Tall Girl endures a 45 minute bus journey to school and back every day. It has become a happy part of her routine (after a bit of a rough start) and there have been some lovely friendships made along the way. However the bus, itself, is not entirely the best bus in the world!
Apparently it has no heating, the seats are damp, there is moss growing on the inside of the windows and there are never enough seats (it also has no ears to speak of!). I have tried to speak to her on her mobile, several times, while she has been on this journey. It is almost impossible to hear anything at all, the whole bus is always in constant up roar, and they seem to have regular food fights upstairs. For all this excitement and luxury the bus costs me £20 a week.
Today she reported that the bus stopped abruptly on the main road, almost ricocheting them through the front window. Tall Girl thought they had hit something. The driver (who is so huge, it is a miracle that he fits into the bus at all) loped out and lifted up the bonnet (can you call it a bonnet when it is on a bus? Is the engine in the back? She didn't say, and being of the female variety, that sort of information is not at my finger tips!) Anyway, apparently he fiddled around a bit and eventually they were on their way again. Much booing ensued I think!
When I picked her up from the bus stop today we followed the poor old crippled thing down the hill. It's a dirty old bus. It has a very unkempt appearance, it's blue and yellow livery strips, look retouched by hand, and the whole thing appears to list gently to the right. I wonder, briefly, how old it actually is, if buses need MOT's and whether, given the opportunity, it would take itself quietly off to a little bus scrap yard somewhere by the sea for a well earned retirement.
OMG, I have just blogged about buses! Well I guess it has been a very trying day.
18 comments:
Damp seats are never a good thing... buy her a bicycle!
Don't worry, yesterday I blogged a list which including a comment about my horny dog, I thought that was a blogging low point. Yours was cultured in comparison.
Is it roadworthy?
I am surprised that there aren't better inspections and such.
Its a long way to go on a ropy old bus!
I think this bus needs some gentle affection and delicate respect; you were quite harsh on it right the way through until you offered it the prospect of a gentle retirement right at the end of the post.
Clearly the driver is affectionate about his bus and knows it well. His fettling under the bonnet was just the thing!
Uproar on the journey is part of the whole delight your twenty pounds a week buys TG, n'est pas?
Surely you can see where the engine is given the profile of the bonnet on the wheel arch and the flat structure at the back where people get on and off?
Is it a standard route master at 27 feet six in length? We need to know.
The bus might just be 40 as these were made until 1968?
What a charming post and how fantastic to see MFS taking this direction in post material!
Fantastic.
oh dear you are catching that man fetish, finding transport attractive...I must plot to break the thoughts of buses and trains and trucks...what happened...oh dearie me!!
oh l get it....the word verifictaion has explained it ..
youve been Troanged!!!
I used to have to catch a bus to school every day. I hated it so much, I vowed my own children would never have to do the same. We had the most decrepit old coaches you can possibly imagine. But the driver played Radio 1 so that was something! x
That bus looks so cool. It reminds me of something out of Dads Army.
That bus seems to be well past its best-by date. I'm not sure who's supposed to test school buses, but roadworthiness must be necessary. You could ask the school when it last had an MOT....
That sounds like the school buses we used to have, the drivers all seemed to hate kids and were older than the bus.
Ah, school buses. Happy (?) memories.
I've blogged about my mobile phone experience: it might make your mum seem highly adept.
Oddly, I found this post oddly riveting. Perhaps there's a submerged bus-o-manic in us all!
Moss growing on the windows?? I think it's time this bus is retired to happier pastures. A 45-minute commute on a bus doesn't sound very appealing; I'm glad Tall Girl doesn't mind it.
Love this Bus canter! Come on Suburbia, let's go Chicken Jalfrezi (crazy) and have a tractor next!
That post brought back memories!
It's a lovely old bus, but probably in need of a bit of TLC from the look of it! Not particularly suitable as a school bus, I wouldn't have thought.
memories are made of this
Knowing a bit about school buses, I think this one was probably brand new in September - amazing what a group of teenagers can inflict on a bus.
Alternatively, what bus company would want to use a decent bus for a school run?!
O, wow! If I'd had a bus that 'cool' to ride on to and from school, maybe I wouldn't have chosen to walk a mile or two to all the different schools I attended. I HATED the regulation school buses, which was all we had.
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