Tuesday 6 February 2024

Back and there Again

 yes you are right that's not the title of  Bilbo Baggins book, but it is an accurate description of todays bus interactions.

You see I went there by car, came back home by bus then had to go there again on the bus and back by car.

Sound convoluted, oh it felt that way. The car was going in for a service (not my car) and the garage had moved, so I was navigator there and bus facilitator back.

on the little purple bus with its leatherette seats.

My Dad was less than impressed with those as he slipped and slid on them around the corners, I was amused. He wondered how I ever managed to sleep on the bus, I wondered how I was managing to stay awake , on a bus.


Sunday 20 August 2023

Walk with the Trolly

 on my way home from work on Thursday on a nice sunny day I was walking up the incline pulling my little red trolly behind me.

Approaching from the opposite direction was a woman pushing a black trolly.

As we got closer we made eye contact and smiled in trolly sisterhood.

As we met and a half step past we each without any prompting but in perfect synchronisation stopped half turned to each other and had a happy little conversation about the merits of the trolly. 

Her black trolly was new and sans the annoying Velcro of her old one, and could be pushed as well as pulled so she was trying out pushing.

I noted I had added buttons and a loop to mine to stop the flap flapping in the way. 

We both grinned, said gotta love a trolly, wished each other a nice day and parted ways.

Made me smile all the way home, whilst not quite on a level with the bus friends of old it was nice to connect with someone on my work journey.

Saturday 3 June 2023

I got a letter

 from someone I used to work with. From someone who used to travel in on the bus but from the opposite direction. He would arrive on the bus going in the direction I would get to go home and visa versa.

Some mornings we would arrive at a similar time and share the escalator ride and last little bit of a walk into work and the lift up to our floor.

He tells me he misses those travel related chats, misses the blog, I did not realise he read it! But then not everyone leaves comments even if they visit on purpose and not due to a search engine accident.

I had thought there might have been the occasional bus trip into the new  official office, but then it has been undergoing refurbishment and no one has been allowed in during that.

So still most of my travel simply consists of walking down the stairs and quite often my mug is telling the truth.


The rest of time it is the walk down to and past the bus station to the more local secondary office accompanied by my red trolly.  I have been prompted by that letter to look anew at this somewhat neglected blog and think of all those other people who have featured here. Starting with Peter and Paul and the Blind Man, The purple Coated ladies, the Shop Girls and in particular the shoe lady. The Author,The commuting baby with her bunny that I saw no more once day care became nursery school. Matilda / Madeline her dad and then little brother. My workmate John, with his magic bus calling cigarettes, sadly no longer with us..  All moments shared, and past and gone.  

Coming down the stairs is so much easier and convenient, but its not making memories and certainly not  providing much fodder for this blog.

Wednesday 19 October 2022

Travels with my Trolly

 My little red trolly to be exact. And a journey that is both old and new. 

Since last I posted my base office has changed and I am now officially based back at the office I left in 2007.

So today was the first day back there, a single bus journey (once I have walked to the bus stop of course, no change there) on what I used to call the little bus. Ah what a delight it would have been if it still ran on the old route and served the stop just outside my door. 


Here is my trolly squeezed in on the bus.


And the view of the bus station from the bus, we got to get on and have a nice sit before the journey started (exactly on time I should point out).

It was dark on the journey in and some of the pretty views on the way were not visible, it was nicely light by the time I arrived at the destination bus station.


And with a little time to explore and see all the changes that have occurred since last I visited this city.

There are little scooters...


Buildings I was familiar with have gone, others have appeared, some streets are pedestrianised.

It was both interesting and disorientating.

The same can be said of being back in the office, it was to repeat the title of a previous post, the same yet different.

Taking a slightly different route back to the bus station I noticed that in some of the buildings that were unchanged the occupancy had. 

Back at the Bus Station (or more properly interchange) 



Bum perches rather than seats, and the wind blows through with glee. 


And still with the red trolly and off home in daylight so I could see the sea, quite choppy and grey but still nice to see.


and past a light house (hard to see)


and a famous sculpture, equally hard to see here.


And then more road, and yes the intense desire for a nap..and home in the twilight.


Wednesday 15 June 2022

Today I remembered

 a lead so I could take advantage of the charge points on the bus.


Here I am all plugged in. I was in a contemplative mood this sunny morning as I made the journey to work. I was looking back on those early days back in 2007, days the bus was full of people off to work and at the later parts of the journey on their way to school  Today there were few on the bus, even as I reached my destination and only I alighted rather than the days of squeezed on like sardines.

There was a sense of sadness tinging those recollections.

Tuesday 29 March 2022

The Same but Different

 so back on the bus...

Out of the door and the same route to the bus stop however after a few days of sunshine this morning was different dark and misty however it was full of bird song and totally uplifting.

Down to the bus stop and sitting on the seat taking the lockdown weight off my feet.

New time table new bus..

This one with an eco label and red seats and set into them those so important (apparently) charging points and WiFi (well they might be useful if I could remember to take a lead.


But that is not the utter delight of the new bus. It goes from my starting point ALL the way to my destination. No getting off half way to change bus, no worry about connections or standing and waiting.

So relaxing, and makes the travel time shorter.

So same route as before but different, trees and fences blown down by the wind, new fences where they have replaced, new houses, new shop signage..but the field with horses and the puddle for ducks  are still there.

The bus station is still there however my first choice of lift is relegated and I go with the escalator  as being less enclosed.

Up to the building and swish the pass and in I go.

Day over and the return journey, up the stairs on the double decker bus to discover



Tables and yet more connection points...so today was an interesting thing. But there were no familiar faces on the journey, no bus friends and no opportunities for new friends as all kept a safe non conversable distance.

Thursday 11 February 2021

Its been a year!

 since I posted on this blog..a whole year where did it go...well mostly we know the answer to that one CV19 that's were it went.

For me 2020 started with the same cold 2019 had ended with, time off work for that which developed into time off work in case it was THAT, followed by move to the in walking distance office to avoid the extra contact on the bus that then evolved to working from home.

That latter evolution of work location considerably reduced the commute from three hours a day to the few minuets it takes to get down the stairs and into the dinning room.

That rather restricts a blog about traveling interactions.

I did have a post drafted that never got posted, maybe I will visit that at some point.

When this home working and in and out of lockdown started it was strange and surreal like I had slipped into one of those disaster movies and at some point  I would come back to reality when the adverts came on and a hot drink would restore the equilibrium.

But this has been my reality for so long now and the finishing line appears to be on wheels forever moving ahead and just out of reach that travel anywhere feels like something that perhaps I imagined, a fiction dreamt up just for this blog.

So I will be reading it over for myself, from that first entry all that time ago and trying to get the two realities to connect.

And maybe I will come back and do something about the strange wibbly wobbly time warp that has come out of this current situation.