My newly found enthusiasm for local buses is waning. After my success on Friday, I checked the timetable and confidently set off through the snow to catch a bus to work. I’d timed it well, so I only had a few minutes to wait, and by the time the bus was due, three other people had joined me at the bus stop.
Just on time, the bus was seen at the junction in the distance, so we knew it wouldn’t be long before it appeared round the curve in the road to pick us up. After a few minutes when it still hadn’t reached us, we began to think that something was wrong. And it was! Instead of using the route listed on the timetable, the bus had gone a different way. That meant that the four of us were left standing at the bus stop while the bus headed off to our destination on a different road.
We were disappointed and frustrated, but we decided that we would walk up to the next stop so that the same thing wouldn’t happen to the next bus, due in half an hour. The couple who had ski sticks set off at a fair pace, so I walked slowly with the elderly lady with a walking stick.
She was chatting away to me telling all about why she was going into town, and I was glancing at her as I walked and listened. One minute she was there, the next she’d disappeared and was lying full length on her back in the snow. It was so fast! Her feet just went from under her. I asked her if she was ok and she was, so I retrieved her walking stick, helped her onto her feet and brushed the snow off her so that she didn’t get cold. She thought it was funny, but walked even more carefully after that.
We got to the next bus stop in plenty of time and all chatted as we waited. The time for the bus came, and went. We waited and waited. My toes had become blocks of ice by this time and it was impossible to warm them up even when I kept moving them and stamping them in the snow.
Eventually half an hour late, a bus arrived. I asked the driver if it was the 11.26am bus on time, or the 10.56am bus late. He said no, it was the 10.16 bus very late!
Once on the bus, I enjoyed the snowy views again and it wasn’t long before I got to work. I was concerned about getting home though. I wanted to try and get home before dark, but if a bus was likely to be an hour late, that wouldn’t be possible, and I didn’t fancy walking on snow and ice in the dark. So I was very glad when someone who lives near me offered me a lift home.
We’ve had some lovely hot, sunny weather lately and I’d been enjoying being in the garden, sitting on the bench reading my book or eating my lunch and catching up with the gardening. I wanted to clear one of the overgrown flowerbeds and make it into a vegetable plot.
