and some completely hair brained, but they were only rumours. Today I heard from a source I would trust and, if what they say is correct, I think I’m going to lose my line on the Megabus rota. I’m not going to repeat here what will change since it’s not yet official, the information may be incorrect …… but I don’t think so. I’m absolutely gutted!

A pretty uneventful day! The duty was M3 in which I travel as passenger from Winchester (07:40) to London and then take over as driver for the 10:00 to Brighton. The trip to London is sheduled for an 09:40 arrival but rarely makes it before 10:00. Today we arrived on time so I was able to grab a coffee before departing for Brighton. Nobody wanted the University of Sussex stop at Falmer so I was able to take the direct route into Brighton arriving 20 minutes early! Went for a bracing walk along the shore before buying one of the pork pies I mentioned in an earlier posting which I then ate on the bus. Here’s how Brighton beach looked today.

I came across this on YouTube – no, it’s not me!