Since my last post, that was the end of the first PowerBook battery, and I wanted to save this one. There was a fairly brutal accident on the M6 northbound just past Keele Services (it would appear two passengers running away from a NatEx coach may have been hit by a passing truck, and one has allegedly been killed), with the result that traffic heading south was diverted, restricted, you name it. The driver of the coach has stopped for his 30mins tachograph break here anyway, and the traffic appears to have cleared both ways, although police presence is still more noticeable than usual. Anyway, we are about an hour late, so we should be at the temporary MK coach stop around 1940 - and there are still coaches to Cambridge at 1955 or 2055, so fairly easy. In the event that we run even later, C has offered to pick me up.

On those days when you only want to get back to the one you love...  

... sneezing and spluttering! Had an hour or so of sleep, woke up at Carlisle. We are now at Southwaite Services, about to depart. I would show you the coach (as I don't think I've had this one on the 590's yet!) but I can't find the USB card reader, so it must be in the bags under the floor. Never mind, I will show you all later.

We are about to leave, and I should be with C in 7-8 hours from here.  

Now on the 590, and we've just changed coaches at Glasgow. Heading south to Milton Keynes on this coach, then changing there (if all goes well) to the X5 (plan is that I will get off at Madingley Road Park & Ride, and C will pick me up from there).

I might try and catch up on some sleep, we shall see. Had my second dose of painkillers/paracetemol to try and keep this cold away (I cannot have any asprin or decongestants, as they have a habit of making me unable to breathe).

Anyway, all going well, in a little over 10-11 hours, I shall be back home with Caroline.

I couldn't get much sleep (for more than 2-3 hours last night), with various noises outside, as well as sneezing all day (I've caught the cold somehow, but kept forgetting to get paracetemol yesterday!) So, this morning, I've been out to the petrol garage and cashpoint, and paid £2.35 (not a huge amount by comparison) for a rather nice Tchibo coffee cup, and a packet of paracetemol!

Kind regards,
Sneezy Suzy

I will get round to doing the diary entry for the last few days soon - in the meantime, my photo skip has been updated.

A twist in the plan means I'm going back to Royston tomorrow by coach from Dundee. The plans for the weekend changed when C's sister-in-law took ill, and as a result, C isn't coming up, I'm going back down... and things now fit into place.

Thanks to everyone for everything so far!  

... having a good time in Dundee. Keep watching, as there have been several twists already, and more to come!    

We're now in Glasgow, still on the same coach, leaving in a few minutes. Might try and get a few more minutes of shut-eye on the way to Dundee.  

Got the 010 from Cambridge Trumpington P&R to London Victoria, and I am now on the 592 (Parks/Trathens Neoplan LSK 819) from London to Dundee. We are currently in heavy traffic through South Kensington. 

I have been out briefly today to the chemist and back... Duphaston appears to have hit the predicted end-of-line, but I've got enough for now, so I will discuss it with the doc next week.

Tonight... well, Caroline is picking me up in just under an hour, dropping me at Cambridge [Trumpington P&R] where I'm getting the 010 coach at 1912 to London, followed by an overnighter at 2230 from London to Dundee.

This has the makings of potentially a very good week, keep watching readers!

Caroline just popped home for lunch for an hour, because she wasn't going to see me for a few days from tonight (Awwh, isn't that sweet?)

Not fancying anything too spicy, she had one of those  Reduced Fat Smoked Sausages, done in the microwave (not deep fried in batter!)

Anyway, she was checking her gmail, and one spam message came up. 'Would you like a bigger sausage?' said the subject line.

No, said C, because she's happy with the one she'd just finished munching on...

... yes, it's National Doughnut Week!

So far this weekend I've been catching up with requests for travel information - and if you've found this diary from the signature on my emails, then hello! Yes, I do genuinely like to see how far I can get in a day - having done Royston to Brighton, Oxford, Brum etc. before, I am thinking of new challenges, as well as ideas for longer trips, and for further ahead.

We went out in the Landcruiser for a spin around South Cambs - Whaddon (passing an Eastern Counties NBC bus stop flag still attached to a shelter!), then up to Longstowe, Hilton, Fenstanton, and this pic taken near The Hemmingfords... C is the good looking one in the drivers seat!



... anyway, from there, we continued to Haddenham, Cottingham, Oakington (crossing by the guideways of the new guided busway), A14, Huntingdon Road Cambridge to Shire Hall, then Madingley Road, back out the A428 (which we'd passed over earlier!) and back to Longstowe, and then directly into Royston via Bassingbourn.

Today, it was 28 DEGREES in Royston - actually a good few degrees hotter than parts of Spain for most of the day!

Sent in by Andy Preece....
Suzy

I thought you may like this - a London bendibus that turned up in a Russian pop
video! Reflex - Nauchi Lyubit. It is a particularly odd video with scenes shot
in several cities, some of them reversed for no obvious reason, and even riding
motorbikes up and down both ways on the same side of the same street!

Andy



I cannot quite make out which N-route it is on, or where it is, perhaps an N18 on Regent Street.

Yesterday was a rather fun day, despite the soaring heat in Cambridge (no I’m not being sarcastic!) incurred on the way to work yesterday morning. We were all surprised, as it didn’t seem like three weeks since I was there last, but it had been! Mornings are busier than afternoons, and this was no different!

After leaving Milton, back to Cambridge, but off the bus at Chesterton Lane, and around to Shire Hall to pick up some timetables that I had left for me to uplift. After that, citi5 back to town, then changed to a citi1 for the next part of the trip. As a few of the passengers from the back got off, one of them asked ‘have I seen you on tv?’ Nope, not me… not unless that old cctv footage of me running into the newly-installed automatic doors at Dundee bus station early one morning has made it onto YouTube… but seriously, while questioning is a lot more rare down here, they are usually a bit more refined than some of the more cruder things that I’ve heard in my lifetime.

Anyway, popped in to see auntysarah, and as ever, she beat me to posting the story of our meet to her journal. We spent half an hour or so around the back, in the warm, with the sun reflecting off the fishpond. It was a very civilised way to spend half an hour, just moments away from the hustle and bustle of Hills Road, Mill Road, and Cambridge Railway Station.

So, after that, went for the 1640 26 bus back to Royston, which comes down Hills Road for the college users, so a very easy walk around the corner. Got home, C got in just seconds after I did, and I then had a further kitchen experiment with some noodles and sweet chilli sauce.

The highlight of today so far, I’ve cooked mozzarella cheeseburgers (yes I cans has!), and a further stir-fry, this time self-cook Chow Mein. Also, another soft toy has arrived, it’s a pink stress ball shaped like a pig, a reward from Pigsback – I might save up for the cuddly one, but that will take a while more, as most of the 200 points needed came from a signing-up reward.

So, we are having a quiet day now, but getting a delivery of groceries this evening, and may be out tomorrow. Monday and Tuesday I am not planning on doing too much, but Tuesday night, I am travelling up north to spend a few days in and around Dundee. Caroline is going to be driving up north Friday into Saturday, and we will meet somehow on Saturday, as we’re going to a double birthday party (C’s side of the family) on Saturday in Angus. Sunday – well, I’ve left aside a trip I’ve organised for the Anglia Bus Forum, along with a few other offers, so we can travel south in the hired car, and I may well take some more of the stuff down from my flat in Dundee, things I could not manage in a bus or train. Might get the chance to pop into Lathalmond on the way down, who knows - we'll see how things go on the day.

Longer term, June C will be away most of the time, so I will be doing some work around moving out of my flat in Dundee – I plan to leave at some stage of July. This is likely to be intermixed with days here and there too, as times change. In July and August, I would like to do a bit more work on top of what I’ve been doing recently, and ramp things up gradually once more. We’d then hope C would have a date for her surgery, and we are looking at early-mid autumn for that. After that, and once C is back in Royston recovering, I’d hope that my mind and body will both be ready for more regular hours and work, but we shall see. This has been said, assuming nothing else changes, ha ha!

(Me on TV? Well, there are some times I feel like someone (Beadle’s replacement) is going to pop out of a bush and say ‘You thought you’d came here to do xxxx,’ LOL)

While browsing the Stagecoach group website for other reasons (in the midst of preparing for a forthcoming ABF trip, and I needed a logo to go on the notes, as they’ve supplied the bus!) I did come upon a press release about the virtues of Megabus.com in the US - and apparently (although not mentioned), there has been some kind of competition with the First/Laidlaw operation and Stagecoach (CoachUSA/Megabus) – not that I’d know such things so intimately.

The press release made mention of new services based on NY State, with some place names that sounded familiar from chats online. So, interestingly enough, a new service by Megabus (USA) is about to be introduced (On May 30th) from New York (Penn Station), via Buffalo NY (Niagara International Airport) to Toronto, Canada (Royal York Hotel). The service between NY and Buffalo is around seven hours (around what Amtrak trains take to get to Rochester), while between Buffalo and Toronto is two and a half hours. (I’ve not investigated time zones yet, but that trip should be straight enough).

Now, a couple of points here. Firstly, I’m fairly sure I did an April 1st spoof a few years ago, of a new Megabus service from Dundee to NY (it sounded like a good get-away-from-it-all at the time…), so I have to say, be careful what you wish for, or there maybe a chance of through ticketing one of these days!

Second, there was a person who I’ve known online for five and a half years now, and has been consistently solid and wonderfully supportive to me. I did say I’d consider visiting in a few years, back in late 2006 - according to Google Maps, it’s about 55 miles from Buffalo to Spencerport/Rochester.

You can tell what I’m thinking. Give it a couple of years (from now), who knows. Having said that, I guess it’s another one of these ‘brand recognition’ things – I don’t know who is who over there (so much – Amtrak, Greyhound etc.) but I do know the megabus brand well enough. Saves investigating who, what and where, if it’s a concept I already know. Wonder if they can send a text from the USA system with a ticket code to a UK phone? If not, no hassle, I can scribble it down or print it off. Then, there are the rest of the operators and their procedures etc. that I hear sporadically about. Coming from 4,000 miles away, a slightly easier default option maybe nice.

I doubt that was the intention of product recognition behind having the same brand name on both sides of the pond. Having said that, I’ve just done a price check for those journeys in September (to get the timing information, as the ‘schedule’ – we call them timetables over here - isn't there yet), and they are USD $1.00 each. Yes, looks like I’ve still got the touch. At the current rate of exchange, even with booking fees, that’s less than the local fare within Royston town on Stagecoach 26!

BTW, as I read the press release, Neneh Cherry’s Buffalo Stance was going through my head. When I googled the song, I was surprised to find Westlife have covered it. Is nothing sacred?

It's been a busy, positive day, as the weather stays good and everyone remains happy! Caroline's second new long black dress has arrived (remember when the first one of two arrived?), I got a copy of the new May edition of the West Lothian area bus & train timetable (as well as catching up with requests for some other leaflets and stuff),  but Caroline was surprised to see a letter from Spain, with a stamped envelope, addressed to her former male clone, personally. Turns out it was her first Spanish lottery '419' type scam - well, first one on paper at least!

I found various bits and pieces for sale for cardmarkers in March, including these! I think the middle one (the pliers) would be an ideal adornment for a 'Happy New Vagina' post-GRS congrats card... another hole in the market... this seems to be the closest I've seen to boltcutters yet... apologies for the shake...

According to Thomas Cook in the UK, some holidaymakers are just never satisfied. Here are the top ten most bizarre and
genuine customer complaints received by the firm in recent years:

1 On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy
food at all.

2 The beach was too sandy.

3 I bought a snorkel and swimming mask for my six-year-old son, but he was too upset to use them as the fish frightened
him.

4 It rained on my birthday.

5 Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other
women.

6 I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams
or ginger nuts.

7 It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time -
this should be banned.

8 We bought 'Ray-Ban' sunglasses for five euros (£3.50) from a street trader, only to find out they were fake.

9 None of the hotel staff was English, and the tea didn't taste the same as at home.

10 I would like to complain about the price of alcohol in the resort. It was too cheap and I woke with a hangover every
day.

The ABF board move is now complete... took a total of 21 minutes!

It’s a fairly nice day in Royston today – 20 degrees when we went out earlier to Tesco. We took the old digibox back, as we’ve gone through several recently (all seem to have a hard drive problem), and also returned the DVD recorder. The latter had been barely used, but seemed to like going back in time by an hour or ten. After returning the pair, and selecting a new Thomson digibox (with larger built-in hard drive amongst other goodies) and shopping for the week, we were still six pounds up on when we left the house! (Sometimes it’s good to buy things before a price crash… especially if the items also crash…)

Anyway, while browsing the milk aisle, this woman came up to us, and we started talking. Turned out she appeared to feel oppressed over her own sexuality, and she’d only told this to a handful of her closest friends (fearing the worst from religious friends if she told the rest of them!).  She initially completed us on how we looked, somewhat good-looking femme/masculine* she thought at the beginning, but I think she was trying not to use labels, and she was all very polite about it all. Very nice person, who (as we were walking away) came back, and thanked us for giving her acceptance today.

Right, got to get on with this Forum move… here goes nothing, we’ve stocked up on cold and sparklings! Feel free to keep refreshing this page, to see how it goes!

(* I can’t spell the word that she did use, and the spell checker doesn’t seem to find it either).

There have been a number of interesting new bus services registered recently, some in competition with others, some to cater for new oft-asked links, and some to cater for demands following the introduction of free off-peak bus travel in England for the elderly and disabled. I’ve picked two English ones, which I feel warrant adding to my journal.

Stagecoach Cambridge have registered a new Service 8 to link central Cambridge, Newmarket Road, Fen Ditton, Horningsea, and Waterbeach, starting on Tuesday 27th May – see here for the announcement. At the moment, this link is also catered for by Whippets Service 196, which runs weekday peaks and one return shopping hours journey only. Stagecoach will run two peak time journeys, and an hourly off-peak service, but these have been carefully timed to avoid overlapping with the 196 (so it would seem). The 8 is timed to provide two buses an hour to Cambridge from Waterbeach, with Services 9 and citi2 providing the other journeys. Before the 196 was won on tender by Whippet from Cambridgeshire CC, the service was provided by Cambus years ago as 150, so not too much old ground.

Secondly, and maybe a little bit out of my usual scope, but this one has been already mentioned before (see ‘Meet Dennis’ thread!) Transdev Harrogate & District have introduced a new Service X54 from York to Harrogate, entirely commercially, with two new low-floor buses. Now, the service (which has it’s own webpage) has only been around for a week (started Monday 28th April), and their marketing manager Paul H has been keeping me informed of it’s progress so far.

Monday - First (proper (after 0930)) journey from Harrogate left with 35… first journey from York carried 23…
Tuesday - first came in from York full… first from Harrogate had to leave 18 at Knaresborough…
Wednesday - we’ve so far duplicated two journeys out of Harrogate…

Of it’s success, Paul says “At the moment we're thinking maybe it's a mixture of the novelty factor of the English National travel concession scheme passes AND the new service together with some pretty good marketing (of course…), but the weather's been pretty mixed this week and its still carried loads.” So, this weekend may well prove to be very interesting…

Last night and today, I have been working on some add-ons for the Anglia Bus Forum. A problem with the ‘wrong language’ when I made the install of an add-on has caused an invisible hole to flood the error log every time anyone does just about anything. There will also be a new look to the front page, giving it a more welcoming opening. I’m taking the time to warn the users 24hrs in advance of tomorrow, when I will download the data, and replace it with the new prepared board. It should work fine, it did in tests. Of course, live life is completely different!

Not so warm today, and more grey outside, but no rain, no hail etc. – so tis a good bank holiday weekend for once!

I’m currently FTPing down some of the components, and then (C is currently napping) I will start on preparing lunch, for the two of us.

I don’t have that many tags, but I have gone through, and updated and added to them. I am editing the posts from 1st May onwards (and I intend to update the April ones too later), so bear in mind the new tags will not appear in older posts.

New Tags
Jokes – specifically for jokes (meme will now specifically be for passed on games and lists etc.)
Animals – for cats, dogs, snakes, pets, etc. – pics or real
Giggles – Funny/weird/silly/painful stories found in the media
Web – For stuff relating to my websites, diaries, forums etc.
Videos – For embedded or linked-to vids
Movies – Stuff we’ve watched, or would like to
Kitchen – for news of my cooking and culinary adventures
Bashes – One-day bus/train trip, Explorers, DayRiders, Rover, Travelcard adventures etc.
Gadgets – for news of our computers, and other electronic items
Cudddlies – For news of the collection of soft toys
Clothing – Some times I find something that I want to show off…
Geeks – Geek(ette) stuff
Anoraks – Similar to geek(ette) but usually to public transport i.e. number crunching, typos in timetables
Media – something from the press
Forward It – please forward this to your friends!
Feelings – how I feel at the moment of entry
Publicity – transport publicity i.e. timetables, maps
Tickets – transport tickets, including special offers

Updated Tags
Caroline – self-explanatory
English transport – for stuff outside London, Herts or Cambs
Family – for my family, or Caroline’s family stuff
Friends – for my friends, C’s friends, friends of friends
Genetics – for HD and related stuff
Herts-Cambs Transport – for stuff related to transport in Hertfordshire (where I live) or Cambridgeshire (where I work). Does not include Peterborough or other connected  areas.
London Transport – for stuff related to London transport – buses, overground trains, underground trains, plus others
Long distance – Usually for cross-border (Scotland to England) stuff
Medical – my or C’s medical stuff
Meme – memes
Music – music
PFH/Ormiston Stuff – Prisons, Helpline, work stuff
Quiet Day – for the days when there is nothing worth writing about
Scottish Transport – for buses and trains north of the boundary
Shopping – self-explanatory
Surgery
Transition
(Transport, Travel Info, Work should have been removed)

It’s a wonderful day here in Royston – if a little windy. I forgot to mention yesterday that I was able to get my prescription for the 10mg Citalopram, and started off them last night.

I also forgot to mention (given that I was shattered on the day in question) that 30th April was our 13 month anniversary, and C had to point it out to me that evening. I still count these things, but once it’s over a year, the time seems to fly by even faster.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit over the last day and a bit. It’s kind of like a repeat of how things were in 2001-2 in my life now. Then, I finished a job I’d enjoyed (aside from the management), ended up in hospital, got suicidal, new year, anti-depressants, spring and summer has some good times and some bad times. Then, in the autumn, things got really good really quickly, and I was able to build on stability in preparing to transition (which then happened in 2004). This time around, it’s almost the same, except I wasn’t suicidal. The hospital visit (this time) was very much pre-planned, and there was a positive outcome to it (rather than me getting out worse because no reason for it was found, so blame it on stress etc.) So where am I going with this? It’s because while things at the moment include some things that have to be done (i.e. moving out of my flat in Dundee, C losing weight, surgery and the rest), the really good times will (hopefully!) be coming later in the year. I can wait, calm and try and avoid stressing too much over the coming weeks. We’ve got a fair bit planned for this month, and we shall see how things pan out.

There is also my new location. Having been around the area for a bit now, it’s a large kind of step change, a bit like when I moved to London in 1999. Lots of new people and friends to see, lots of new shops, new areas and places to discover. As regular readers know, I’d like stability in my life, but I also like to do what I can, while I can. Regulars also know that I don’t just sugar-coat problems, or pretend that they do not exist, but I am genuinely happy with life at the moment. OK I’m tired or upset on occasions, and that isn’t going to pull me down too much. I want to enjoy the good times too. While they come intermittently at the moment, I am confident that I can build on things over the coming weeks and months, really settle down with C, support the conclusion of her transition, and then be there together for whatever next year throws at us. Things will straighten out, and I am looking forward to it already.