Saturday, July 05, 2008
Hurrah for the Shuttle Bus
I know I go on a bit about buses in this blog, but as I don't drive, I tend to spend an awful lot of time on them!
Anyway, I headed back to Liverpool yesterday to see the folks and pick up some TVB magazines, so when I came back today, my bag was pretty heavy. Usually, I am good and do the trek across town in Liverpool and Manchester on foot, but the extra weight in my bag today, coupled with the sticky heat and the prospect of a random torrential shower (like the one that's hammering down on the conservatory at the moment) made me take the decision to make the most of the city centre shuttle buses to get to and from the coach station.
In Liverpool, the '08 Capital of Culture S1 shuttle circles the town centre, linking up the tourist spots and the transport terminals. Fortunately for me, Chinatown and the coach station are on its track and with the distinct lack of users of the bus this afternoon (not sure where all the tourists were - probably getting drenched on the red open-top bus instead), I ended up having my own private bus for my journey! Well worth the £1.50 fare.
However, it is Manchester that wins again on what is becoming a Manc vs Lpool theme in my blog posts. The Metroshuttle No 1 bus whizzed me from the coach station over to Deansgate, where I had to drop off some DVDs for a friend and then the No 2 bus took me back over to the bus stop where I get my bus home. All for the grand total of ZERO PENCE! Yup, it's absolutely free and I love it!!
I know I go on a bit about buses in this blog, but as I don't drive, I tend to spend an awful lot of time on them!
Anyway, I headed back to Liverpool yesterday to see the folks and pick up some TVB magazines, so when I came back today, my bag was pretty heavy. Usually, I am good and do the trek across town in Liverpool and Manchester on foot, but the extra weight in my bag today, coupled with the sticky heat and the prospect of a random torrential shower (like the one that's hammering down on the conservatory at the moment) made me take the decision to make the most of the city centre shuttle buses to get to and from the coach station.
In Liverpool, the '08 Capital of Culture S1 shuttle circles the town centre, linking up the tourist spots and the transport terminals. Fortunately for me, Chinatown and the coach station are on its track and with the distinct lack of users of the bus this afternoon (not sure where all the tourists were - probably getting drenched on the red open-top bus instead), I ended up having my own private bus for my journey! Well worth the £1.50 fare.
However, it is Manchester that wins again on what is becoming a Manc vs Lpool theme in my blog posts. The Metroshuttle No 1 bus whizzed me from the coach station over to Deansgate, where I had to drop off some DVDs for a friend and then the No 2 bus took me back over to the bus stop where I get my bus home. All for the grand total of ZERO PENCE! Yup, it's absolutely free and I love it!!
Labels: buses
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Yobs, Earthquake, Bargains & Chocolate!
The past few days have been pretty crazy around here with hundreds of thousnds of Rangers fans descending on Manchester, where I happen to work. I walked through Piccadilly Gardens on Tuesday afternoon after a training day at the other office and the fans were already there. Most of them were just enjoying the sunshine, but some of them were quite menacing and there were plenty walking around with beers and cans.
Yesterday morning, I arrived at work at around 8am and there were already plenty of fans wandering around in the town centre in search of alcohol. My offices are on the outskirts of the city centre, but even there, they were wandering around searching for a pub. By the time I finished work at 4pm, pictures were already being circulated like the one up there, showing that the whole of the town centre was packed out with Scots. Trams and buses were suspended and I was a little worried about whether I had to walk half way home to avoid the crowds. Fortunately, I glanced out of the office to see that the bus station was clear of fans, so I got a slow bus, which became a very slow bus when it got caught in the traffic. My 25 minute journey became 1 hour and 15 minutes!!
After watching "The Apprentice" last night, we checked the score and when we found out that Rangers had lost, we commented that the riots would be on in town. We weren't wrong!! I'm quite indifferent about the footy fans really, based on the number of them in the city, the trouble could have been a lot worse, but then again it was a pretty major disruption to those of us who live and work in the city.
What I do care more about is the massive loss of life in the China Earthquake. As the initial shock fades and the rescue efforts continue, there are now questions about the corruption and shoddy work that caused schools to crumble whilst luxury apartments remain standing. The reporter said that these people face execution - and so they should, if they have not already suffered the consequences through the loss of their loved ones or their own lives.
Please make a donation:
http://www.redcross.org.uk/donatesection.asp?id=77029
Today was a 'free chocolate day'!
It started in the morning when I picked up a mid-morning Kitkat from the vending machine to keep me going until lunchtime. I put my 45p in the machine and it decided to be extra generous and give me 2 for the price of 1!! I resisted the temptation to eat them both today though and will save the second one for tomorrow.
Then this evening I paid a visit to Debenhams to take advantage of their summer spectacular sale. The temptation of getting 25% off, a free £5 gift voucher AND a box of Lily O'Brien's chocolates was just too much, so I made up an excuse of needing some looser fitting work tops for the summer and to accommodate my recent episode of bloating to justify my shopping trip. Anyway, after nearly an hour of browsing my favourite concessions, I picked up a few nice, but cheapish tops for work (as you know, I don't go for expensive clothing) that just took me over the £30 limit and went to pay. Then when the woman had put everything through and saw my voucher, she said "Oh, you need to spend £30 for that - you have only spent £23.25 so far!" I was pretty surprised, but went off to search for something else worth about £7 to take me back over the limit. It wasn't easy!! After another half an hour of wandering around, I finally came back with a summer hoodie for £8. The total came to £31.25 - apparently one of the tops I had chosen that was labelled up as £16 was older stock and had been reduced to just £6!!
Here is what I got - I'm still not through with my brown phase yet!
Frilly vest: £3.75, Mock cardigan blouse: £6, Flowery blouse & white vest set: £13.50, Grey flowery hoodie: £8
With even Debenhams pulling bargains like this out of the bag, I don't need to go and fight with the masses at Primark any more!
I'll end this post with more chocolate - this is the lovely gunky gooey brown stuff that we got as part of my trip to Cadbury World that my hubby arranged for our anniversary treat a couple of weeks ago. I then had an amazing massage and facial - it was a lovely day! *mwah* to Tony!!
The past few days have been pretty crazy around here with hundreds of thousnds of Rangers fans descending on Manchester, where I happen to work. I walked through Piccadilly Gardens on Tuesday afternoon after a training day at the other office and the fans were already there. Most of them were just enjoying the sunshine, but some of them were quite menacing and there were plenty walking around with beers and cans.
Yesterday morning, I arrived at work at around 8am and there were already plenty of fans wandering around in the town centre in search of alcohol. My offices are on the outskirts of the city centre, but even there, they were wandering around searching for a pub. By the time I finished work at 4pm, pictures were already being circulated like the one up there, showing that the whole of the town centre was packed out with Scots. Trams and buses were suspended and I was a little worried about whether I had to walk half way home to avoid the crowds. Fortunately, I glanced out of the office to see that the bus station was clear of fans, so I got a slow bus, which became a very slow bus when it got caught in the traffic. My 25 minute journey became 1 hour and 15 minutes!!
After watching "The Apprentice" last night, we checked the score and when we found out that Rangers had lost, we commented that the riots would be on in town. We weren't wrong!! I'm quite indifferent about the footy fans really, based on the number of them in the city, the trouble could have been a lot worse, but then again it was a pretty major disruption to those of us who live and work in the city.
What I do care more about is the massive loss of life in the China Earthquake. As the initial shock fades and the rescue efforts continue, there are now questions about the corruption and shoddy work that caused schools to crumble whilst luxury apartments remain standing. The reporter said that these people face execution - and so they should, if they have not already suffered the consequences through the loss of their loved ones or their own lives.
Please make a donation:
http://www.redcross.org.uk/donatesection.asp?id=77029
Today was a 'free chocolate day'!
It started in the morning when I picked up a mid-morning Kitkat from the vending machine to keep me going until lunchtime. I put my 45p in the machine and it decided to be extra generous and give me 2 for the price of 1!! I resisted the temptation to eat them both today though and will save the second one for tomorrow.
Then this evening I paid a visit to Debenhams to take advantage of their summer spectacular sale. The temptation of getting 25% off, a free £5 gift voucher AND a box of Lily O'Brien's chocolates was just too much, so I made up an excuse of needing some looser fitting work tops for the summer and to accommodate my recent episode of bloating to justify my shopping trip. Anyway, after nearly an hour of browsing my favourite concessions, I picked up a few nice, but cheapish tops for work (as you know, I don't go for expensive clothing) that just took me over the £30 limit and went to pay. Then when the woman had put everything through and saw my voucher, she said "Oh, you need to spend £30 for that - you have only spent £23.25 so far!" I was pretty surprised, but went off to search for something else worth about £7 to take me back over the limit. It wasn't easy!! After another half an hour of wandering around, I finally came back with a summer hoodie for £8. The total came to £31.25 - apparently one of the tops I had chosen that was labelled up as £16 was older stock and had been reduced to just £6!!
Here is what I got - I'm still not through with my brown phase yet!
Frilly vest: £3.75, Mock cardigan blouse: £6, Flowery blouse & white vest set: £13.50, Grey flowery hoodie: £8
With even Debenhams pulling bargains like this out of the bag, I don't need to go and fight with the masses at Primark any more!
I'll end this post with more chocolate - this is the lovely gunky gooey brown stuff that we got as part of my trip to Cadbury World that my hubby arranged for our anniversary treat a couple of weeks ago. I then had an amazing massage and facial - it was a lovely day! *mwah* to Tony!!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Manchester Rainbow
Just as I got off the bus yesterday, it started raining, but it was still quite sunny, so I looked around on the off-chance that I might see a rainbow (because I have a thing about them). I looked around and saw a complete rainbow spanning up from the tramline, so I grabbed my phone and snapped a few shots. People must have thought I was a bit weird, but the fascinating thing about rainbows is that they only last a short time. Three minutes later, the rain had stopped and the rainbow had gone, but I was so pleased that I'd managed to capture the moment.
As for the pot of gold, does winning £6 on last night's lottery count?
Just as I got off the bus yesterday, it started raining, but it was still quite sunny, so I looked around on the off-chance that I might see a rainbow (because I have a thing about them). I looked around and saw a complete rainbow spanning up from the tramline, so I grabbed my phone and snapped a few shots. People must have thought I was a bit weird, but the fascinating thing about rainbows is that they only last a short time. Three minutes later, the rain had stopped and the rainbow had gone, but I was so pleased that I'd managed to capture the moment.
As for the pot of gold, does winning £6 on last night's lottery count?
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Packing it all in...
In the words of Russell Grant on my horoscope today:
"A breeze of change is starting to waft through your life and it will help to keep abreast of developments."
I don't know where this guy got his crystal ball from but it's definitely top of the range. Since the beginning of June, my life has been through so many changes; new job, new working hours, renewed interest in reading, daily reflection in my morning bus journeys and my latest venture - closing down TVBspace and launching my evening commitment into the pages of the new site. (Not sure if I can mention the name of it yet, so I won't just yet.) The last few days have been getting my head round the writing style of said publication and having to digest and assimilate the electronic version of the blue pencil all over my work. It's quite different from the informal banter of TVBspace, but I guess it's good training for me, so when the day comes for me to hang up my numbers head and make a living out of tapping away on a keyboard to create words instead of data tables, I will be well-[repared. Incidentally, the guy who vacated my current job for me to come in left the job to become a full time writer - is that an omen?
The salivary gland problem I had at Easter came back this week, so I was suffering from swollen gums all week. It's settled down a lot now, but that coupled with hay fever has zapped my energy, so in the past few days at work, especially just after lunch, I have been doing Homer impressions at my desk (okay, not with my feet up, but snoozing all the same) and then suffering severe paranoia about my colleagues seeing me dropping off.
Talking of new stuff - here is a shopping update that is a bit late. I bought myself a new bag as a reward for getting a new job. I'm not really one to spend a lot of money on handbags - my last few bags were all around the £10 mark - but I do like the design and practicality of Kipling bags, so after a lot of umming and aahing, I decided to go and take a look. I came across this one in the shop and it was perfect for carrying my stuff to work and back and after about half an hour in the shop trying to convince myself it is worth the £49 price tag, I finally treated myself to the most expensive handbag I have bought for myself. My justification was that if I am using it every day, then I'll get good value from it. That, and I have the monkey to keep me company on the bus.
In need of some stimulation during my bus journey, apart from reading my books (currently reading spy novel "Good News Bad News" by David Wolstenholme), I have made a few observations:
1. The 135 is a social animal. It moves in shoals of at least three or in the case of this afternoon, there were five of them within 10 minutes of each other... shame they were in the opposite direction.
2. The 135 also doubles as a sardine can as the drivers have a sadistic game that they play called 'pack-as-many-passengers-into-the-bus-as-you-can-then-drive-slowly-so-that-the-empty-bus-behind-can-drive-past-and-taunt-all-the-sweaty-people'.
3. The 135 cleaners don't use detergent or air fresheners. Instead, they spray a special odour on the bus that enhances body odour and attracts every insect possible through the small gap in the window to agitate further the already heavily agitated passengers.
4. The very loud bell does not tell the driver to stop because he seems oblivious to it until you ring it a few times and he curses you by shouting: "Stop p*ssing about with the bell!" It is merely very loud to annoy people and wake you up when you want to take a nap.
5. Copies of the Metro are provided for passengers to use as a sign to other passengers that they are not interested in chatting randomly. If you don't use it, you run the risk of being targeted by the random-chat brigade who insist on moaning to you about the weather/the bus/the time/global warming/life in general*
*delete as appropriate.
My study continues... I will post further findings here later.
TVB-wise, I have been watching "The Family Link". Well-written, light-hearted and some superbly convincing acting as ever from Sheren Tang and Kiki Sheung. I haven't really watched any of Cecilia Yip's other series - now I know why. Still, Derek and Kenneth made up for things and seeing Michael dressed in that negligee was interesting!
In the words of Russell Grant on my horoscope today:
"A breeze of change is starting to waft through your life and it will help to keep abreast of developments."
I don't know where this guy got his crystal ball from but it's definitely top of the range. Since the beginning of June, my life has been through so many changes; new job, new working hours, renewed interest in reading, daily reflection in my morning bus journeys and my latest venture - closing down TVBspace and launching my evening commitment into the pages of the new site. (Not sure if I can mention the name of it yet, so I won't just yet.) The last few days have been getting my head round the writing style of said publication and having to digest and assimilate the electronic version of the blue pencil all over my work. It's quite different from the informal banter of TVBspace, but I guess it's good training for me, so when the day comes for me to hang up my numbers head and make a living out of tapping away on a keyboard to create words instead of data tables, I will be well-[repared. Incidentally, the guy who vacated my current job for me to come in left the job to become a full time writer - is that an omen?
The salivary gland problem I had at Easter came back this week, so I was suffering from swollen gums all week. It's settled down a lot now, but that coupled with hay fever has zapped my energy, so in the past few days at work, especially just after lunch, I have been doing Homer impressions at my desk (okay, not with my feet up, but snoozing all the same) and then suffering severe paranoia about my colleagues seeing me dropping off.
Talking of new stuff - here is a shopping update that is a bit late. I bought myself a new bag as a reward for getting a new job. I'm not really one to spend a lot of money on handbags - my last few bags were all around the £10 mark - but I do like the design and practicality of Kipling bags, so after a lot of umming and aahing, I decided to go and take a look. I came across this one in the shop and it was perfect for carrying my stuff to work and back and after about half an hour in the shop trying to convince myself it is worth the £49 price tag, I finally treated myself to the most expensive handbag I have bought for myself. My justification was that if I am using it every day, then I'll get good value from it. That, and I have the monkey to keep me company on the bus.
In need of some stimulation during my bus journey, apart from reading my books (currently reading spy novel "Good News Bad News" by David Wolstenholme), I have made a few observations:
1. The 135 is a social animal. It moves in shoals of at least three or in the case of this afternoon, there were five of them within 10 minutes of each other... shame they were in the opposite direction.
2. The 135 also doubles as a sardine can as the drivers have a sadistic game that they play called 'pack-as-many-passengers-into-the-bus-as-you-can-then-drive-slowly-so-that-the-empty-bus-behind-can-drive-past-and-taunt-all-the-sweaty-people'.
3. The 135 cleaners don't use detergent or air fresheners. Instead, they spray a special odour on the bus that enhances body odour and attracts every insect possible through the small gap in the window to agitate further the already heavily agitated passengers.
4. The very loud bell does not tell the driver to stop because he seems oblivious to it until you ring it a few times and he curses you by shouting: "Stop p*ssing about with the bell!" It is merely very loud to annoy people and wake you up when you want to take a nap.
5. Copies of the Metro are provided for passengers to use as a sign to other passengers that they are not interested in chatting randomly. If you don't use it, you run the risk of being targeted by the random-chat brigade who insist on moaning to you about the weather/the bus/the time/global warming/life in general*
*delete as appropriate.
My study continues... I will post further findings here later.
TVB-wise, I have been watching "The Family Link". Well-written, light-hearted and some superbly convincing acting as ever from Sheren Tang and Kiki Sheung. I haven't really watched any of Cecilia Yip's other series - now I know why. Still, Derek and Kenneth made up for things and seeing Michael dressed in that negligee was interesting!
Labels: buses, life, shopping, TVB
Friday, June 29, 2007
Homer Simpson Moment
I was heading to the in-law's for dinner after work today, so I had to walk down to the bus station instead of crossing over to get my normal bus home. So I headed downstairs from my offices, out of the front and then walked down the side of the building to the bus station before crossing over to the bus stand where my bus left from.
At that point, I looked out from the bus stand and what did I see staring back at me? Yup, in the same way that Homer Simpson drives for miles to get to work only to park behind his house, I had walked for a good 8 minutes only to end up straight opposite the window to my office.
Oh well, at least it gave me a chance to admire the company's shiny building whilst waiting for the bus...
I finally feel like I 'belong' to the new company now because I have my staff ID and got paid today! Woohoo!!
I was heading to the in-law's for dinner after work today, so I had to walk down to the bus station instead of crossing over to get my normal bus home. So I headed downstairs from my offices, out of the front and then walked down the side of the building to the bus station before crossing over to the bus stand where my bus left from.
At that point, I looked out from the bus stand and what did I see staring back at me? Yup, in the same way that Homer Simpson drives for miles to get to work only to park behind his house, I had walked for a good 8 minutes only to end up straight opposite the window to my office.
Oh well, at least it gave me a chance to admire the company's shiny building whilst waiting for the bus...
I finally feel like I 'belong' to the new company now because I have my staff ID and got paid today! Woohoo!!
Labels: buses
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
My Megabus Adventure & A Relaxing Weekend in London
One of the disadvantages of leaving my last job was that I missed out on a big company bash at the opening of 'The O2' (formerley known as the Millenium Dome) last weekend because I gave up my right to the free tickets when I handed in my resignation. However, as it also happened to be my friend's 30th on Sunday, I decided to make the trek down to London anyway. When I checked out the transport arrangements, I had a few choices.... my usual preferred mode of transport was the train, but they wanted something silly like £60 for the return fare, so I checked out the National Express site, which quoted a more reasonable £27.50 return on the coach. Just for fun, I looked at flying, which was a vast improvement on the 5 and a half hours on the coach and came in at a rather reasonable £70 return Manchester to Gatwick. As I was pondering what to do, I remembered that I had seen the blue and yellow Megabus on my travels in Manchester, so I decided to check whether the £1 fare to London was real or just an urban myth. After a few clicks on their rather efficient website, I didn't get anywhere for a pound, but it wasn't far off, with the return fare coming in for £7.50 and their journey time was an hour shorter than National Express because they don't stop in Birmingham and Oxford on the way.
I did a bit of checking on the review sites and found that people either loved or hated the experience with Megabus, with their reasons centred around the actual bus or coach that arrived. I also read that they had invested in a new batch of coaches, so after a little pondering, I decided to take the plunge and take on the Megabus adventure for the first time. (Anything to save a few pennies!)
After a few more weeks of checking out the Megabus vehicles whenever I saw them in town, I was relieved on Saturday morning to find that it was an executive coach that was waiting for me in Chorlton Street and it was on-time, the driver patiently waiting to check my entry code as I arrived at 8:40 am. I even managed to get a seat by the window and as the departure time of 9:00 am approached, no-one sat next to me. 9:01 and I was urging the driver to go, but unfortunately he hung around until 9:05, by which time a few more passengers had boarded and one of them had decided to sit next to me, which was fair enough I thought and she wasn't very big, it could have been much worse. The bus set off and I settled down for my 4.5 hour journey down to London. Then about 20 minutes in, my nose started burning on the inside - I looked over and the silly woman sitting next to me had decided it would be a good idea to paint her nails... with French manicure white paint (ie Tippex in a posh bottle). The smell was irritating my already irritated nasal lining, so I pulled out my bacon roll and chomped away in an attempt to mask the smell. I also revelled in watching her give herself the wonkiest French manicure in history as the coach bumped its way down towards the M6. Then I stuck my ipod headphones in my ears and read my magazine until we got to the services in Brum, where everyone got off for their nicotine, toilet or Costa Coffee fix and I stretched my legs and got funny looks off people for photographing the coach with my phone.
The break half way helped to make the journey very bearable and the second half was soon passed between napping, playing on my DS and eating. The bus finally pulled into Victoria at 13:40, just ten minutes behind time and just as it began to rain. My first stop in London was to meet with the Managing Editor of Squat Magazine, who I have agreed to do some translation work for, when their new project gets off the ground. The restaurant he took me to did some nice dim sum, which he kindly paid for and we had a good chat about our visions for the future among other things. Then I headed over to my friend Elisa's new house and spent the evening chilling with her, chatting, watching 'Legally Blonde 2', 'Little Britain', eating curry, chicken wings Toblerone and Fox's biscuits and drinking tea. It was great - it has been such a long time since I had such a relaxing time just chatting and feeling really at ease, not having to worry about stuff and just seriously chilling out.
After more dim sum the following lunchtime, it was time to say goodbye and embark on the return leg of my Megabus journey. Not before Elisa treated me to an Mint Aero & Vanilla Milkshake at the coach station, which was very nice! I'll have to try that at home sometime. It was a similar coach for the return journey (if not the same one)and as I was the third on, I managed to get a window seat again. This time the coach was more packed and a guy sat next to me, who tried to engage me in conversation about his homeland in Pakistan and how he is a student from Rochdale, but regular readers will know, I'm not really one to chat to strangers on coaches. My ipod went into my ears and I ended up sleeping for most of the journey back, waking up just to make my neighbour very envious by eating the sponge cake that I had picked up in Chinatown earlier. We were caught in a rainstorm somewhere between Brum and Manchester and the road was almost flooding in a couple of centimetres of water. Then the sun emerged and I looked backwards to see a complete double rainbow in the sky. I have a thing about seeing rainbows because they are so intangible and only last for a short time, so my phone was straight out to capture the moment - shame the pics don't come out very well. It was beautiful, and marked a great end to a great weekend. The coach arrived in Manchester 10 minutes earlier than expected and although I had a bit of a sore bum, the overall experience had not been a bad one! Moreover, thanks to the generosity of my friends, the whole weekend had totalled up at just £28.40 - that's less than I sometimes spend when I stay in and surf, because I inevitably end up buying something online!!
Not bad eh? Looks like I'll be paying the big pink Megabus man another visit sometime!!
One of the disadvantages of leaving my last job was that I missed out on a big company bash at the opening of 'The O2' (formerley known as the Millenium Dome) last weekend because I gave up my right to the free tickets when I handed in my resignation. However, as it also happened to be my friend's 30th on Sunday, I decided to make the trek down to London anyway. When I checked out the transport arrangements, I had a few choices.... my usual preferred mode of transport was the train, but they wanted something silly like £60 for the return fare, so I checked out the National Express site, which quoted a more reasonable £27.50 return on the coach. Just for fun, I looked at flying, which was a vast improvement on the 5 and a half hours on the coach and came in at a rather reasonable £70 return Manchester to Gatwick. As I was pondering what to do, I remembered that I had seen the blue and yellow Megabus on my travels in Manchester, so I decided to check whether the £1 fare to London was real or just an urban myth. After a few clicks on their rather efficient website, I didn't get anywhere for a pound, but it wasn't far off, with the return fare coming in for £7.50 and their journey time was an hour shorter than National Express because they don't stop in Birmingham and Oxford on the way.
I did a bit of checking on the review sites and found that people either loved or hated the experience with Megabus, with their reasons centred around the actual bus or coach that arrived. I also read that they had invested in a new batch of coaches, so after a little pondering, I decided to take the plunge and take on the Megabus adventure for the first time. (Anything to save a few pennies!)
After a few more weeks of checking out the Megabus vehicles whenever I saw them in town, I was relieved on Saturday morning to find that it was an executive coach that was waiting for me in Chorlton Street and it was on-time, the driver patiently waiting to check my entry code as I arrived at 8:40 am. I even managed to get a seat by the window and as the departure time of 9:00 am approached, no-one sat next to me. 9:01 and I was urging the driver to go, but unfortunately he hung around until 9:05, by which time a few more passengers had boarded and one of them had decided to sit next to me, which was fair enough I thought and she wasn't very big, it could have been much worse. The bus set off and I settled down for my 4.5 hour journey down to London. Then about 20 minutes in, my nose started burning on the inside - I looked over and the silly woman sitting next to me had decided it would be a good idea to paint her nails... with French manicure white paint (ie Tippex in a posh bottle). The smell was irritating my already irritated nasal lining, so I pulled out my bacon roll and chomped away in an attempt to mask the smell. I also revelled in watching her give herself the wonkiest French manicure in history as the coach bumped its way down towards the M6. Then I stuck my ipod headphones in my ears and read my magazine until we got to the services in Brum, where everyone got off for their nicotine, toilet or Costa Coffee fix and I stretched my legs and got funny looks off people for photographing the coach with my phone.
The break half way helped to make the journey very bearable and the second half was soon passed between napping, playing on my DS and eating. The bus finally pulled into Victoria at 13:40, just ten minutes behind time and just as it began to rain. My first stop in London was to meet with the Managing Editor of Squat Magazine, who I have agreed to do some translation work for, when their new project gets off the ground. The restaurant he took me to did some nice dim sum, which he kindly paid for and we had a good chat about our visions for the future among other things. Then I headed over to my friend Elisa's new house and spent the evening chilling with her, chatting, watching 'Legally Blonde 2', 'Little Britain', eating curry, chicken wings Toblerone and Fox's biscuits and drinking tea. It was great - it has been such a long time since I had such a relaxing time just chatting and feeling really at ease, not having to worry about stuff and just seriously chilling out.
After more dim sum the following lunchtime, it was time to say goodbye and embark on the return leg of my Megabus journey. Not before Elisa treated me to an Mint Aero & Vanilla Milkshake at the coach station, which was very nice! I'll have to try that at home sometime. It was a similar coach for the return journey (if not the same one)and as I was the third on, I managed to get a window seat again. This time the coach was more packed and a guy sat next to me, who tried to engage me in conversation about his homeland in Pakistan and how he is a student from Rochdale, but regular readers will know, I'm not really one to chat to strangers on coaches. My ipod went into my ears and I ended up sleeping for most of the journey back, waking up just to make my neighbour very envious by eating the sponge cake that I had picked up in Chinatown earlier. We were caught in a rainstorm somewhere between Brum and Manchester and the road was almost flooding in a couple of centimetres of water. Then the sun emerged and I looked backwards to see a complete double rainbow in the sky. I have a thing about seeing rainbows because they are so intangible and only last for a short time, so my phone was straight out to capture the moment - shame the pics don't come out very well. It was beautiful, and marked a great end to a great weekend. The coach arrived in Manchester 10 minutes earlier than expected and although I had a bit of a sore bum, the overall experience had not been a bad one! Moreover, thanks to the generosity of my friends, the whole weekend had totalled up at just £28.40 - that's less than I sometimes spend when I stay in and surf, because I inevitably end up buying something online!!
Not bad eh? Looks like I'll be paying the big pink Megabus man another visit sometime!!
Labels: buses
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
One for the girls...
Bernie showed me this today, so I thought I'd share it with my female readers... thanks Bernie!! Roll on Mr Hong Kong 2007!!
New job means I have to get up early to get a seat on the bus, so I've been adjusting my body clock to try and go to sleep earlier. Well, that's my excuse for not blogging. The early rise and early nights seem to be doing wonders with my health though, that and the daily dash to the bus stop and playing Frogger with the traffic... and I am getting much more fresh (well, as fresh as it gets in the city) air on my lunchtime strolls.
Have been pretty good at resisting the urge to go shopping in my lunch hour, so far only buying a brown jumper from New Look, which was a bargain at a fiver. I think the fact that I am still getting used to wearing heels every day again deters me from venturing too far on the hard floors of the shopping mall that is 5 mins from my office.
It was my Grandma's 80th birthday yesterday, so the family went out for a meal on Saturday. As well as the usual lobster, scallops, duck, chicken, fish etc, we were also served these really cute (and tasty) Coconut Jelly Koi Carp. Pretty cool eh? Had to post the pic up as my blog is rapidly turning into a food blog! Hahaha!!
Bernie showed me this today, so I thought I'd share it with my female readers... thanks Bernie!! Roll on Mr Hong Kong 2007!!
New job means I have to get up early to get a seat on the bus, so I've been adjusting my body clock to try and go to sleep earlier. Well, that's my excuse for not blogging. The early rise and early nights seem to be doing wonders with my health though, that and the daily dash to the bus stop and playing Frogger with the traffic... and I am getting much more fresh (well, as fresh as it gets in the city) air on my lunchtime strolls.
Have been pretty good at resisting the urge to go shopping in my lunch hour, so far only buying a brown jumper from New Look, which was a bargain at a fiver. I think the fact that I am still getting used to wearing heels every day again deters me from venturing too far on the hard floors of the shopping mall that is 5 mins from my office.
It was my Grandma's 80th birthday yesterday, so the family went out for a meal on Saturday. As well as the usual lobster, scallops, duck, chicken, fish etc, we were also served these really cute (and tasty) Coconut Jelly Koi Carp. Pretty cool eh? Had to post the pic up as my blog is rapidly turning into a food blog! Hahaha!!
Labels: buses, family, food, hk celebs, shopping
Saturday, September 23, 2006
A Day in the Life of...
Yesterday was a really weird day for me. I don't do many diary blog entries, but it was one of those days I feel need to be recorded for posterity.
I'd taken half a day off work and the other half was spent getting to one our other sites to go for a job interview for a job that I wasn't too bothered whether I got or not, but seemed (on paper at least) to be half like what I envisaged to be my 'dream job'. My other mission for the day was to head back to Liverpool for my sister's birthday.
As I did not want to risk motorway driving after several years off the road, I decided to take the bus and coach route to Leeds for my interview. I arrived at the bus stop at 10am, to wave goodbye to the earlier bus that was not the one I had planned on getting, so I wasn't too bothered that I'd missed it by about 2 minutes. So I sat and waited for the next one 15 minutes later, listening to my Ipod and went through my interview prep in my head. Suddenly this guy sits down next to me and says: "Good Morning". Not wanting to be impolite, I said Good Morning back to him and plugged my headphone back into my ear. Bad move... this guy proceeded on asking me rapid fire 20 questions about my background, China's political situation, whether I could speak Japanese, who invented electricity, whether Einstein was a physician and what I thought of Britain's transport system. In the end, I just ended up replying "Don't know" because I felt so uncomfortable. It was the longest 10 minutes ever and I was so so glad when his bus arrived and he left. I am so glad I don't work with the public any more - too many weirdos nowadays.
So my bus arrived and I headed out to the coach station. The ride to Leeds was pretty uneventful, thank goodness. I'd planned to get some lunch in when I got to the office, but although I was not at all nervous about the interview, I didn't feel like eating. Instead I went in search of some familiar faces (and somewhere to dump my bag) but my counterparts in Leeds had been scattered and relocated. I must have looked either so dumb or suspicious as I trawled the offices looking for where my colleagues had been moved to. Finally I found them, but they were going for lunch and didn't have much time for me. I was sweating like a pig, probably a mixture of discomfort, stuffy rooms and hormones, so I decided to cool off a little in the washrooms before finding my interview.
Then I arrived to what was the weirdest interview I have ever attended.
It was like Good Cop Bad Cop meets the Reeves and Mortimer show as in between asking me the usual questions, Vic and Bob would spring into some kind of comedy routine of their own and I just sat and watched as they seemed to heckle each other about something totally irrelevant. Then after veering completely off topic for about 5 minutes, Vic would come back to the interview and ask me to continue with my answers. I was pretty confident through the interview as I have been to enough in my time to be able to reel off answers that fell into the company's requirements (and having been to the company's interviewing course), but this interruption was quite unnerving. Every now and then, Bob would come in with the odd question, which I can only guess was designed to throw a spanner into the thought processes, but they were all very negative and really gave me the impression that she didn't like me. That's all fine, but she ended up doing such a great job of putting me off that at the end of the interview, I came out thinking to myself that even if they offered me the job, I don't really want it now. If anything, the whole experience has made me feel even better about my current job (not that I had a major problem with it in the first place), so I think I will be staying put for now.
Anyway, I emerged from the interview, picked up my stuff and bade farewell to my colleagues before heading out of the office, which incidentally had been infested with hoards of daddy-longlegs (aka Crane Fly to non-Brits) into the pouring rain. Got the bus back to the coach station, again to wave goodbye to the previous coach, so I waited for mine and finally had something to eat. It was 4pm. I had a cheese and ham toastie and a hot chocolate - sod the healthy eating thing, I needed comfort food. At 4:20, I joined the queue for the half four coach back to Liverpool. At five o'clock, I was still in the queue for the half four coach. At 5:05 I was on the half four coach and at 5:15, the half four coach left Leeds. God bless the Great British transport system.
Despite my friend pointing this out to me some years ago as a 'British-ism', I don't usually notice that British people like to talk to complete strangers, but the guy sitting next to me on the coach started nattering on away to me as soon as he sat down. My patience was lacking a little by this point, so although he was not as weird as the earlier guy, I gave him a few curt responses before plugging my trusty Ipod into my ears, closing my eyes and pretending to sleep. Traffic was horrendous, weather was atrocious - what more could I ask for? The guy got off in Manchester and a woman carrying a toddler sat next to me. As far as young kids go, he was actually pretty bearable because at least he wasn't screaming. However, throughout the whole 50 minute journey, the little black kid had his wide dark eyes staring at me and it was quite unnerving. That and his mother allowing him to put his feet on my trousers and kick me on the leg was rather annoying. Unfortunately I am too British to say anything to her for fear of being accused of being racist or something like that, so I just wished and wished to hurry up and see the end of the M62.
There is nothing better after a long hard day than to come home to a welcoming home and caring family. I am lucky I have both at my parents' house. Everyone was busy doing their own thing, but to come back to an environment where there are no judgements or expectations is the best feeling in the world. Mum's home cooking, Dad's 'nice cuppa tea' and a good old belting karaoke session with my sis is all I need to put things right. Raaaahhh... as Snoopy and Woodstock would say.
Oh, and happy birthday to my sis today, who is 21 for the fifth time!
Yesterday was a really weird day for me. I don't do many diary blog entries, but it was one of those days I feel need to be recorded for posterity.
I'd taken half a day off work and the other half was spent getting to one our other sites to go for a job interview for a job that I wasn't too bothered whether I got or not, but seemed (on paper at least) to be half like what I envisaged to be my 'dream job'. My other mission for the day was to head back to Liverpool for my sister's birthday.
As I did not want to risk motorway driving after several years off the road, I decided to take the bus and coach route to Leeds for my interview. I arrived at the bus stop at 10am, to wave goodbye to the earlier bus that was not the one I had planned on getting, so I wasn't too bothered that I'd missed it by about 2 minutes. So I sat and waited for the next one 15 minutes later, listening to my Ipod and went through my interview prep in my head. Suddenly this guy sits down next to me and says: "Good Morning". Not wanting to be impolite, I said Good Morning back to him and plugged my headphone back into my ear. Bad move... this guy proceeded on asking me rapid fire 20 questions about my background, China's political situation, whether I could speak Japanese, who invented electricity, whether Einstein was a physician and what I thought of Britain's transport system. In the end, I just ended up replying "Don't know" because I felt so uncomfortable. It was the longest 10 minutes ever and I was so so glad when his bus arrived and he left. I am so glad I don't work with the public any more - too many weirdos nowadays.
So my bus arrived and I headed out to the coach station. The ride to Leeds was pretty uneventful, thank goodness. I'd planned to get some lunch in when I got to the office, but although I was not at all nervous about the interview, I didn't feel like eating. Instead I went in search of some familiar faces (and somewhere to dump my bag) but my counterparts in Leeds had been scattered and relocated. I must have looked either so dumb or suspicious as I trawled the offices looking for where my colleagues had been moved to. Finally I found them, but they were going for lunch and didn't have much time for me. I was sweating like a pig, probably a mixture of discomfort, stuffy rooms and hormones, so I decided to cool off a little in the washrooms before finding my interview.
Then I arrived to what was the weirdest interview I have ever attended.
It was like Good Cop Bad Cop meets the Reeves and Mortimer show as in between asking me the usual questions, Vic and Bob would spring into some kind of comedy routine of their own and I just sat and watched as they seemed to heckle each other about something totally irrelevant. Then after veering completely off topic for about 5 minutes, Vic would come back to the interview and ask me to continue with my answers. I was pretty confident through the interview as I have been to enough in my time to be able to reel off answers that fell into the company's requirements (and having been to the company's interviewing course), but this interruption was quite unnerving. Every now and then, Bob would come in with the odd question, which I can only guess was designed to throw a spanner into the thought processes, but they were all very negative and really gave me the impression that she didn't like me. That's all fine, but she ended up doing such a great job of putting me off that at the end of the interview, I came out thinking to myself that even if they offered me the job, I don't really want it now. If anything, the whole experience has made me feel even better about my current job (not that I had a major problem with it in the first place), so I think I will be staying put for now.
Anyway, I emerged from the interview, picked up my stuff and bade farewell to my colleagues before heading out of the office, which incidentally had been infested with hoards of daddy-longlegs (aka Crane Fly to non-Brits) into the pouring rain. Got the bus back to the coach station, again to wave goodbye to the previous coach, so I waited for mine and finally had something to eat. It was 4pm. I had a cheese and ham toastie and a hot chocolate - sod the healthy eating thing, I needed comfort food. At 4:20, I joined the queue for the half four coach back to Liverpool. At five o'clock, I was still in the queue for the half four coach. At 5:05 I was on the half four coach and at 5:15, the half four coach left Leeds. God bless the Great British transport system.
Despite my friend pointing this out to me some years ago as a 'British-ism', I don't usually notice that British people like to talk to complete strangers, but the guy sitting next to me on the coach started nattering on away to me as soon as he sat down. My patience was lacking a little by this point, so although he was not as weird as the earlier guy, I gave him a few curt responses before plugging my trusty Ipod into my ears, closing my eyes and pretending to sleep. Traffic was horrendous, weather was atrocious - what more could I ask for? The guy got off in Manchester and a woman carrying a toddler sat next to me. As far as young kids go, he was actually pretty bearable because at least he wasn't screaming. However, throughout the whole 50 minute journey, the little black kid had his wide dark eyes staring at me and it was quite unnerving. That and his mother allowing him to put his feet on my trousers and kick me on the leg was rather annoying. Unfortunately I am too British to say anything to her for fear of being accused of being racist or something like that, so I just wished and wished to hurry up and see the end of the M62.
There is nothing better after a long hard day than to come home to a welcoming home and caring family. I am lucky I have both at my parents' house. Everyone was busy doing their own thing, but to come back to an environment where there are no judgements or expectations is the best feeling in the world. Mum's home cooking, Dad's 'nice cuppa tea' and a good old belting karaoke session with my sis is all I need to put things right. Raaaahhh... as Snoopy and Woodstock would say.
Oh, and happy birthday to my sis today, who is 21 for the fifth time!
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Aarrrrrrrrgh......... that Charlie Brown feeling is coming back, but this time it's when Lucy is holding the football for him, but every time he goes to kick it, she pulls it away and he ends up on his back.
Revision has ground to a halt and even after a couple of hours of retail therapy, my motivation is still at an all time low. At least I am not as stressed about it as much as I was yesterday, my fear of failure caught up with me yesterday and it wasn't very nice. Thanks to the special guy in my life, I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that even if I fail these exams, I will not have lost anything. That's putting my mind at ease a little. I guess I am just not quite cut out for studying any more, it must be a sign of old age setting in........... eek!!
Bought some Christmas cards today on my jaunt into town, for once I am getting them early rather than suddenly realising in mid-December that I haven't sent my cards yet and the last day of posting was yesterday! Even popped into Index and picked up a few catalogues to start leafing through for present ideas, but it looks like another year of picking out pressies on the internet because I really can't face fighting with the crowds. Talking of crowds, I got the bus back from town today just as the college finished at 3:30 this afternoon and about a million college students crowded onto the bus - it was so noisy! I thought to myself that I couldn't remember the last time I had been in such a noisy environment. How relieved I was when I stepped off that bus!
Revision has ground to a halt and even after a couple of hours of retail therapy, my motivation is still at an all time low. At least I am not as stressed about it as much as I was yesterday, my fear of failure caught up with me yesterday and it wasn't very nice. Thanks to the special guy in my life, I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that even if I fail these exams, I will not have lost anything. That's putting my mind at ease a little. I guess I am just not quite cut out for studying any more, it must be a sign of old age setting in........... eek!!
Bought some Christmas cards today on my jaunt into town, for once I am getting them early rather than suddenly realising in mid-December that I haven't sent my cards yet and the last day of posting was yesterday! Even popped into Index and picked up a few catalogues to start leafing through for present ideas, but it looks like another year of picking out pressies on the internet because I really can't face fighting with the crowds. Talking of crowds, I got the bus back from town today just as the college finished at 3:30 this afternoon and about a million college students crowded onto the bus - it was so noisy! I thought to myself that I couldn't remember the last time I had been in such a noisy environment. How relieved I was when I stepped off that bus!