Friday, 26 June 2009

Getting things into perspective


To say I nearly missed my train because of it would be a massive and unfair overstatement (I had the best part of 25 minutes wait in the end anyway), but I would have been in Paignton quite a bit earlier if the “discussion” with the driver had taken less time.

As I boarded the bus to go onto Paignton to get the fast train up to Exeter I was immediately behind a lady with a dog.

The lady produced her free bus pass (entitling the holder to unlimited free travel on any bus, in any town in England after the rush hour, not a bad deal when you think about it, and when you see what the standard single fares are), and went to get her ticket when the driver pointed out that there is a small charge for the dog.

The massive, outrageous, unbelievable and utterly unacceptable charge of 50p for the dog for the whole day, unlimited, anywhere on a Stagecoach bus in South West England.

The lady had a lengthy debate about how she thought this was unacceptable and wasn’t going to pay it, until the bus driver pointed out that she would have to get off the bus if she didn’t.

She grudgingly, and very childishly, slammed down a £2 coin (note here not fishing around scrabbling for small change) ripped the ticket out of the machine and stormed off down the bus.

Now to put this in a little perspective. The cost of a day ticket for the whole of Devon, on Stagecoach only, cost me £6.50, and I consider that to be pretty good value considering a single from Paignton back to Torre on Tuesday evening was £2.80

I don’t begrudge the free bus travel afforded to anyone over the age of 60, however, kicking up a fuss for a 50p dog ticket does appear a little churlish when you get so much free travel!

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Thursday, 25 June 2009

Not wound spotting


Continuing my (unpleasant) habit of spotting what the wound of the location is. This time, it’s not a wound, more a condition.

Torbay has a, perhaps unfair, image of an area of more interest to a mature population.

The locals, appear to be fighting back.

Rather than an injury, the most common condition was the sheer number of women who were clearly in the final stages of pregnancy.

The question has to be, are Torbay council taking any account of this. There is already little for the younger citizens of the area to do, other than hang around the arcades and car parks (which I witnessed this evening), bored out of their skulls, not that the kids were anything other than just bored, no violence, no real swearing, just boredom. In less than 16 years time this could be a whole load worse.

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Wednesday, 24 June 2009

Introducing SpideeLodge


After my experiences in the London Liverpool Street Traveldoge, I’ve become a little cautious about the chain.

Since then I have stayed in a couple of other Travelodges (both on Holiday and for work), and haven’t had anything to complain about.

This morning, after having my shower I stepped out of the shower area and went to grab the towel.

On picking it up my first reaction was, urghhh, that’s a bit dirty, it looks as though its still got some hair on it from the last time it was used.

I was about to go and brush the “hair” off when I noticed it move slightly, up over the fold of the towel to reveal a large spindley legged spider.

It’s not what you want to see at 8 in the morning when you are dripping wet. I suppressed the urge to let out a scream (I’m not a fan of spiders, I’m not scared of them, it’s just I don’t like coming across them unexpectedly), and very carefully took the towel out into the room and let the spider down onto the carpet, where it immediately headed for the skirting board in the corner.

You can’t really hold Travelodge liable for the spider, but I do wonder, as I have several more bookings with the chain, what other wildlife I will experience in their rooms in the future. Look out perhaps for ParrotLodge in Newcastle, or maybe ScorpionLodge in Hollyhead?

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Basil!


“And what did you expect to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically over the plains ...?"

It’s a classic line, and I did resolve myself not to mention it when I checked into the hotel (either the member of staff wouldn’t get the reference, or they would have heard it so many times that they had ceased to find it funny.)

What I wasn’t expecting was to be woken at 7:30 by the sound of a herd of Wildebeest sweeping majestically down the Newton Road in the direction of Torre station.

As it transpired they weren’t wildebeest, just school kids with far too much energy for that early in the morning.

I'll just have to see if I can locate the Hanging Gardens as there is quite a bit of greenery when I look out of my rooms window...

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