'another day on the buses'

Bus-spotter hangs up his camera

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:07:00 GMT

From thisislondon. A bus spotter has decided to give up his lifelong hobby of photographing buses because people fear he is a terrorist and even a paedophile. Rob McCaffrey - who calls himself an omniboligist - has been taking pictures of buses all over the world for forty years but has only ever faced problems in Britain. Over the time the 50-year-old has amassed a collection of 30,000 photos of...

Big Brother

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:17:08 GMT

No, not the TV programme ....... American satellites orbiting the Earth and taking photographs. Here's a satellite photo taken late afternoon on 19 April which shows Essy (my missus) her daughter and our cat, Sammy. Sammy is the tiny 'object' between the two larger objects! It's both entertaining and, at the same time, scary to think that a satellite orbiting the Earth in space...

�20 notes

Tue, 27 May 2008 20:46:36 GMT

What is it with �20 notes? They seem more common than �1 coins amongst the under 16's. Today I'd build up a few pound coins and almost immediately some young person, enjoying half- term, would ask for a "half to xxxxx" I'd respond with "that's 90 pence, please" and then be offered the young person's standard payment of a �20 note. Both amusement and amazement at this wore pretty thin early in the day and I issued I don't know how many change vouchers! Those who...

Room 101

Sat, 24 May 2008 09:33:13 GMT

"You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world". George Orwell, 1984. Here's the first of what may become occasional musings about the possible 'things' in Room 101. Bloody mobility scooters! They were probably a very good idea when first designed in order to give mobility to those worst affected by age or disease. Now a...

New look to this blog

Tue, 20 May 2008 13:52:20 GMT

On Sunday 18 May 2008 the Winchester Stagecoach depot ran their last service for Megabus, from Monday morning the South Coast Megabus services were taken over by Portsmouth depot. Consequently, I'm now driving local services around Winchester so the format of the blog has to change from one of focusing on Megabus to being more general. I'll leave the unoffical Megabus FAQ here for a little while but sometime will...

A difficult passenger

Sat, 17 May 2008 11:17:00 GMT

A couple of days ago I said I'd write about what may have been my worst ever Megabus passenger. If by some chance in a million he stumbles upon this and recognises himself he'll know he wont be welcome on Megabus without an attitude change! I began boarding my passengers in Victoria Coach Station and this guy was in the first few, he showed a booking reference for Bournemouth, I said "Fine. Thanks" and he started up the steps of the bus while I was checking the next...

The pound in your pocket

Fri, 16 May 2008 12:49:24 GMT

"From now on the pound is worth 14pc less on the foreign exchanges. That does not mean, of course, that the pound in your pocket or in your purse or in your bank has been devalued" So said Harold Wilson in November 1967. That's not quite how Zimbabweans see things! And not the way we Brits saw it over 40 years ago. Devaluation means things cost more whether it's in �'s or Zim$. Here is the ever smiling, happy, Zimbabwean who last appeared here only 13 days ago when each...

More later

Mon, 12 May 2008 06:50:45 GMT

I'm conscious that I haven't posted for a week but I've just been so busy! Today is a day off and when I got home after a 13.5 hour shift yesterday I was determined that as a family we'd have some fun today. So I booked a day return (with car) to the Isle of Wight. There are several things I will write about later - why I was so late yesterday and the worst passenger I've ever had, to name but two. But now it's off to see the corkheads, or more correctly the caulkheads. If you...

He's still smiling

Sat, 03 May 2008 10:56:26 GMT

Here's the happy multi-millionaire who first appeared here on 21 January 2008 holding ten of the new 10 million Zimbabwe dollar notes. The exchange rate then was 10 million Zim$ to �1 so each note was worth �1 By 29 February the exchange rate had gone to 53 million Zim$ to the �1 so...

Love it!

Thu, 01 May 2008 21:57:16 GMT

Someone found their way here, from google.com, using the search term 'stagecoach busses are shite' :-) Without using the word 'shite' this blog still came in at number 17 ( I sound like Alan Freeman, if you remember him!) out of 23,200 results!