An unexpected visitor and a spot of public transport

10 November

Oh dear; since our feathered lodger arrived here, I have become a BLP, a budgie landing place. Happily though, I don’t mind at all, simply because it has encouraged Maxi to do the same, which is what we have wanted him to do since we had him. He’s just flown onto Jan’s arm and Arnie isn’t near him.

We are always expecting parcels and they can arrive at anytime up to around 9pm. What we were not expecting when the doorbell rang at 4.50 yesterday, was Kile standing there waiting. He forgot to take something home with him and he said he need it. Anyway, he stayed the night with us. Later he saw the empty coffee jars on the side in the kitchen and asked for one for some technology thing at school. He’d forgotten to take one and got a DT for it. Well, he’s at school again now, and guess what? He’s forgotten the jar and the thing he came here for; more DTs will follow methinks.

It was Jan’s turn to feel rough last night and at one point I though I was going to have to get a taxi down to Asda and get her something to try to easy whatever it was. That would have been fun seeing as Kile’s bed was already made up for him just inside the front door. As it was, whatever was wrong last night has passed off now so we will head off out before long and do what we were planning to do earlier.

The tram crash yesterday is a shock for the industry I think, even if it was driver error. I didn’t even know there was one down that way actually. But is speeding a driver error I wonder. There’s a tram system in the West Midlands too; it runs between Brum centre to Wolverhampton, with plans to expand it to the Merry Hell centre and to the airport. There have been a few tickets issued when a driver has gone through red lights. Both Manchester and Nottingham have tram systems, Blackpool has one of the most famed system. Even so, there hasn’t been a fatality around 50 years since there has been a fatality. Yesterday there was eight in one go. Even so, it looks to me as if trams are a rather safe form of public transport, unless that is, the driver is not as careful as they might have been.

Years ago I had family in South Wales and quite often I used to go down there with my grandmother to visit. We travelled on the Black and White services out of town. The result was that I became interested on coach travel, and I still am. Even so, when the careers advisor at school that my sight was too bad to become a RAF pilot, I thought, I can still be a coach driver though, and that was what I was looking at. At that time I had to wait until I was 21 before I could even apply for a PSV licence, as it was called at that time. So why did I join the army when I was 18? However, I am now rather happy about not becoming a coach. I’m not sure that I could manage the stress of being up to 53 passengers in one coach. Perhaps there are drivers out there who don’t care about the safety of their passengers – who knows?

Even so, I still like to travel on coaches, these days only on National Express to London. Think about it folks, Dorktown to London for just £17.50. There’s no parking charges, no congestion charges and no changes. I also like train travel, but from here to London by rail, fares start at £18 one way. So, I think it will be on the coach for me, unless I can talk Jan into going with me on a Sunday, we can drive right into Trafalgar Square and park there. That way we both get to go and that makes it worth running the car. However, Jan isn’t keen on driving in central London.

Today’s photo …

Giant tortoise.

Today’s funny …   

Why did the idiot get so excited after he finished his jigsaw puzzle in only 6 months?
Because on the box it said 'From 2-4 years'.