This is Dennis. Dennis is a training bus. On Wednesday, I wrapped him round an iron bollard. Two nearside panels and a wheelarch, but I'm still in the job, Deo gratias. Today I passed the first part of my test (the theory part) and returned a 40 footer more-or-less intact. Sincere thanks to visitors and old friends for good wishes - practical test in three weeks so please spare me a Pater and an Ave as you depart.
16 comments:
I shall keep you in my prayers.
I'm curious, what made you want to be a bus driver?
I'm sure that there are worse jobs.
I saw my time out as a teacher.
Now they're looking for teachers.
I'm not surprised!
I would rather be a bus-driver than a teacher today!
Of course, you could always try being a Magistrate.
If I had my time over again, that is what I would be. It is money for old rope.
I know.
I've done a bit of it!
JARay
By Magistrate, I mean Stipendary Magistrate. the bit I did was stipend free!
Stipend?
$230,000 plus house, plus car!
Mind you, you would have to start in a remote area!
JARay
Ah, not a Brighton bus how sad.
Perhaps the bus caught your drift and scented heresy in the iron bollard.
The prayers to St Dominic Savio did it for the test. A Novena to St Frances of Rome for the practical.
Many thanks, Ttony and John.
Father - a little subterfuge. I chose a pic of a Dennis Dart in the livery of a different company. I'll be picking you up at the Clock Tower in no time, if St Frances of Rome comes through.
Anon - thank you. Why bus-driving? I was made redundant last year after twenty years with the same company and no-one seemed anxious to snap me up. I wanted very much to re-train as a plumber or electrician, but couldn't afford the fees or the time out (wife, two kids and a mortgage, guv). A relative who's been "on the buses" since before St Mary Magdalen's had a forward altar suggested it, and the idea somehow appealed. The local bus company has a good reputation, offers excellent training and decent pay and conditions. I am a lithographic printer by trade and jobs are nowadays scarce; but in any case I'd rather stick hot pins in my eyes than go back to manufacturing tomorrow's waste-paper, "do sales", or another collar-and-tie "management" position I'd be hopeless at, and hate every minute of.
On the other hand, you're welcome to outbid them for my meagre and ill-assorted skill set if you wish!
Bus driver has always struck me as a fine thing to be. But difficult. When you're late or the fares go up or it's raining everybody gets mad at you and it's almost never your fault, but you're the only point of contact people have with the bus company so they take it out on you.
And in places like Toronto, there's that whole making-a-Jamaican-drugdealing-thug-mad-at-you-for-insisting-he-pays-his-fare-and-getting-stabbed-fifty-times thing.
I thought the world of the busdrivers in Victoria when I was a kid. I was about nine when I started riding it by myself to school. I made a mistake one day and got on the wrong bus. I sat on the whole route until we were all the way out in Saanich or Metchosin (places really far away from my school) and the bus driver sang out, "last stop." I burst into tears and said I was lost. He phoned his supervisor (for permission I guess) and drove me to within a block of my school. His shift was probably over too.
Sterling white-hatted fellows bus drivers.
The Bus Driver can be a noble and eminent individual,able to rise above the quandry that is the daily hustle of metropolitan life.
It is the day when this expectant is not met is the day you hang up your hat,good luck to you,success is always available.
John -- what's the matter with being a teacher?
Ah, in that case I will add prayers to St Mary Magdalen, she comes through with everything. She always indulges her devotees.
To anonymous who asked what is wrong with being a teacher.
It is a thankless task today.
The hordes are increasingly rude, ill-disciplined and want to blame the teacher when they fail because they have not worked.
I have had enjoyable moments and I loved my subject - Mathematics. A colleague and I used to vie with each other in solving the Public exam questions when the T.A.E. came round (Tertiary Admittance Examinations). We used to see who finished first!
I've been retired for over a decade now and I would not want to go back to schools the way they are now.
JARay
Good luck with this.
I too am about to get back on the road-different circumstances. Our 8 seater 'bus' called "Shed" is to be adapted so a left legged crip like me can drive it. I'll be having a few lessons on how to drive left leg/left handed and whey-hey I'll be off!
I hope you'll enjoy this new job and meet lots of new people.
Ben!
you still posting?
Still out there?
beed driven over by the bus mechanic who has to fix the buses you break?
Nothing since July 26th... hope you're ok, and just driving so many buses that you're too tired to blog, rather than crashing so many buses that you have both arms in plaster...
;-)
Mac
ditto
So how did the testgo?
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