TUBBY LOSES A GOOD RUN FOR ARRIVA

as hinted we did go to North West Wales today, we got up at our normal time and set the satnav for Aberystwyth  and got there about 9.35 which wasn't bad really as its quite a cross country jaunt. It was mainly damp and rained a fair bit whilst we were there. We had a splendid breakfast, coffee and cake sort that is and will go there again if we can remember it next time around. The draw of course is the retreat of Arriva from the area and now the operations are all in the hands of smaller independent companies of which I saw buses from five operatots, a bit too much white I must say, a little bit of a splash out on liveries wouldn't go amiss, a bit like the Dolgellau outfit, never an inch of pain but we digress and jump out of order so lets get back to cronology and why not you may ask they can't touch you for it. The rain was still being quite persistent and I'd got about 20 minutes of film before I retread to the dryness of the car. The best presented buses belonged to Celtic and Lloyds take the decker plaudit.

We then started our trip up north through heavy rain, a rather beuatiful part of the world and the satnav took us on an interesting short cut or two as we wended our way on the slow haul, little bit of road widening teased us but the slog finally ended at Caernarfon  where we parked up opposite the castle, the new road system makes the traffic enter past the steam railway and castle and gives a much better impression when people arrive. The sun which had now come out to make life harder with the camera decided to play nicely after all and I had clocked up another twenty minutes of film and strolled back to the car past craft shops with fudge on my mind, no particular reasojn other than I like fudge, Mandy was just emerging from a home made chocolate and fudge shop and had bought her second pair of earrings of the day. Well fed and wanting of water we headed the short hop to Bangor filling up the car at Tescos and then using our spot in the car park at the side of the library, again mixed blessings with mild sun and breeze and then clouds. The camera made short work of the light, it really is pretty clever on automatic, never thought I'd utter those words.

Then needless to say after a fine day out some beggar was going to spoil it, I think I've made favourable comments through the past year about Arriva nd its drivers, for all the Stagecoach hassle and some First wrecks on the roads and not to speak of West Coast Motors Polish nutters it was rather fateful that the day ended its good reputation at Bangor where of all places I've never ever had any real hassle. The big fat gross obese twit in his Arriva shirt was stalking me, where I moved he moved, I was feeling really intimidated. He finally approached me and asked what I was doing, well it was pretty obvious but I was friendly, just a bus enthusiast mate I said. He went into a rant on breaking the law, invading his civil liberties and all the other tripe. This after he'd been stalking me. Anyway I asked him on film if he was making an official statement for Arriva, of which I'm a shareholder and sort of in a round about way his employer. Needless to say he had no further comment although I attracted a crowed as I speculated on air as to what they were up to that they were afraid of an elderly bus spotter! As I've followed a policy of zero tolerence to this sort of abuse I'll write to there headquarters on Monday and see if I can ruffle a few feathers, by the way he wasn't Welsh, just a bit of rather large flotsam drifting in from Llandudno probably.