Date: Wednesday 02 November 2011
I am sadly at work, toiling away, and at about 11.30, an email desktop alert appears. I have an email from Mr UKBuses, asking me "If I want to come down to his workplace, National Express West Midlands Pensnett Garage, to have my picture taken?". I reply with no hesitation, "Yes, I'll be down in a bit."
Back to today, the reason Mr UKBuses has got in touch with me was because Dave Gerrard would be officially handing over the cheque to The Children's Unit, and it is also being covered with a story and a photograph in the local media, The Express and Star (as can be seen left, click on the picture for a larger view) and also The Stourbridge News. Mr UKBuses kindly asked me if I could pop along so that I could appear. Luckily, I work on the Pensnett Trading Estate and my workplace is just a couple of minutes walk to the garage. I inform my work colleagues that I will be having an early lunch break, so at 11:50am, I walk through my office door, and walk the short distance down Second Avenue. As I arrive at Pensnett Garage, I ring Mr UKBuses and tell him that I am just about to arrive, so that he can come and meet me, and also means that he can help me follow the Health and Safety Regulations by bringing me down an HI-Viz Jacket to wear whilst on the premises.
I spot Dave talking to his manager, so I give a quick hello to him, when his manager asks me "Where is your Hi-Viz?", at that point Mr UKBuses appears out of the garage building to save the day, and he gives me a Hi-Viz, which I quickly put on. It is a bit windy, so Mr UKBuses invites me into the traffic office, where I spot Dave's long suffering wife, Carol, so I have a little chat, it is through Carol that I know Dave, as I used to work with her years ago and he used to meet her out of work and also giving me earache with his barrage of jokes whilst he waited for her. We still have a few minutes to wait for the member of staff from the Children's Unit to arrive, so after being introduced to Mr UKBuses work colleagues, he decides to give me a tour of Pensnett Garage.
First off, he shows me the travel office, and I take note of the Health and Safety notice board, spotting the Health and Safety Policy, which is a bit ironic, as I have just been working on the policy for the company I work for at my place of work. We go round the corner and we arrive in the engineering area, and there are are a couple of vehicles in the pits having work done on them, at least I can vouch for the garage if anyone thinks that no works are done to their vehicles, this place looked busy to me, at this point Mr UKBuses thinks that I'm strange as I love the smell of oil. We go around another corner and Mr UKBuses takes me upstairs and into the administration office, this is also his office where he keeps the garage ticking over during the day. I spot his desk before he tells me, it is the one where there is absolutely no paperwork on and a few scuff marks on the corner from where he puts his feet up for most of the day (only joking Mr UKBuses!!). It is by the window, so he can keep an eye out over the estate. We now go back downstairs, but not before he shows me where the garage manager's office is, something which he has his eyes on in the future. We are back downstairs in the travel office, and it isn't long before we are called out into the yard.
The nurse, Karen, who is accepting the cheque has arrived, and the photographer is ready to take our picture. We all line up alongside the bus which has the destination blind showing "246 Charity Walk". We are told that we have to recreate the cover off the Madness album "One Step Beyond", the cover showing the band members doing a strange kind of walk. So we take our places, and after we are sorted out by height, which means that Mr UKBuses and myself are towards the back, we put our left legs out and our left arms in the air. At this point, the wind starts to blow, so I am struggling to keep my hair out of my face and wish that the photographer would get his picture. Dave and Karen are at the front with Dave kneeling on the ground. Whilst we are in place, a couple of Mr UKBuses work colleagues decide to use the pose to their advantage and with their arms stretched outwards, decide that they can just swing around and Mr UKBuses could be hit, the photographer notices this behaviour and it is Mr UKBuses that gets the telling off!
The photographer from the Stourbridge News is also present, and luckily, she decides to take a picture to the same style, with Dave and Karen doing a different pose at the front. This photograph only takes a couple of minutes to shoot, and luckily the wind has died down, so my hair behaves itself. Dave's wife, Carol notices that the door on the bus is closed and that her handbag is inside, so I get the opportunity to do something that I have wanted to do for years, and that is press the outside button to open them. Another driver closes them from the inside and jumping out before the doors are shut. After a brief thank you speech from Dave, Mr UKBuses decides to get on the bus and change the destination display to show the next destination for the next charity walk, if things go to plan this will be taking place at the end of November. After he has come out of the drivers cab, he leaves the doors open, so he gives me the chance to fulfil another dream, that is to stand on the platform, press the button inside the bus above the door, and then jump off whilst dodging the closing doors. I've only been waiting 30 years to do that!!
It is time for me to go back to work, so I thank Mr UKBuses and Dave for inviting me along, hand my hi-viz back and walk back along Second Avenue back to my desk in my office. The final total raised by the walk in August and handed over today to the Children's Unit at Russell's Hall Hospital was £1250. Another charity walk is planned for the final Sunday in November, weather permitting. We are still going to be walking the National Express West Midlands 246 route, but we are going the reverse way of the route we did in August, and that is from Stourbridge Bus Station to Dudley Bus Station. This will be harder as it will be colder and also it will be mainly uphill. I have already been volunteered to help out on the day, and I will be with Mr UKBuses on the support bus helping out doing the marshaling and helping the participants across the roads safely, lets hope that my road crossing skills have been passed down to me from my mom.
I would like to thank Dave Gerrard, Mr UKBuses and other staff at National Express West Midlands for inviting me "down the road", and letting me have my picture taken for the newspapers and also extra thanks to Mr UKBuses for kindly showing me around a bus depot for the first time, so at least I know how things work in bus land. If the walk goes ahead as planned, you will read about it here first.
The nurse, Karen, who is accepting the cheque has arrived, and the photographer is ready to take our picture. We all line up alongside the bus which has the destination blind showing "246 Charity Walk". We are told that we have to recreate the cover off the Madness album "One Step Beyond", the cover showing the band members doing a strange kind of walk. So we take our places, and after we are sorted out by height, which means that Mr UKBuses and myself are towards the back, we put our left legs out and our left arms in the air. At this point, the wind starts to blow, so I am struggling to keep my hair out of my face and wish that the photographer would get his picture. Dave and Karen are at the front with Dave kneeling on the ground. Whilst we are in place, a couple of Mr UKBuses work colleagues decide to use the pose to their advantage and with their arms stretched outwards, decide that they can just swing around and Mr UKBuses could be hit, the photographer notices this behaviour and it is Mr UKBuses that gets the telling off!
The photographer from the Stourbridge News is also present, and luckily, she decides to take a picture to the same style, with Dave and Karen doing a different pose at the front. This photograph only takes a couple of minutes to shoot, and luckily the wind has died down, so my hair behaves itself. Dave's wife, Carol notices that the door on the bus is closed and that her handbag is inside, so I get the opportunity to do something that I have wanted to do for years, and that is press the outside button to open them. Another driver closes them from the inside and jumping out before the doors are shut. After a brief thank you speech from Dave, Mr UKBuses decides to get on the bus and change the destination display to show the next destination for the next charity walk, if things go to plan this will be taking place at the end of November. After he has come out of the drivers cab, he leaves the doors open, so he gives me the chance to fulfil another dream, that is to stand on the platform, press the button inside the bus above the door, and then jump off whilst dodging the closing doors. I've only been waiting 30 years to do that!!
It is time for me to go back to work, so I thank Mr UKBuses and Dave for inviting me along, hand my hi-viz back and walk back along Second Avenue back to my desk in my office. The final total raised by the walk in August and handed over today to the Children's Unit at Russell's Hall Hospital was £1250. Another charity walk is planned for the final Sunday in November, weather permitting. We are still going to be walking the National Express West Midlands 246 route, but we are going the reverse way of the route we did in August, and that is from Stourbridge Bus Station to Dudley Bus Station. This will be harder as it will be colder and also it will be mainly uphill. I have already been volunteered to help out on the day, and I will be with Mr UKBuses on the support bus helping out doing the marshaling and helping the participants across the roads safely, lets hope that my road crossing skills have been passed down to me from my mom.
I would like to thank Dave Gerrard, Mr UKBuses and other staff at National Express West Midlands for inviting me "down the road", and letting me have my picture taken for the newspapers and also extra thanks to Mr UKBuses for kindly showing me around a bus depot for the first time, so at least I know how things work in bus land. If the walk goes ahead as planned, you will read about it here first.
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