A Magical Mystery Tour

This is the story of the magical mystery tour we had on the way back from Ufford to Leiston in Suffolk. We, that is Kat and myself, had taken the bus down to Ufford to walk the Heritage Trail as our Mid-winters walk. The journey down to the village and the walk and pub stops all went as planned, the only obstacle being the flooded pastures along the River Deben forcing us to take the road alternative. The magical mystery tour began our our way back to Leiston. The route is served by the 64 BusbService operted by First Group buses. The bus was about 15 mins late at Ufford which was a little disappointing but I have to admit somewhat expected as the First Group schedules, from experience, are never perfectly adhered to.

Things did not get off to a good start when the bus driver pulled up and the doors did not open. I am used to such events on the X2 First Group Beccles to Norwich service which I use for work where bus doors regularly stick and I often have to give them a nudge in order to gain access. In this instance after a minutes wait I eventually gave the door a nudge thinking they were stuck upon which the doors swung open allowing us access. The driver was not happy with this. He took umption and castigated us for boarding as he had purposely kept the door closed because there was an old man attempting to walk down the bus and alight at the stop. This was certainly not obvious from outside the bus and the usual method to notify boarding passengers of such an event would be to open the doors and politely ask people to wait. Not on this occasion. This bus driver thought a closed door indicated the same message and if any potential passenger mis-interpreted such vague signs then they were either plainly dumb, stupid or ignorant. I guess we were all three as I blatantly assumed the doors were stuck and needed a nudge.

So, our journey did not start with the best beginings. Nonethelss we let matters lie and after having our return tickets punched, proceeded to sit down. From here the journey to Saxmundham went as planned. One thing that I do not like about the 64 service is that it does take the unwitting passenger on a tour of East Suffolk housing estates, managing to detour around every available piece of domestic urbanisation between Leiston and Ipswich it can find which results in a 25 mile journey taking one hour and forty minutes. Saxmundham, being a small town with a little modern housing estate, is no different to the other A12 towns and villages and consequently the 64 service navigates around the back of town which involves having to negotiate speed bumps and stops every 100 yards because obviously people in this day and age are unable to perambulte more than 50 yards without the transportation.

So our bus turns off of the A12 Saxmundham bypass, and as per the predefined schedule turns into the small housing estate down to the old road into town. This road is typical modern construction that takes a winding course through what was fields a few years ago with multiple speed humps that hamper the progress. Midway along its course is a school and it was at this point things became interesting. On the left, in front of the detached houses, there was a parked car and directly in front of that a parked van. On the right, outside the school, was a parked Range Rover which was directly opposite the car and van. This wasnt the best parking in the world, in fact the Range Rover driver must have been close to the description of a total idiot to have parked there leaving little room for traffic to pass. Either that or owning such a top market motor entitles the owner to have a certain amount of stupidity and allows them to park with total disregard to other obstructions on the highway.

Anyway, our bus driver, after coming to a halt in front of the narrow passage between the vehicles, immediately assumed that the gap was not sufficient to get his bus through. He bangs on the horn a long blast to draw attention to the scene. Nothing happens. I have to admit it would have been tight to get the bus through the gap  but at that point the 64 bus arriving from the opposite direction pulls up and nervously started to negotiate the gap. It appeared that he was going to be successful but before he had completed the manouvre our bus driver had reversed into a cul-de-sac and then drives out, back up the road from whence he came. Not sure exactly what he was planning we assumed he would come off the estate and go straight down into Saxmundham town centre. No, he returns up the road then heads back out onto the main A12 Saxmundham by-pass. Here he proceeds towards Yoxford then takes the next right down through the village of Carlton to get back onto the old road into Saxmundham. This is a little lane. At certain points there was probably no more room to get past than there was between the parked vehicles on the housing estate. Even so, this seemed to be a clever move by the driver as it meant he would get onto the main road and still be able to arrive at the  main Saxmundham bus stop by the railway bridge. A clever plan with one huge flaw which appeared in his scheme when, without hessitation, at the junction with the main road instead of turning right into town he turned left. This meant he ended up back on the A12. Here he turns left and heads back along the by-pass to the road we originally came from. Once again he returns onto the housing estate. He drives down the winding estate road to the school. On the left is a parked car with a van parked directly in front. On the right is a Range Rover leaving little room to pass though just enough for a bus to pass through. He wasnt going to lose face. He had already decided that his bus was wider than the average bus and would not be able to negotiate the obstacle. So he reverses into a cul-de-sac, turns round and goes back out to the road into the estate where he turns left to take the B1119 into Saxmundham. Apart from he misses the junction into Mill Road that leads down into town and ends up on another housing estate where he comes to a stop as the road sharply turns left with junction on the right. He decides to turn right thinking it will get him back to Mill Road although he doesnt know this road does not lead to Mill Road but to Station Approach which would be difficult for a bus to get down. However there are too many cars parked for him to negotiate the corner. He attempts to take the turn but then realises it was not going to happen in a million years, certainly at least as long as it would take for all the parked cars to turn to rust and be blown away as dust.

Finally he has to admit defeat. He shouts out the question 'Does anybody now the roads round Saxmundham'. The chap behind us directs him towards Johns Road buy that is too tight to get a bus round. So we head down to Fairfield Road and he is able to get round that and back onto the main road into town. The adventure finally comes to an end. The Magical Mystery tour finalises and we proceed on our merry way to Leiston. Only forty minutes late. But what a journey.

IT could only happen on First Group buses.

First Group X2 Lowestoft to Norwich - Possibly the worse service in Britain

I have used buses all my life, long before eco-friendly became the fashion. I have always, where possible, attempted to use public transport and have thus acquired many years of experience during my years of travelling since the early 70's.

These days, living down in deepest coastal Suffolk but working in Norwich, it is not easy to find public transport to complete the journey. The rail fare is extortionate (over £25 for a return journey from Saxmundham) and there are no direct buses. For the first 18 months after starting work in Norwich I used the Park and Ride which is a very good service and certainly beats battling the traffic and it is cheaper than parking in central Norwich. Then, in May 2011, after researching the bus services in and out of Norwich I decided to give the First Group X2 bus service a go. This would mean having to drive to Beccles, then catch the half hourly First Group bus into Norwich.

My initial impressions were favourable, the fare is excellent - £20 for a 10 trip ticket which works out less than the petrol to get from Beccles to Norwich plus the added advantage, when using Beccles Quay carpark, of no parking fees. At first the buses appeared to arrive on time and were well used. The downside was the drivers were not particularly responsive to casual chat when boarding and alighting the bus and in general the buses were not very clean. The only other gripe was in the morning when the service was used by some rather rowdy school kids. Nonetheless, with my music player plugged to my ears to distract from the commotion, it was a reasonable stress free journey that beat driving the horrendous A146 which always seemed to be full of suicide drivers bent on getting a few places ahead in the heavy stream of rush hour traffic.

Those initial impressions, after 6 months of using the service, soon evaporated. My experience now leaves a lot to be desired, and, judging by talking with fellow passengers I am not alone in my criticism of the X2 service and First Group buses in general. The service suffers from constant break-downs, buses not turning up and even buses catching fire. The buses that do run on time appear to constantly suffer from cab alarms sounding throughout the journey. One driver said it was just an 'electrical fault' when I inquired as to the reason. I can accept that nothing is 100% reliable but it would appear that at least once a week I am delayed by a bus breaking down or not turning up. In all of my years of being a bus passenger I have never encountered such an unreliable service. Each occasion when the bus does not turn up, the next bus along has to deal with double the amount of passengers and usually the driver will refuse to take any more once the stipulated capacity is reached leaving disappointed people having to wait a further half an hour. The bus then continues its journey passing each stop ignoring the waving arms of people waiting for the bus.

Each day has now become a lottery on what time I will get to work and what time I will get home. The continuing saga of 'what happened on my bus journey to work' has become a bit of a joke and a constant source of amusement to my work colleagues but now the joke is wearing thin. These days if I need to be at work at a specified time or I need to get home for an appointment then I have to drive to the Park and Ride as I cannot trust the X2 service to deliver me on time. During summer there was rumours that Anglian Buses was to start a rival service to the X2 but so far nothing has materialised. So, despite the frustration I am still using the service on most days but have now started to investigate travelling to Halesworth or Bungay where I can catch the Anglian bus service into Norwich.

To add to all this frustration, another gripe is the heating on the First Group buses. During the heat of summer the heating systems always appeared to be on, letting passengers bake in the sauna like conditions. Now winter is here the heating is rarely working. I was told by a fellow passenger that the heating system is set by the bus engineers and the driver has no control on them.

From this experience I can only conclude that First Group do not service any of their bus fleet and their management have no interest in getting passengers to their destination. I cannot blame the drivers who are probably equally as frustrated by having such unreliable transport. Having used other Norfolk bus services such as Anglian buses, Konnectbus and Norfolk Green I can honestly say that First Group are by far the worst bus service in the county, if not the whole of Britain. In fact, given my years of bus use I would even go so far as to say the X2 service is probably the worst service I have ever encountered in my life. Before these six months I could probably count the number of times that I had a bus break down during a journey on one finger. The X2 service has surpassed this in just 6 months.

November 2012 Update

Anglian Buses are to introduce a new rival service to First Groups unreliable X2 service. The Anglian 146 service will start on 3rd December 2012 and will offer a half hourly service between Lowestoft and Norwich with stops at Beccles and Loddon.

In my opinion this new service has come none too soon and I congratulate Anglian on introducing it. Having used Anglian buses on numerous other occasions my expectations are high. Their services are usually reliable, have friendly and communicative drivers and their buses always appear clean and looked after. My only criticism is the earliest bus departing from Beccles to Norwich is at 07:35 which will mean I will arrive at work half an hour later than usual.

It will not take much to beat the First Group X2 service in all of reliability, friendliness and cleanliness of the buses. I am writing this with only a week before the new service is introduced and judging by this Friday (2012-11-23) evenings X2 debacle then Anglian Buses will have plenty of custom from the irate passengers who had to endure the X2 journey home from Norwich.

The farce on Friday evening started at 15:50 when I arrived at Norwich bus station in order to catch the 16:10 bus back to Beccles. There was plenty of passengers already waiting and it did occur to me that the previous bus at 15:40 had not turned up. This is a frequent occurrence and it never surprises me when one of the X2 service buses just fails to arrive. I waited with the ever growing queue of potential passengers. The 16:10 bus did not turn up. The queues lengthened. Eventually an announcement was made that the 16:10 bus would not turn up by which time it was time for the 16:40 bus to arrive. There was no apology, not that I had expected an apology from First Group. They never apologise for their late running and lack of a service. However I was quite surprised by the announcement because we do not usually get treated to such information, they usually leave it up to their customers imagination and guesswork to know that the bus will not turn up.

Anyway, I waited, along with the ever growing queue of what was now becoming disgruntled potential passengers. The next bus, the 16:40 did not turn up. This time there was no announcement. We had to guess that we were going to have to wait even longer with no information to just how long. By this time there was probably enough waiting passengers for two or three buses. Eventually, a bus arrived at 17:00. Whether this was the late 16:40 or the 17:10 a few minutes early is up to anyone's guess. First Group passengers are never treated to explanations or information. It is the First Group prerogative that they can and will run their bus as and when they feel they can be bothered and us public should be grateful that they are prepared to actually put a bus on the route in the first place.

The driver did not look impressed by the long queue of passengers. I dare not ask him what bus service this was supposed to be, for fear that I would be sent to the back of the queue. Eventually the bus, filled to its seams with passengers, departed leaving another bus load of disgruntled passengers still waiting because they were not allowed to board as the bus was deemed overcrowded.

I eventually arrived at Beccles at 18:00, one and a half hours after I had expected to arrive. I can understand that buses do break down, and there are uncertainties of traffic flows, but sadly with First Group this is all too common an occurrence. Roll on Anglian bus, lets hope the service fulfils the needs of the poor disregarded customers along the X2 route. Unfortunately I have a season ticket up until Christmas but with such bad service as Friday I may opt to just use Anglian regardless!

Anglian Buses have published their new titmetable at http://www.anglianbus.co.uk/media/media/timetables/146_Dec_2012.pdf

Peddars Way and North Norfolk Coast Footpath

Almost a year to the day our group of intrepid walkers set out on our 2008 long distance walk. We had hopefully learnt a few lessons from our previous years jaunt along the Ridgeway.
Day 1 - Thetord Dowers House Camp Site
I caught trains from Saxmundham - Lowestoft - Norwich - Thetford which got me there about midday. The walk was only 10 miles but the first few miles were along the busy main Diss road. I quickened my pace along here averaging over 4 mph just to hurry and get off onto more conducive roads and paths. A monor road led through the village of Rushford and then along to the start of the Peddars Way. It was a pleasure to see on the opposite side of the road a signpost pointing to Ivinghoe Beacon (106 miles) which is where we had started the previous year. There was only a couple of miles along the Ridgeway before I had to head through the woods on West Harling Heath in order to get to the Dower House camp site. Friendly family oriented site.
Day 2 - Dower House Camp Site to Watton Hare and Barrel
It was a cold damp night and the morning was full of mist. I am now determined to get a better sleeping bag than the cheap old synthetic one I have previously used. Tried to dry the tent out but the sun struggled in burning off the mist and so had to pack it wet. Met up with the rest of the boys where I had left the Peddars Way the previous day. It was good to see them all and spirits were high. The day was turning warm and sunny. Stopped off at Dog and Partridge in Sonebridge just before the pub opened. Martin had started eating a pasty whilst we waited in the pub garden. He was promptly ejected from the premesis by the pasty police for contravening pub policy! Arrived at Hare and Barrel, Watton in good time. Nice accommodation, pleasant staff. Good food. Good beer - Reverend James! Took a stroll into town and had a drink in another pub - pretty much a dive - selling Adnams bitter which was not a very good pint.
Day 3 - Watton to Castle Acre
Visited St Andres church in Cressingham - a curious building that was half intact and half ruin. Stopped off at The Blue Lion, North Pickenham - excellent beer though the name of the brew/brewery escapes me - so good we had to have a couple of pints each! A lot of long straight paths through to Castle Acre but well worth it when we got there. A smashing little village with an old priory and a castle so there was plenty to investigate. Stayed over at the Old Red Lion - an old pub turned into a hostel. A communual dormitory with only us staying in it. Another guest, a cyclist was supposedly there but failed to return from his days outings. Found I had lost my house keys when I changed trousers to go out for the evening - luckily a call to the Hare and Barrel in Watton had found them in their car park - they offered to send them through to me by recorded delevery - a very pleasing gesture. Had dinner in The Ostrich Inn - fascinating pub, good food and Abbot Ale!
Day 4 - Castle Acre to Heacham
Despite much phoning and searching the only accommodation we could locate for this days walk was at Heacham - this effectively took us off the Peddars way but would enable us to walk the coast up to Hunstanton. It was a good 18 miles of long straight tracks. A pretty uneventful and by the time we reached Sedgeford where we had to head out to Heacham we were all pretty knackered. Steve W was suffering badly from blistered feet.
Day 5 Heacham to Brancaster
Steve W had decided to quit the walk as his feet were in such a bad state. He did accompany us up to Hunstanton but then caught a bus whilst the remaining three of us carried on to the North Norfolk Coast path. Stopped off in Old Hunstanton which I think was called something like The Mariners - excellent real ale. We did attempt to go to the White Horse in Home but found it was being refurbished after being gutted by fire. Still managed to have drinks at both Thornham and Titchwell in order to escape from the rain! Nothing special - these hostelries were reconditioned old pubs for modern-day holiday makers - sparse and minimalist decoration - personally I like a traditional styled pub. Brancaster thankfully had one of these where we were due to stay - The Ship Inn - good beer (Abott Ale), basic pub grub, decent rooms and a landlord who wanted to cater for the locals rather than the city visitors.
Day 6 - Brancaster to Wells
There had been quite a bit of rain the previous evening and despite the day being dry the overgrown footpath through the marshes to Burnham Ovary Staithe ended up with soaked trousers and boots. Met up with Gary T at Wells camped overnight at Mill Farm.
Day 7 - Wells to Weybourne
This was a very long day - although we knew it was supposed to be a good 18 miles as we did not know exactly where the camp site was it put on a couple of extra miles plus having to walk along the shingle from Cley to Weybourne left us all feeling shattered. Lunchtime we found a lovely pub called the Kings Arms in Blakeney which offered Woodfords Wherry straight from teh barrel - absolutely delicious! Also called into a pub in Cley but once again this was a refurbished minimalist place that lacked the pub atmosphere. When we arrived at Weybourne a couple in a caravan offered us tea/beer which was a very welcome gift after such a long day.
Day 8 Weybourne to Cromer
The final day began with heavy rain. It was clear that there was going to be no let up in this so we got the tents packed away as quickly as possible in the wet and set off in full waterproofs. By the time we arrived at a tea shop in Sheringham we were soaked through. But cups of tea and scones with jam and cream was anough to revive our spirits. The walk inland from Sheringham to Cromer was met with rivers of water flowing down what was supposed to be footpaths. At one point we had to negotiate 50 yards of flood. With this being the last day and with knowledge that a hotel room awaited at the end of it then spirits kept up and the final walk onto Cromer pier was met witha sense of achievement.

Double Glazing Salesmen

I have recently needed to install new glazing throughout the house. I thought this would be a simple operation. I would telephone various local and national companies, invite them to cost the job, provide appropriate literature of their product and then spend a weekend to decide which one to go for.
In reality it is quite different and I hope to warn anyone else if they are considering new glazing. I will not name names but the majority of double glazing salesmen I found pushy, rude and intimidating. Out of 6 salesmen, all apart from one insisted on delivering an hours long sales pitch complete with the same old window sample and each one criticizing every other company, supplying derogatory comments on the quality of their products and their service. This sales pitch is fruitless because you tend to just glaze over and nod your head. All apart from two needed details of nearest schools, neighbourhood watch schemes, shops etc which seemed more like a casing of the joint than conducting a quotation. All salesmen apart from one insisted that their quote was only available for that date and unless you signed the form they could not repeat it and would charge you a far higher price. One company actually gave me a lecture of how infra red light changes its wavelength once its in the house so that it cannot escape again. I did not let on that I have a degree in applied physics, and just chuckled to myself afterwards.
One company would NOT leave until I had signed and handed over a post dated cheque which I then had to reject the next day in the 7-day cooling off period.
Having said this one company did not bring in a window sample and did not go into detailed manufacturing techniques but left a brochure as requested. This person kept the sales pitch short(er) and gave more information about Health and Safety regulations which need to be adhered to - which seemed a lot more appropriate since other companies did not agree on what the health and saftey regulations stated and if I had taken 3 of them I would have ended up with extra expense because of their wrong interpretation of the regulations.
In general I was disgusted at the way these companies conducted their sales techniques and feel there really should be some kind of regulation introduced into the industry. The potential customer should NOT have to sign papers and hand over cheques to get salesmen to leave. I asked for a quote and details of which I could sit down and compare at a later date. Only one company came close to this. Only one company did not have a price that would not stand for more than a day.
There was one method I did find, quite by accident, that seemed to work effectively in reducing the time and annoyance caused by the salesman. This was is to book appointments too close together. The sales pitch generally lasted two hours each but if you booked appointments at hourly intervals then the first salesman had to cut short his lengthy discourse and didnt engage you in the "you must sign in order to get this offer".
I did find one internet site that offered an on-line quote - you filled in a form with the size and style of each window and door, hit the button and it returned a quote. A couple of the salesmen could not believe this could be done. I do not understand this viewpoint. Every other industry can offer an online quotation. The salesmen only roughly measure each opening. They then refer to their own pricing books to come up with a quote so why cant this be done by computerised systems?
Overall pretty totally disgusted. At the moment I am thinking of taking the quote of the company with the least pressure. They were not the cheapest, neither the most expensive but the left literature, they were the most polite and did not ask me to sign any papers there and then. They are a small local business. So this will be one-up on the nationals.

What a storm

A thunderstorm passed over yesterday and boy did it make a noise. As with most thunderstorms there was a lot of thunder and lightning but this one the thunder and lightning built up so much that it was almost continuous. I was watching from the back door to the house. The climax was an almighty strike that forked both east and west and issued a crack of thunder that literally made me jump backwards. about 6 feet.
I have now learnt it hit a house around the corner, it blew a hole through one side of the roof and out of the other. Every single electric socket had disintegrated, even the surge protection device had disintegrated. I have this on word from the firecrew who attended!
Wow

How do you explain this?

Situation: a storm has taken out the electricity supply. Wake up in the middle of the night to a high pitch tone similar to an alarm or siren. Go down stairs and find the main room glowing from the ajar door. Reach in and turn off the light switch..... this is impulse but there is no electric supply because the upstairs lights have all been left on. When the switch is turned off the noise stops. Enter the room the TV is glowing and fading. Weird. Explanations welcome

Rain

Today at approximately four oclcok it rained. This was no normal rain though. There was thunder and lightning, but even that failed to impress compared to this rain. The torrent that came down was unlike I had ever seen before, it was truly like a bucket of water being thrown from the sky and it was being thrown horizontally as well! Maybe God was just throwing out his old dish water. The road swelled with water in just a few seconds and then came hail mixed with it all. I had to stand there with door open to witness this awe inspiring event.
Wow