The bus stop near my house is incredibly badly located. The pavement at this point is fairly wide, and the shelter is set well back from the edge of the road. Unfortunately there is a tree directly in front of the shelter, which blocks waiting passengers’ views of oncoming buses, and more importantly, blocks bus drivers’ views of waiting passengers. This means that the bus shelter cannot fulfil its primary function, as you have to keep stepping out from under it to see if a bus is coming. Also, the bus lay-by has a big pothole which quickly fills up with water every time it rains.
On Friday it was raining quite heavily. I was waiting for a bus and stepped out from under the shelter to see if one was coming. At that moment a car decided to pull into the lay-by to use the nearby cash machine.
SPLASH! All over me.
The driver got out. “Did I splash you then?” he asked.
When I responded in the affirmative, he was mortified and offered a profuse apology. I was genuinely taken aback. I don’t usually get apologies, and definitely not from car drivers where the general attitude seems to be that it’s entirely one’s own fault for getting in their way and deigning to use feet for something other than the accelerator or clutch.
I was so surprised at his contrition that I found myself going very over the top in the forgiveness stakes. “It’s OK, don’t worry about it,” I babbled repeatedly, even after he left, which must have alarmed the driver of the 82A when it eventually arrived and I climbed aboard.
, selling at about 60 quid off the RRP. Of course, in my haste to purchase this item I neglected to note the various other items I would need, which include but are not limited to: tapes, a spare battery, a FireWire cable to link the camera to the computer, and a FireWire card for the computer itself. All of which will probably add an extra 100 quid to the price by the time I’ve bought them all. Still, I’ve had a bit of a play with it, and it’s a nice bit of kit for the price.