Guernsey Day 4 - Around the island by bus

This was perhaps the longest of the organised events.  We joined the bus quite early and began the tour.  There was, of course, some overlapping information with the walk around St. Peter Port, and at one point when he was talking about Privateers, the tax rate went from 20% on the walking tour to 33% on the bus tour.  If you don't want to follow the link, privateers are pirate ships that employed by the state to disrupt foreign (enemy) shipping.  They are allowed to keep what they capture, but must pay a tax to the crown. 

The first stop on the tour was the Little Chapel at Les Vauxbelets.

The chapel is 16 ft x 9 ft. It was built from whatever could be begged from anywhere.  It is beautifully done and a fantastic tribute to God.  Getting through it is quite challenging, it's narrow, and I was in constant fear of damaging it. A lot of the broken pottery is Wedgewood. There really are bits from everywhere.

Our next stop was a WWII gun emplacement.  We left the bus and walked across the uneven ground, with its trenches and camouflage.  Even now, it is only clear where the trenches are if you look closely.  There were many warnings from the bus driver to take care. It was a beautiful day -very peaceful, providing a stark contrast to the activity that was here over 80 years ago.

For refreshments, we stopped at the Guernsey Pearl, where I snapped a picture of a model of the Roman ship that was wrecked. I don't remember seeing it on our previous visit. The Royal Golden Guernsey Goat is a similar colour to the Guernsey Cow.  The breed of cow is carefully managed.  They have a genetic difference that prevents them from breaking down beta-carotene, hence the colour.  That also give their milk (so also butter and cheese) a rich golden colour.

The second part of the tour, around the north of the island, took us along the north coast - Vason bay, Cobo bay and a few smaller ones.  These are where the natural beaches are found.  They are long, wide beaches with fine sand - a beautiful place for an afternoon at the beach.  We didn't get to stop for a paddle.

Moving around the East Coast, we soon completed our journey through St Samson and back to St. Peter Port. 

Once back, we went to find the tapestry, it is somewhere behind the sunken garden, but when we finally found the right door, there was a notice saying the tapestry was no longer on display, and had been moved for restoration. 

We had lunch in a bar, opposite the sunken garden on one side and opposite the Prince of Wales pub.  I think the pub provided the food, judging by the direction it came from.  The bar had a big TV, and we watched some Wimbledon, then visited Candie park and looked at the statue of Victor Hugo. The official visit to the park and museum is overmorrow.

After watching Alcaraz vs Norrie, we needed so dinner, but it was quite late.  We wandered around, not wanting a huge meal, so tried Island Pizza, by the time we finished they were already closed and just about packed away.

How green is my 'Leaf'?

Following my partial retirement, I'm down to three days a week, except when I have to cover for holidays.  The way bus fares have changed in the last few years means that I am paying the same for the bus as I was before.  The journeys are getting worse - longer and less comfortable. The buses more crowded, and the delays this summer have been at the top end of the delays I have ever experienced.  My average time to home as increased to above an hour. So I'm looking for a car.
I'd like one that is at least as environmentally friendly as a bus.  Our buses use bio-diesel, and diesel is not nearly as bad a polluter in large engines as it is in small ones. So, I'm looking for a hybrid (preferably a plug in), or an all electric. So where to go?
We looked at a Hyundai first, a very nice car, but the Ioniq has really poor rear visibility.  We also looked at the i10, a very nice small car, although there are no hybrid options, it may turn out that petrol is the way to go.
Other cars we have looked at:
Mini - too claustrophobic for Jo
Micra - too claustrophobic for me (looks too big, feels too small - that's the wrong way round!)
While looking at the Micra we spotted the Leaf, and were offered an extended test drive.  They gave us the car for 4 days.  It's a lovely car to drive, very stable, very smooth, very predictable and above all very, very quiet.  It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of other similar cars, that's not really an issue for me.  The price is, though, and it is relatively expensive - even with the government 'donation'.  The range between charges is about 130 miles, less than half of the equivalent petrol car.  Not an issue for the commute.  It charged up by being plugged in for about 2 hours on the last day, when the usage was reasonably close to the way I expect to use it.
My question, though, is just how 'green' is it.  How much pollution (or at least CO2, there are lots of other pollutants to worry about) is generated by its construction.  Obviously there is next to none after that, and what there is can largely be controlled by choosing a green Electricity tariff.  It cannot be worse than petrol.
Where do I find these answers?

Fourteen Minutes and thirty seconds to go ...

BBC Essex were live from the 100 bus yesterday morning.  They started at Basildon and got off at their offices in New London Road.  They were asking people about the debates shown on TV with the three party leaders.
I didn't see the debates, I missed the last one because I was at the Billericay Hustings, sponsored by CTB in Emanuel Church.  That was interesting enough to qualify for a question, so here is what I said.  It is a listen again of the whole of the breakfast show, my piece starts just after 02:23:00 (2 hours 23 minutes in). Just after the traffic news.  I'm not sure how long the clip will be there, and I haven't been able to capture it yet.
"Everyone has their 15 minutes of fame" (to mis-quote Andy Warhol).  Well, if they do, I am due another 14:30.  I'm also very aware of how little I manage of what I would like to have said - I'm not practised at dealing with the media, One of the things I don't think about when preparing a sermon is a 30-second sound bite.

So what of the Hustings themselves?

As I said it was a good opportunity to meet your prospective MP and listen to what they say.  You begin to find out who they are and what they believe.  My summary of what I heard is here.

Bundle on the bus

"Bundle!!" was the cry we'd hear from the other side of the playground. Then we'd run as fast as we could to see the fight. Usually it was all over, or the crowd was too large to see the action. Just occasionally you'd see fists flying and wrestling moves being tried out. Within minutes a teacher would disperse the crowd and if the teacher was lucky, would walk away with the culprits.

Imagine my surprise yesterday morning when the bus doors opened and two girls were engaged in what I can only described as a bundle. The reaction was different form the reaction I was used to. No other children were interested - or at least pretending not to be. One of the passengers was trying to usher them off the bus, and various shouts of "Off the bus" could be heard. Then he called out "Where are their mates" and "come on" to the two that got up "get them off the bus". Then the bus driver saw what was going on and added to the crys "Off the bus". She did make sure they and their friends left. Before they left they were hugging, crying and still punching each other.

I do not understand - I probably never understood the boys in the playground that well, but I admit to being totally confused by the girls on the bus.

The passengers I understood perfectly - their motivation is pure - to leave the bus at the right place with the smallest possible time
lag. The bus driver was true to her mission - 'driving the bus and looking after the passengers'. As we drove off leaving the waring girls, their friends and fellow pupils on the pavement she asked if anyone had been hurt. No-one still on the bus had.

We arrived in Chelmsford without further incident and no significant delay.

I can't help wondering what became of the children once they were on thier own in the High Street.

Frost Damage

Just when I thought it was safe to go back into the Garden, we are promised that the cold weather will return.  Since I started travelling on the bus, I have stopped liking the cold weather.  It's not being ON the bus that's the problem.  We are protected from the wind, and even the ones without heaters have enough people on them to raise the temperature a degree or two. The problem is waiting for a bus.  No comfortable (relatively) train station, nicely covered, and partly underground.  There is just a bus shelter with barely enough roof to keep the rain off, or sometimes just a pole stuck into the path.  I just have to stand there and wait. 

I could walk to the next stop - it's only three or four minutes away, but the bus could pass me as I do - and it has happened a number of times.  Alternatively, I could walk four or five stops and still the bus doesn't come.  It's on those occasions, whether I've walked or not that I get very cold.

Other things have suffered in the cold too.  The water gets in, freezes, expands and pushes things apart.  If you're visiting my house - take care.  I hope it will be fixed soon. 

Meanwhile, I have been potting the amaryllises and dahlias in preparation for better weather.  Next week contains February 9th, which was my Dad's birthday.  I remember there being snow on the ground for almost all his birthdays.  Let's see what the week brings.

Travel nightmare & The highest cholesterol day since records began

Tonight's journey home was three hours.  The first hour was spent in the bus queue.  It was raining melting snow for most of the time.  When I joined the ones at the front had already waited over an hour.  In the hour I waited there were supposed to be three buses and there were. Two of them said "Sorry - not in service", the third failed to stop.  If he had opened the doors people would have fallen out.  The 100 service was not working.  Nothing was being done to tell the passengers what was going on, and buses were being driven around empty.  It is not good enough. The excuse that the traffic was bad will not work.  There is a service to be provided.  First and it's drivers do not have a good record of considering their customers, as the recent strikes prove.   I caught a 42 (another First bus that crosses my regular route outside of Chelmsford), and stopped at the Eagle.  I had phoned home for a lift and Liz was on her way to get me.  Various text message told me she was stuck in traffic - an accident near the Crondon Park golf club had closed the road.  Accidents will always happen, but today there seems to have been too many incidences of bad driving. (I've watched a lot of traffic).
Eventually my phone batteries gave up.  Liz phoned the pub to say she was still stuck in traffic.  I ordered some food.  I was also running short of cash, and the kind lady in the Eagle let me off the odd 50P.  The food was prepared, and I had barely eaten a mouthful when Liz arrived.  She got an extra fork, and we (mainly me) ate the rest of the food - shepherds pie (mince beef topped with mashed potato and the cheese) and some vegetables.  It was very tasty and very welcome.  It was also on the banned list.  Having cleaned the plate I took a ticket from the prize draw that was in progress and listened to the jokes as they recognised the winner.  Then we left  to sit in the traffic to get passed Crondon Park going towards home. 
We arrived home about 9pm.

Thankfully Pubs are not like Bus companies.

The pub meal was not so big, or so fatty that it alone would make today the highest cholesterol day.  Shortly after arriving at work the boss decided to buy us all breakfast.  Bacon and egg rolls - all freshly cooked from the local fish and chip shop.  I shouldn't have eaten it, but I didn't take much persuading, and I did enjoy it.

Now, how do I get my money back on a bus ticket?

Thanks to Liz for giving up her evening to rescue her father from a very cold seven mile walk.

They really shouldn't do that

Perhaps I should post this entry at annoyances.org, but this is about people not computers. The first two are quite serious, the last one isn't (for ME that is).

1 Doctors receptionists
I had a letter from the doctor saying my bone density scan was due -it isn't. I was going to reply, but it isn't a priority. Someone spotted their mistake, and phoned to tell me about it. Patient confidentiality? What's that then? They told my wife! Just supposing she didn't know, just supposing she was just a house sitter. They didn't check, how can they be sure over the phone anyway?
Medical message over the phone to unknown recipients:
They really shouldn't do that.

2 Credit Card companies
This is far more serious. My son wanted to change his car insurance, so he called the company and got a quote. Later he called them back to make the change. He phoned me to say was it OK to charge it to my card again. I said "Yes, its OK." So the charge went through. I did not speak to the Insurance Company, and there is no record of the cvv code being given - because it wasn't. Just how is this a properly authorised transaction? I may well try to find out.
"What have you got in your pocket?" as the tag line goes. Well if it one of those be careful that its not being used by someone else!
Improperly approved credit card transactions:
They really shouldn't do that.

3 Prospective Mother-in-laws
This is another one sided bus conversation that I tried really hard NOT to listen to, but there it was in my right ear. Someone, who is planning a wedding to Andy spent the whole journey talking to her mother about his mother. His mother is insisting on a number of changes, to the venue, and to the guest list. To invite people that she hasn't spoken to in years. This is such a big disappointment to the prospective mother-in-law that she is going to pay for the extra guests herself and as a result of the trauma will be seeing a phycho-analyst. Her (the prospective mother-in-law) life is in ruins and her family is irrevocably split. The wedding she says is nothing to do with the couple, it is the responsibility of the two sets of parents.
This is just the one half I heard unwillingly. I would recommend a psychiatrist, and some family therapy. A quick conversion and the power of real love would help a lot too.
Parents taking over their children's wedding:
- They really shouldn't do that.

Summer time and the weather is awful

That must be because I'm on holiday. It's just some time to catch up with life - repairs and things I've been promising to do for people.

Liz has a new car. The bank of Mum & Dad has helped with the purchase, but its one of the few banks that does not lend to unreliable customers, so that should be OK. She had tried to buy a slightly cheaper one, but they sold it before she made up her mind. Still its good news - she had lost faith in the other one - too many creaks and groans.

I spent the morning researching broadband contracts for friends at church. Where have all the small specialist providers gone? There used to be loads. I guess the industry is maturing.

Yesterday I travelled home by bus from the garage where we bought our car - it was in for its four-year service (1st year for us), and back again in the evening to pick it up. The car was due to be ready at 5pm, I arrived at 5pm EXACTLY. Two buses, and a stop in the middle to buy the season ticket for getting to work. I was amazed. The service went well and the MOT was passed, so it is all legal.

I was going to go out, but it is still raining - I'll just have to shop on-line!!

Physiotherapy session 10 / More on the Bus

Physiotherapy session 10
At last a new exercise. Like climbing the wall, but once you are up there, take a step back, and lean in toward the wall bowing your head. It pushes the arm further up - further than its been in six months. One or two of those are very painful, and as a result of that I think, I have lost the stability in my right hand again. I 'get the shakes' when trying to feed myself! Keyboard work is OK though.

After the Encounter with God, I am a lot less inclined to accept that there will always be limitations. It should help me to get more motivated to do the exercises. I was shown in the class that some fairly basic resistance exercises can loosen the muscles and give me further reach.

I think it was Luther that said "Pray as though everything depends on God, work as though everything depends on you" - not about healing I'm certain, but the principle stands. This should help me to be more motivated to pray, and ask for prayer.

More on the Bus
After Physiotherapy class, I catch the bus to Chelmsford. It is the first OAP bus, and is packed. Today it was also full of chatter - lots of noise. I want one of those people who measure the noise footprint of heathrow to try a trip on the bus!

We stopped just outside Billericay, the driver walked up the back of the bus and returned to his cab. He then walked up the back of the bus again. A few moments later a young man stormed off the bus, and judging by his waving good bye gesture (his thumb touched his finger tips as he waved his hand up and down) was none too pleased to be leaving. First time I've seen that, but because of the chatter the exchange with the driver was lost.

Bus Conversations

OK, its not the buses that are talking!

When I used to travel by train the rule was sit in your seat and pretend the world ends a few inches from your body. Buses are different. There is a level of conversation that just simple happens.

Two old ladies have told me their life story, but this is to be a short post.

It's the conversations you just overhear that I'm talking about. You are compelled to continue listening to because they are happening right behind you. Two resent ones come to mind. The first I only caught part of as the other person in the conversation was miles away.

"....... ..... Carrie and Dan have split up"

I know a couple called Carrie and Dan - it is very unlikely that they have split up, but my attention is grabbed.

"He came in the other day and said he was leaving." pause "And now he's gone". Dan I think is a painter and decorator - definitely not the Dan of the couple I know - back to my own world.

"The sixties were great, much better than now" ... "I was engaged, but he took all my money so I shoved him" .. "The one I've got now has always been good to me, has yours?" ... "Yes, the sixties were great, much better then than it is now". If you know the typical Monty Python woman read it in that voice. The conversation was repeated a few times. Each subject was interspersed with memories of the sixties. "I'm sixty-one, and I've never known a better time than the sixties, I saw the Beatles you know, shook their hands I did". "You could go anywhere then, not like now"

I thought that the lady was old, by the way she was talking, but no - she is only a few years older than me. I have my own memories of the sixties, I was just about a teenager in that decade. I thought of San Fransisco. I though of my early ideas of hippies, and 'free love', by which I now know they mean sex, and it all sounded very good. There's a line in the song, 'there's a whole generation with a new explanation' - lovely ideals - especially then, but not very practical. There was only ever one generation with a new explanation and the explanation split history from BC to AD, and involved some of the least gentle people. I digress.

At the hospital I bought a ticket from the driver and as I couldn't find my money it was a daily, not a weekly, but he gave me a return to Basildon not Chelmsford. At Basildon bus garage I spoke to him about it and he agreed to let me buy the weekly - I had found my money. His relief drive arrived part way into the conversation and said "Can't do that!". You can, he did.
Some of the drivers don't know how to get the ticket I have out of their machine, so I've listened to those that do, and can tell them the menu its on. They are a mixed bunch, the company does not seem to have any policy about how its drivers respond - odd in the noughties.

Shoulder Class session 2

Same old exercises, just set together with some warm up and some ball games. One of which is shooting into a basket ball hoop. I scored one out of five. That made me equal top scorer for this week.
I have a walking stick at home for this exercise, doing it with a broom handle in the class was a lot harder. The walking stick has a carved head and is much easier to hold.
Physiotherapy seems to be basically: if the arm won't go where it should push it until it does. It does seem to be working, but I'm still unsure whether that's me pushing the day-to-day tasks, or whether the exercises really do help.
For example, yesterday I dug two holes in the hard dry ground full of tree roots to put roses in. I did this much more slowly than normal, and used pruners to get the roots out. I used my right arm because I can't dig left handed (I did try, it was hopeless). At one point a root gave way and the spade stopped resisting my weight. My arm descended to its fullest extent very quickly. The shock gave me pins and needles in my arm for 5 minutes or so. Later that evening doing the pulley exercise I found I could reach the bar again, which I haven't been able to do for two weeks. (Since the class started.)

Interesting.

Mainly though I'm very thankful that it is still improving, even if progress is very slow.

After the class I went straight to work on the bus, although straight does not really desrcibe the route. It takes one hour - near enough. In a car I could do it in 35 minutes easily.

New Job

I am still slightly stunned by the speed this has happened. Interviewed one Monday, in the office the next! Today we completed the basics - understanding the telephone system, getting an e-mail address, ordering a PC and getting the first proper exposure to the Energy Industry. It is a very complicated system and could not be run without computers.

I have books to read, and much to learn, and skills to bring up-to-date. The next few weeks are going to be interesting.

I travelled to Chelmsford on the Bus, rather than drive. It takes 30 minutes, or slightly less, unless you miss one as you leave the office, in which case it is nearer 50 minutes.

What should I call this post?

Blogger Arrrrrrrrgh! was my first thought. Perhaps I should stick with "Sunday, April 15th @ 10:00am at Christ Church". The story is of technology and buses.

We arrived at church early, because I was helping with the technology, and Jo was doing Tea/Coffee and Singing. The Tea/Coffee went well, so did the Singing, but the technology was awful. The DVD player I was given doesn't do timed indexing, and it creeps on pause. That's probably a way of stopping me frying the track. Our projector is next to useless, and the clip was of a man in a cave - all very dark. However the talk was interesting, if only that it highlighted what tradition does to our beliefs. A very good point. Thomas, far from lacking faith, was merely refusing to trust his friends when they told him something that sounded entirely unreasonable. Look at his reaction when he met the risen Jesus.

Anyway back to the story. As the prayers were led a sunflower seed was given out. It caught the imagination, and hopefully should be a good was of reminding us to pray. A few jokes about Sunflower cam, and the blogging idea came out. Take a look at http://sunflowerprayers.blogspot.com. In a conversation over coffee I said, "Oh yes, I'll just add to the Tanzania Blog". Simple! Login, ceate a blog - 2 minutes - doddle! Couldn't be easier.


RUBBISH

Hadn't reckoned with Blogger. (yoda voice required for the next bit) Moved it to the new blog they have. Very unhelpful it is. ( OK, back to normal) So I have to sign up with a new gmail address, which seems to be the only way to make it work. All that's done - but what a waste of time. Haven't they heard of "migration script".


Any way if you've got this far - Well done! Here I hope is the good bit. I have been trying to get Christ Church people into blogging. We should add the blog addresses to the A-Z. I'd like to run multiple Christ church Blogs, one for each of the organizations we have. Let people create their own content. Thats what the web should be about. Lets hope that has started.

Buses
So there I was, finally getting on with my meeting minutes. I've had a busy week, of four official working days the shortest was 11.9 hours. So, I've not been doing all I should. The phone rings. I answer it "Hello."
"Dad, What are you doing?"
"Talking to you on the phone, Mike"
"Yes cut the sarcasm. Are you busy?"
"Of course. What do you want?"
"If I give you some money will you pick us up from Lakeside. The bus hasn't come"
"When's the next one?"
"Tomorrow"
So I do the return trip to Lakeside (about 15 miles each way). The last bus should never be cancelled - cancel the one before if you have to, but never the last one.



I haven't had any money yet.