Tuesday, April 24, 2007

LONDONDERRY DRIVERS GET UPSET WITH ME, SWILLY THE BEST

Hi everyone, I thought I'd get the writing out of the way and then start sending some pictures as back up later on. As you can gather we are back from the wilds of Ireland, after ac week of sublime weather I arrived and met Mandy in Belfast heralding the wind and rain.
BA had sold off the route to BE, never told me, changed the times, never told me, hence I arrived 40 minutes later missing much of the rush hour which was indeed impressive with masses of deckers in service until nearly 6 pm.We had a pleasant meal out on Friday night at a pub in Newtownards and then slightly jaded I finished my Belfast coverage on the Saturday morning, as usual got let round Gt Victoria St bus depot and everyone very friendly. We stated at our usual spot out on the Ards peninsula with Dianne Whyte.
After Belfast we hot footed it over to Derry to try and see the double deckers in service, turns out that several depots have now got deckers, I filmed them in the yard at Newtownards and Coleraine. The decker was almost the first bus I saw but the driver went ballistic with me when I took a still photo, this was on the road, not at the bus station, the inspectors at the bus station backed him up when I complained about his threats. So strange, I've been going there since 1979 with never any hassle, this must be the 'peace' dividend, everyone's gone miserable, perhaps they are all signing on for benefits, that's the usual reason for this sort of behaviour. Their true colours certainly came out when I was told I couldn't 'come over here doing as I liked'!! Still the Swilly drivers were as ever most friendly returning smiles and waves as ever.
We returned with just a stop at Coleraine, I'd really had enough of buses that day, used the coastal route and it even came out sunny tea time, had afternoon tea stop at Bushmills but no whiskey. Then for evening spent it at the oldest pub in Ireland . Sunday we had a National Trust visit thwarted die to maintenance closure but still took in one property before heading down to Dublin and stayed at a B&B near the airport, had a reasonable stay and then a great evening meal at a local pub. By Monday the weather had gone downhill with wind and rain, as usual no hassle filming in friendly old Dublin and we got the 6pm HSS back to Holyhead , having fish and chips and white wine in the lounge.

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