A matter of perspective

so earlier this week as I watched the news over breakfast they mentioned an item from the papers, that the CEO's of the top 100 companies would have earned the average  annual wage for their workers in the first three days of the year.

They worked it out at about £911 and odd sum pence an hour.

Now I know how averages are worked out and I add some of the lower figures to that average, not the higher ones so I am not on that average.

A dark go back to work January morning is gloomy enough I thought without having that to think about.

Arriving at the bus stop to see a person sleeping across one of the seats with a cardboard box as a cover..well that put the whole thing into perspective.

I may not (well do not) have a massive wage but I do have a job that provides me with sufficient to my needs.  No mansion but a home that keeps me safe dry and warm.

I made the rest of my journey in a more contemplative frame of mind, less jealousy, more gratitude .

Oh and no pictures, that would not have been either polite or kind.

Surprised, amazed

and utterly delighted.

A change to the zones and a change to the fares

AND my ticket is cheaper.

Really it is cheaper...

AND

not just pennies cheaper.

££££££££££  well perhaps not quite that many but still in the multiple

and that is on each ticket.

WOW!

Oh no!

the dreaded timetable change announcement form the bus company.

Click on the details and open it up

Scan down for the numbers of the buses I use.

What have they changed will it mess up my commute?

Oh and the first familiar number comes up..only a change in the stand it departs from, that OK

And the next number, a change in the route and the route name but only on the part of the journey I do not use OK that fine for me at least..

No changes to the red bus for the other main part of the journey..and

Oh no, the little bus, the lovely little bus I can get on the way home for one whole stop that saves me 15 minutes walk uphill (the one with the increased gradient going up to coming down) the bus that Santa drives quite often, that elderly ladies ride with for and then with their shopping as it loops through the houses and back to the town centre...ah they have changed it.

No more loop, it will just go to the town centre bus station, turn around and go back to the other town it serves...oh no it will add in a shopping park  no use to me.

Whilst the weather is improving and perhaps I could well do with the extra exercise I shall mourn its passing alongside those for whom it is more necessity that guilty delight.

Come the winter when it is cold and wet and dark I shall be even less pleased with its absence I am sure.

Well for the couple of weeks left to the little bus I shall have to savour the ride.

I am sure there will be many others who have found similar or worse disappointments in the route and schedule changes.  I suppose there may even be a few in addition to the money saving bus company that have found changes they approve of.

Still effected by the industrial action

even though it is not the bus company I use that has non driving drivers.

There are some routes of the company I use that overlap so there are more people getting on and off.

Indeed my first (and last) bus has been upgraded to a double decker.

So the timetable once again becomes less of a guide and more like wishful thinking.

But at least there is a bus.

Some routes have no overlap and people are struggling.

I heard a rather disturbing report that some taxi drivers working on the supply and demand principal...they being in short supply are demanding double time on fares!

Not sure that is at all reasonable.

When the Key

card stops being the key to savings and convenience it is time to move on.

When I traveled every day the pre loaded monthly key card was most helpful. Had a slight discount and was convenient. Well except if holidays were mistimed or I was sick.

When the occasional day travel became the norm, the pre loaded card was still good, I could but ten days at a time, with a small discount and the card was convenient to use.

It all changed when the day preloading had to be done one day at a time, no discount same price as on the day on the bus.  And now it was not convenient, indeed sometimes it was downright embarrassing.

Withe the day tickets I encountered a problem with the preloading I never had with the month or the multi.  The ticket loaded the night before not being on the system for travel in the morning.

So, with the advent of contactless payments, the credit card is now the go to choice for on the bus daily travel.

Yes the resultant paper ticket needs more looking after so it is in good shape for the return journey but I can live with that.

Fret

Hot days by the coast oft result in a sea fret.

This does not give the appearance of becoming one of the hotter days of the year.

but it was

Please state your destination

is the request made on the bus.

This is because many would state a fare amount which causes problems if the fare changes and the requested amount is no longer correct.

I have to get a ticket that covers all the zones, so wherever I am going the fare is correct and paid.  Therefore I have got out of the habit of saying where I want to go and the drivers don't ask because there is no question the fare is paid.

So what is the problem, you know something has come up to make me post about it.

SO early morning I get to the bus station, there is a bus pulled in to the correct alphabetical slot to be the bus I need.  However, it does not say on the front which bus it is, what route it covers.

So, having a tongue in my head I step on and ask the driver. I ask is this the X5 to (the final destination city in the direction of travel) yes it is he replies, and fiddling with the technology nods that he has now put the route up on the front of the bus.

In retrospect perhaps I should have a) then stepped off the bus and checked the now being displayed route information or b) rather than asking the route designation number and final destination I should have stated my intended destination.

Why...well, I took my seat, yes my favorite place, and settled down to read. I have mentioned before the motion of the bus tells me where I am to a large extent.  So when there were not the sways and stops I was expecting I looked up.

This is not where I expected to be, we are on a main road and not traveling through the village.  At first, briefly, I wonder if there is a disruption to the usual route and this is a diversion.

But no, that hopeful reason for the change is quickly quashed. This I recognise is the route for the X6. Same final destination different route, so it does not give me a connection to my next bus to work.

Oh dear, now as we approach the sea, this route going along the coast I try to apply the reframing technique taught as part of the emotional resilience training at work.  This is not me on the wrong bus, this is not me going to have to figure out what bus to get from the city out to my job, this is not me going to be late getting there.

No, this is me looking a beautiful views out to sea, this is me looking at a new local land mark. Enjoying a change!

Nah!

That wore thin, wore out waiting for a second bus, and on that bus which was of the meandering ilk.  It went so many places, unfamiliar places, turns and twisting places that I began to wonder if I had the wrong bus!

I had figured out one to get me to work, I got there. I was late to my usual start time, by over half an hour.

No one noticed! I changed team six months ago, the old team used to my timekeeping they would have noticed. The new team not so much used to me yet.

So in future I will try ina keep in mind there is a good reason to say where you want to go, after all the driver may hear X and the city name and not be concentrating enough to hear five not six!