I’ve not quite had the stamina for this earlier this week, but now I can start to catch up.

Well, yesterday, Mr UPS didn’t show up – yet. I don’t have a label (tracking) number to view it online, so I’m assuming it’s on the way.

Things are good right now. I've been busy today, but have been getting intermittent pains in my right shoulder... now, my right shoulder is sore, and has been for about two hours, even with painkillers.

So, I will make this only a short post, and I will be leaving here in just over an hour anyway... off up to Scotland, back tomorrow night. Long story, will explain later.

Here's to no more problems...

I got back to Royston about two and a half hours ago, and already planning my next trip. Yes, literally.

So, while I delve into the realms of possibilities, have a look at Eric The Bus Driver. This is a online comic, with some adult humour, about the life and times of a "fictional" bus driver.

I am now on the train south from Skegness, will write more about the last few days when I get a moment.

Although the train on the way up was a mix of liveries (I am not a train expert by any means, but it has to be expected less than a year after franchise changes) I am currently on the 1110 Skegness - Grantham - Nottingham East Midlands Trains, which has been made up of a Central Trains liveried 153, and a South West Trains refurbished 158. So, as the 153 end was closest to the barrier, it got most of the crowd queued up, and I am sat here in one of the 158 refurbished carriages, full table to myself, space to stretch out - two other people in the carriage!  

I arrived here yesterday evening, and we've been out and about quite a bit over the last 27 hours or so.

Leaving tomorrow morning to return to Royston, and Caroline!  

Hello world... I am now on the train between Peterborough and Grantham, on the third of four trains on route to Skegness. I have about 20 minutes on this one, before swapping at Grantham.

So, why again? Well, friends are back down once more. Just like last time, one of them does not know I am coming... and probably won't be reading this in the next two and a half hours! It's a different caravan from last time, I'm told. 

Remember I mentioned a while ago that the Duphaston I take is being discontinued? Well, I went to see the doc on Monday about a replacement, and he left me a prescription for something that made me depressed before i.e. Provera. So, I went back yesterday to ask about alternatives, and I will come to that again later. I am now also back on the Telfast (Fexofend-whatever) that I was on before (strong anti-histimine) as the over-the-counter ones from Tesco aren’t working anywhere near what I need, and wearing off already!

So, after we’d been to the doc yesterday, we went out for a drive around Essex, stopped at Great Dunmow for lunch at Musketeers – here’s Caroline…


We then continued to Braintree Freeport and met up with C’s friend Kim for coffee and some quick shopping (C’s has replaced the teapot with TWO new ones!) and then back to Royston.

Today, I’m going out soon to Skegness until Sunday, and on Monday I will probably be heading north, to see about a replacement for the pills. Keep watching!

So, I said I was having a bit of a mini-bash today. C ended up staying at home and rearranging/tidying the flat, but I had plans. I left the flat in time to walk through Royston town centre, for the 0908 331 bus towards Hertford. Here, a shorter-than-usual DAF/Wright Cadet, 4522, was ready to take me to Reed, Blacksmiths Lane. I was dropped opposite the bus shelter/village hall…


… and crossed over for Richmond’s Friday-only Service 334 towards Cambridge. One of the regular passengers was waiting at the stop, although not intending to travel (she was going to a funeral, and wanted to inform one of the regulars). Optare Solo YJ 05 XMZ pulled in…


… The bus continued back through Barkway and Barley, before continuing on roads familiar from the 10/43 of a few weeks back. We picked our way through Cambridgeshire into Essex, before running non-stop from Elmdon (where we didn’t pick anyone up anyway) to Addenbrooke’s (again, no one wanted dropped off) and continued into Cambridge city centre.

So, after stopping to pick up the June edition of the Cambridge ‘citi’ bus map/guides (revised with city centre stop changes, plus adding new 8 and 553-5 services) amongst others, posting a letter, and then proceeding to Claire’s. The ear piercings that I had done closed up while I was recovering/in hospital (had to take the studs out), so had them redone again. This time, both done at once… at the same moment too!

From there, around Cambridge market and shops (stopped for a bite to eat, plus some other goodies, mostly from Boots – including a new moisturiser-sunscreen combined), before going for the more direct route back to Royston on the 26 bus at 1240.

I’m sneezing madly for some reason, so I shall let you choose your favourites of the other pictures here!

I had an interesting discussion with First in Essex (bus operator) by phone earlier. Looking for fares for two journeys, to see if it was cheaper with a day ticket. I called the number on the back of the First tickets leaflet, and was given a recorded replacement number. OK, so called that. It’s a call centre, and the first person… sorry, First person, couldn’t hear me.

Called back, got someone else. Asked for the fares for the 33 and 351, firstly for the Service 33 from Bishop’s Stortford to Chelmsford.

‘The 33 doesn’t go to Bishop’s Stortford any longer’ came the response.

I had a quick browse through my leaflets, and said “Oh, this one is dated October 2007, is this no longer current?” (I wasn’t going to say that I photographed one there ten days ago – I didn’t want to be rude).

“Well I drive the buses normally... I’m helping out here, but the 33 only goes to Stansted, it doesn’t go to B.S. any longer… let me check, if I’m wrong then I’m wrong…”

(Default hold music – we are trying to connect you to the person or department you require”)

“Hello, ok, yes, the 33 does go to Bishop’s Stortford, but I thought we truncated it… I remember a long time ago, when we used to drive the bus up there… with the big hill as you came down…”

“That’s the one, yeah” (thought I’d humour him.)

“OK, and... err... what did you want to know?...”

(I’m just about ready to give up and say I’ll get there by the Arriva 59 instead…)

“The fares, B.S. to Chelmsford?”

“Hold on and I’ll get my fare charts”

(on hold. Again. This time “We are trying to connect you, sorry for the delay!”)

Information given, but I had to ask twice for single fares. Didn’t bother asking for the other one, just left it at that. No apology for confusion, nothing.

Now, although I’ve subsequently got something to do tomorrow, I will be out that way probably next week. The response from First hardly inspires confidence, does it? After all, I’ve only been here for little over a year! Having browsed the website, they mention that this helpline has “fully trained staff” – does that include drivers (long established by the sound of things) filling in? Oh yeah, and they are in Basildon now. So, the old established practice of phoning Chelmsford travel & tourist centre (based in the bus station where the 33 starts and ends) has now been done away with! What about general Tourist info enquiries, as they double up as the TIC?
 
This reminds me of a recent exchange of emails with First ScotRail (train operator, part of the same group). Their customer ‘support’ is now done in a call centre in Fort William, and has been for some time. During the winter timetable period, after I got passed the ‘all the timetables are on the website’ usual fob-off, I got passed onto Marketing at HQ in Glasgow, who promptly despatched the leaflets I wanted, and offered me to get back to them if I needed further help. Unfortunately, I shredded the ‘with compliments’ slip with their name on it. You’ll see why I say unfortunately.

I picked up most of the new Summer timetables just before their validity commenced from Dundee and Perth (even managed to get the Glasgow-Aberdeen one, which had to be pulped and reprinted after a mistake was found!), but not the whole set (the one book covering all of Scotland being long done away with, and no one station gets every booklet to give a complete set). So, I emailed FSR, and asked for paper copies.

Firstly, they replied to me as Ms Smith. I was then advised that an SAE would be required, with no mention of how much postage would be required (i.e. how heavy, how large). Presumably it’s a deterrent. Now, they have more income than me, but I don’t really mind. Having said that, I wrote back to question exactly what they meant – bearing in mind they thought I was someone else. I said what had happened last time (i.e. pass my details onto Glasgow) and hinted I’d be willing to contact them myself if need be.

They apologised for the name, and explained they’d send them out, as a gesture of goodwill (LMAO!) It got better, because they are not allowed to give out names of company staff, and this is the correct method of contact.

So, the timetables arrived. The South West Scotland and Ireland Services booklet was out of date i.e. the old one that I already had. So, I emailed them back, asking for a new one, and asking if the old one had perhaps been extended.

The reply came “We do not publish this timetable”.

So, I scanned the cover, and emailed it back to them. Sorry, but this is what I received, in an envelope postmarked First ScotRail Customer Relations, Fort William.

They then apologised. Again. Said something obviously template pasted about new material coming in soon. One arrived about a week later, in a plain envelope, with no details of sender, and just a PHQ postmark.

Transforming Travel? You think so. Good to give these people work, but please, if you gave your staff a bit more information and assistance, the call and email volumes would decrease substantially! (I only worked in a call centre for most of six years of my life, in differing industries and climates, so naturally, this will not be a qualified opinion. Or a rant).

Next time I see a press release about First fare increases or service cuts…

I was approached a few weeks ago by Ville & Transports – a French-based transport industry trade magazine – looking for pictures of buses in Peterborough. They’d written an article, and needed pics, so I agreed, and suggested they chose the ones that they liked the look of from several collections in my Photo Skip. Now, the paper copy of the magazine came today…

… and, to be honest, I didn’t quite get the chance to post as I went about what we were getting up to. Not because of lack of bandwith, broadband or a laptop to do it on. No, every time I started typing, I attracted the attention of a very loving cat!

... we left Farnell at 1100, and got back a little while ago. Will write it all up over the coming days.

We drove north yesterday to Glasgow (meeting Bobby B for coffee at Buchanan Galleries) before traveling north to Arbroath Infirmary then onto Farnell. C's mother is ok, looks like she will be out next Monday. We're staying at C's brother's family home in Farnell.

We've just finished breakfast, and are about to drive north up the M6.

As Caroline mentioned in her previous diary updates, her mother was admitted to hospital while she was in Spain (initially Ninewells, now Arbroath Infirmary). Caroline wanted to visit her, as well as other family members. After working out costs, we’ve hired out a car – I initially may have said by texts that is a Vectra, well it’s a Vauxhall Corsa, petrol, manual, 57 plate, from 1car1.com at Newmarket Road Cambridge. Here is Caroline getting used to the controls in the car park of Roysia Surgery/Stearns Pharmacy while I went to pick up my repeat prescription…


… and then we drove via the A1/M1 (stopping at Trowel services), M62 (I asked to stop at Birch for the loo, but didn’t buy anything else), then M6, and see how far north we could get. Well, we’re staying the night at Westmorland Hotel (aka Tebay)… here’s Caroline checking out the Kendal Mint Cake that she found on the table when we got here…


She’s just left the bath, so I’ll leave the (complimentary, btw!) wi-fi for now, and go see her.

It’s been a busy last few days alright. I’ve been working on a project for quite some time… and 98 pages of text and 87 images later, it’s almost finished. I’ve got a few things to do this week, but if I can get that almost done (and it’s easily going to go over a hundred pages, and probably the same number of pictures), it will be a good use for the week.

Personally, I’ve been good… spending time laughing instead of crying, doing the odd spot of comedy watching on Dave (it’s a tv channel in the UK, but I forget what it used to be called).

Having said all that, and what I did on Friday, my passport arrived this morning. Today, a quiet day in, and naturally, the sun is out and it looks like a better day than yesterday!

It has been a quiet few days. Kitchen experiments the last two evenings have resulted in a Chinese noodles stir-fry, and a variation on my chilli noodles with cooked chicken.

Today, back to Peterborough to try the passport office again... and this time. going by train (via Hitchin). C's suggestion... given the issues with the A10 earlier in the week!