The bus don’t work

Since I don’t have a working car at the moment but still have an obligation to my employer to put in a proper day’s work I had no option but take the bus to work on Friday. I checked the bus timetable online at Transport Direct's website and there was a bus leaving not far from my flat at 7:46, roughly 20 minutes before I normally leave for work. Actually it is more than that as there is a 5 minute walk to the bus stop from my flat.

Anyway, the bus was late but thankfully not so late that I was late for work. It seemed to meander on the way but I suppose busses must work like that. Trying to get home was less pleasant. The transport direct site suggested I could walk to the bus stop in 20 minutes. Maybe I failed to live up to their expectations or maybe my vigour had been sapped by a busy day at work but I arrived at the bus stop to see a bus driving away. So I waited for the next one, and waited, and waited. It was over an hour, standing in the cold, watching the rush hour traffic ease. In the end I gave up and walked to the offices of a minicab company where I paid an awful lot of money to get home.

I will try again. Maybe look at getting a different service. The problem is that there s only one direct service to where I work. But on Monday I shall be getting a lift into work with a colleague, at least he shouldn’t leave without me.

The Road Less Travelled

I’ve been out and about again; 200 miles so far this week, enough to more than double my normal weekly mileage. The travelling has not been without its irritants. One particular nuisance is poor road sign positioning. I encountered a classic example in Leamington Spa; the sign was positioned behind traffic lights so that the lights obscured the sign. Whether I sign you can’t read is worse than a sign that isn’t there at all is debateable. It is also intensely frustrating – I wanted to get to Alcester Hospital this morning but drive through the town centre and you will not see a single sign saying “Hospital”. Maybe it is a crude attempt to confuse terrorists – an echo of the wartime uprooting of signposts to confuse German invaders – or possibly a conspiracy by the purveyors of satellite navigation systems. Either way it is incredibly annoying.

The other thing I’ve noticed is how tiring I’m finding it. Maybe it is because I’m used to long motorway journeys not urban and suburban motoring. Maybe it is the stress of finding unfamiliar places or of driving an old car. Listening for new noises, trying to detect unfamiliar vibrations and generally worrying that everything is working as it should.

Only one car I can think of could effectively combat all those various sources of stress. That car takes the slightly unlikely shape and lengthy name of SAAB 9-5 Aero HOT (short for High-Output Turbo). It has to be the Aero version, lesser models lack something (possibly in terms of damping out unwanted suspension movement) that makes the top model feel utterly composed. There were no unwanted noises or vibrations to suggest that the big SAAB would be anything but a faithful companion for a decade or three. The ergonomics couldn’t be faulted and nor could the satellite navigation.



Now if I just had £30,000 to buy one…