MORE FROM LATHALMOND

Smudge is getting nearer, due out next weekend

a the bottom turning circle

ex St Helens museum
from the open topper
the National Road Run, very few on it though

Well here I am sitting watching the rain come down for another week, the car needs two new front tyres and the wing has started to come adrift, good job it doesn't belong to me, something to be said for leasing after all. So tomorrow I'll be waiting for the Kwik Fit Fitter and all that.

The weekend was off to a fine start with a meeting at my Darlington office before lunch and then I carried on up to Berwick hoping fort a reasonable visit, unknown to me a fellow enthusiast had called by an hour earlier, the warm up act perhaps, anyway the drivers were all friendly enough and although Solos predominate I reckon there was about 6 operators all told. What an awful place, well no not the place, it’s the people, never seen such ugly sorts, tattoos and crew cuts and that's just the women, large dogs, the animals not the women, well if the cap fits perhaps. Struggled to get 15 minutes of film and moved on, the weather went downhill to normal levels, rain, so we didn't stop again until we reached Fife, we called at Loch Fitty Cottage where we always stay, dropped off our gear and thence on to Lathalmond Bus Museum where we were all set up by half five. Dinner and a few jars at the Half Way Inn in the village, 1.5 minutes from the b&b. A Maltese family were the other guests. The hotel is no great shakes, freezing cold Rioja would you believe but they try hard, all the local children do a spell working there like a rite of passage. Alan and Cath joined us for a while and we compared stories of this miserable year. Its always good to see the familiar friendly faces at the museum, I seem to know so many people there after all these years attending the open weekend. Phil next door announced he intended going to Inverness the next morning, this seemed a heck of a way to go bit I joined him in a fruitful expedition north.

We set off about half nine and got there just before lunch calling in at a depot on the way, Inverness was actually the hottest place in Scotland at about 20 degrees, plenty of sun around but slightly cloudy in the city which was fine for photography. The take over of Rapsons meant this was the last week before the Rapsons fleet moved across the road to join the rest of the Stagecoach allocation, a tight squeeze, we had a depot visit on the way back but also got caught up in the football traffic , in the jam was a Scotbus Atlantean ex Preston , These had been reported in service competing with Stagecoach but a Buses article a bit wide of the mark. A girl was hauled off one of the inter city services pissed out of her skull, two police attended, a pity they didn't round up the bunch of drunks in the centre who were threatening people and stumbling in front of traffic. Funny in Scotland, either really decent family people or drunks rolling in the street, a pity more isn't done to combat this scourge which with drugs and foul language is very noticeable north of the border.

Thankfully Lathalmond features the decent family folk and here in the safe refuge everyone was already enjoying the first day of a super weekend, albeit our respective spouses were waiting at the gate for our late return.

Saturday night is always wedding night at the Halfway inn, this was certainly the case and I wouldn't fancy staying there at a weekend unless invited to the party, still we were fed and watered by friendly enough young staff, wisely we opted for chilled Chilean white rather than iced Merlot. The haddock was nice enough, too many chips passing my way this last two weeks though. Lots to do and see at the museum and the weather stayed quite fine, noticeable was the absence of Lothian's current fleet, nothing attended, plenty of rumours flying about on that one. What a great feeling seeing friends all day, it was a superb event and our best days trading plus best event overall for 2008, the launch of the new Scotland North archive DVD was generally a success although I was surprised to bring home a handful of copies unsold.