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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!