Up Early

So I woke up at 5:45am and couldn't get back to sleep so I figured that seeing as I had to go and pick up a hire car before getting to work that I'd just leave earlier than I'd originally intended and grab myself some breakfast on the way.

I did consider walking the 4 miles it was to the Europcar, Reading HQ but as it is going to be a long day, with a full days work then the 3:21hrs drive to Leeds I thought I'd slum it and jump on the number 6 Bus service from Reading station.

Anyway breakfast was my first concerns and as much as I wanted to pop into Malmaisson for it I thought I'd because keep true to how I started the day and cheapen it a little by heading to McDonalds.

Now I know what many of you might think about McDonalds and I'll probably agree with you about the post 10:30am menu but for me you can't really beat a Sausage & Egg muffin with a couple of Hash Browns and a coffee. Personally the highlight of this trans fat filled feast are the Hash Browns, definitely in my top 5 of potato forms, not quite in the same league as Potato Croquettes though but that's a whole different blog.

Anyway if any of you know what Friar Street in Reading is like then you'll understand how much fun it can actually be just sitting there and enjoying/cringing/grimacing (delete as applicable) it can be.

Highlight of this morning was some old girl sat on here own, obviously a bit mental bless her and obviously lacking in personal hygiene, which would explain why the was nobody sat with about 15 feet of her. Now don't get me wrong I'm not one of these people that think people should be locked away just because they are a bit crackers or anything like that, quite the contrary especially when they are as harmless as this lady was.

So there I was merrily tucking into my meal when all of a sudden I hear "Emily Heskey isn't that bad you know" then a pause for about 2 minutes "At least he was trying" another pause "Yeah yeah yeah talk about Beckham all you like but he won't play for England again".

Well this went on for the whole time I was there and apart from the opening two statements there wasn't a thing the batty old fruitcake said that I didn't disagree with. She spoke more sense (OK completely to herself) than Hansen & Dixon combined and I couldn't help but think it would have been so much nicer to have her on the BBC during the world cup than those two herberts.

Next stop was to get on the bus. Having researched the route and the stop at which I needed to get on at I found it easy to locate the said bus however these days it seems there are just a few fares which was news to me having not been on a bus for quite a while, infact the last bus I got on was about 3 years ago and that was in Ibiza!! I remember getting on, saying where you were going and the driver telling you how much it was.

Now I'm quite OK with the thought of public transport, if it's run correctly, efficiently and punctually but that's just not the case and believe that's because it's seen as the transport mode for the less affluent therefore the people running it seem to expect that a mediocre service will be fully accepted and unfortunately they are correct. The whole basis of a current culture seems to be built on the acceptance of mediocrity. Gone are the days of only wanting the best, now we live in a world where just good enough is good enough.

So my biggest bugbear about public transport, buses in particular, are the people they employ to drive these things. They all seem to have this air of arrogance about them as if they are in such a prestige position that they can look down their noses through their NHS specs at anybody who dare set foot upon their fine vessel.

This was compounded as (bringing you back to my previous comment about the new ticket pricing) I tried to purchase my ticket. The conversation was thus -

Me - I need to go to the industrial area down the Basingstoke road.
Him - It's just one fare mate.
Me - Oh OK, and how much is that?
Him - Written on the side of the bus innit.
Me - I'm sorry I didn't notice can you just tell me how much it is?
Him - Tut! One Paaaaaaaaand Seventy

Well then I go to hand him the cash...

Him - Daaaaaan't give it to me, put it in the trofffffff

I grit my teeth, go and sit down and make sure I have the Tom Tom app on the iPhone turned on so I know where to get off, rest of the journey quite pleasant. Still, reflecting on that situation this bloke has gotten satisfaction out of trying to gain the upper ground on one of his paying passengers. How should the conversation gone?

Me - I need to go to the industrial area down the Basingstoke road.
Him - No problem that'll be one pound seventy. If you could just pop it in the trough to your left I'll give you a ticket.
Me - Thankyou.
Him - No problem (Smile)

How hard could that have been? I'd have been sat there thinking "Ah what a nice fella" instead of "Haha Mate, You drive a f**king bus, give yourself a break"