2012 - Day Out 01: London

Date: 07 January 2012

It is a new year and we start it off with a visit to one of our favourite locations, the City of London, and we also start the year as proper Londoners when we use our Oyster Cards for the first time.

It is an early start on the first trip of the year, and I make my way to Wollaston in time to catch the first bus of the day at 06:42 or so I thought, as I am walking up Cobden Street, it is just after 06:30, and at the end of the road, I see a National Express West Midlands bus drive past, I presume that this is Service 276, the one I need to catch, so I sprint the rest of Cobden Street to Wollaston and as I turn the corner, the bus is pulled up at the bus stop, after looking at the timetable on the stop, I find out that the bus departs Wollaston at 06:36 and quickly board and take a seat whilst I get my breath back, looking at the plan I discover that I didn't read it properly and it was due to leave at 06:36. The bus departs and we head to Norton where Mr UK Buses boards and we start the first trip of 2012, after passing through Stourbridge going past the nearly constructed Stourbridge Interchange, we end up in Brook Road where we alight and walk up to Stourbridge Junction to get our first train of 2012. We only have to wait about twenty minutes before our train turns up. Normally when we go to London we go via Birmingham New Street and catch a Virgin train to London Euston, today we are not doing that, we decide that we will catch a Chiltern Train and go via Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone. We board our train which will take us straight to London without the usual change from Birmingham Snow Hill to Birmingham New Street, so we get a seat, get comfy and for the next couple of hours we just relax, something that Mr UK Buses does quite literally for half of the journey and nods off, luckily he doesn't snore which is a good thing seeing as we are in the quiet zone. I keep myself occupied on the journey whilst Mr UK Buses is asleep and have a play with my new toy, a BlackBerry Playbook, and with the help of the free Wi-fi on the Chiltern trains, I get to keep in touch with the outside world. At 09:37, we arrive and it is a welcome return to the glorious station that is London Marylebone.

With no change at Birmingham, Mr UK Buses has catered for me in today's plan, by giving me time to pop out the front of the station to have a "fresh air" break, it also gives me a chance to look at the outstanding station building, whilst I'm doing this, Mr UK Buses is halfway down Great Central Street after he has spotted a few buses to take a few photographs of. "Fresh air" break over, we make our way inside, and we go for our first trip of 2012 on the London Underground, and we get our Oyster Cards out ready to scan on the barriers in the enter the Marylebone Underground Station. Well it looks like they are working as it has let us in and we board our first tube train of the day which is on the Bakerloo line, but it is a short first journey as we alight at the next station which is Baker Street where we change platforms for our next journey. We are now on the Jubilee Line, which takes us from Baker Street to Finchley Road, where we alight and we are let out of the station as the barriers let us through after showing our Oyster Card. Before we made our way to London today we topped up our Osyter Cards which was supposed to have been credited when we scanned them in at the Underground station at Marylebone, as we leave Finchley Road Underground Station, we spot a topping up machine and we decide to check that everything is in working order by scanning our cards where it shows that the top has been added successfully and also we get to see how much the balance is on our cards. We leave the station and we have a few steps along Finchley Road to get to our bus stop where we will catch our first bus in London using the Oyster Card.

We have a short wait for our bus, and on time a London Metroline Service 82 bus turns up which will take us to a place called Henlys Corner. The journey takes just under half an hour and we alight opposite a Holiday Inn hotel, London Golders Green to be exact, which will be the accommodation that Mr UK Buses will be using when he comes back to London in just over a weeks time to watch the Snooker. With the hotel found, we stand outside which is also where the bus stop is located and after a couple of minutes, another London Metroline pulls up which we board to take us back to Finchley Road Underground station, as we leave the hotel we spot a bus station at Golders Green which may be worth a visit on future trips to London. We arrive back at Finchley Road Underground Station, where we make our way back inside and back onto the Jubilee Line to take us back to Baker Street, upon arrival we stay in the station and change onto the Circle Line where we have a long journey and we make our way to a new Underground station that we haven't visited before, Wood Lane Underground Station, a relatively new station as this was opened in 2008, if Mr UK Buses had his way, we would have still been sitting on a tube train in Baker Street as he originally boarded a train that was laying over. As we make our way outside on to Wood Lane we scan the Oyster Card onto the barriers and we both see that on the scanner that the balance on the card is shown with the price shown for the journey in brackets (Finchley Road to Wood Lane is £2).

We leave the station and virtually opposite is the BBC Television Centre and I get my camera out ready to take a few photographs of the the Television Centre, but Mr UK Buses has other ideas, and we walk underneath the railway bridge and into Ariel Way and there is a bus station, the White City Bus Station, which opened the same time as the Wood Lane Underground Station in 2008, this bus station serves the nearby Television Centre and also the Westfield London Shopping Centre. With the camera in hand already, we get to take a few shots of the buses laying over. As we nearly finish taking photographs, a bus driver makes his way towards us asking what we are taking pictures of, thinking that we were taking pictures of him and not the buses. This is the first time on trips to London that we have ever been approached by an inquisitive bus driver, but luckily he calms down after we tell him that we are only taking pictures of the buses. After finishing with the photographs, we head back around the corner back to the Television Centre to take some pictures of the most famous television building in the United Kingdom. After looking around to see if we can see any celebrity's we come away disappointed as we see none, and we make our way to the White City Underground Station, which is located virtually opposite the Television Centre and a stone throws away from the Wood Lane Underground Station. We make our way onto the Central Line, where upon arrival at Bond Street Underground Station, we change lines and get onto the Jubilee Line which will take us to our next destination, which is Westminster.

We make our way out of the Westminster Underground Station and we head to Parliament Street, and stop by the Cenotaph to take a few photographs, the last time we was here, the police stopped me to search me before we saw the Remembrance Day Parade along this street. We make our way up Parliament Street and into Whitehall walking past the tourists taking pictures of the guards outside of the Horse Guards Palace, we walk a little bit further where we enter J D Wetherspoons, "The Lord Moon of the Mall" and we rest our feet whilst we have lunch. Mr UK Buses opts for his usual BBQ Chicken melt without the cheese, myself opting for the beer and burger having the chicken variety. I do try and get on the PlayBook, but the free Wi-fi inside this Wetherspoons does not want to communicate with my new toy so I put it back into my pocket. After we have finished lunch, we head out of the pub and around the corner to Charing Cross, where we wait for our next bus, Stagecoach London's Heritage route 15, we don't have to scan our Oyster Cards upon boarding as there are no scanners on Routemasters and we take a seat on the top deck with a pleasant view of London as we are sat at the front. Whilst en route, the conductor comes up with his Oyster Card terminal, but my card doesn't want to scan, so the conductor takes it off me and after a few attempts it does scan, Mr UK Buses has no problems with his card. After a journey time of twenty minutes and nearly a collision with a black cab, we arrive at the Tower of London. We are ahead of schedule, so we catch an earlier First London RV1 which is an hydrogen bus. We make our way and we have a pleasant journey on this "green" bus and a different sound as the bus has no engine. After fifteen minutes we arrive close to London Bridge Bus Station which after a little walk, passing the London Dungeons, we arrive at the bus station. No photographs will be taken here today as the station is currently being redeveloped, so we make our way to the temporary stop around the corner where we wait for a Service 48 bus. We have a good view whilst waiting for the bus as we are outside of a Fitness First gym and we are able to see the treadmills and bikes, the girl in the green t-shirt supplies the entertainment, with a girl in a pink t-shirt arriving just before we leave to have a ride on the exercise bike, unfortunately our Stagecoach London service 48 bus turns up.

We board and we haven't got far to go, Mr UK Buses must have been mesmerised by the girl in the pink top as he fails to spot where we have to get off and luckily I spot the bus stop which displays Dukes Place and we run off the bus before it pulls off. According to the plan, we now have a short walk to Aldgate Bus Station, but somehow we don't follow Mr UK Buses directions and end up lost, luckily though for us we head up a street and arrive at Liverpool Street Railway Station. Alongside the railway station is Liverpool Street Bus Station, so we make up for not visiting the bus station at Aldgate by taking some photographs at this bus station. Photographs taken, we are now off the plan, and we catch an Arriva London service 133 which takes us back to where we have come from and we end up at Borough Underground Station. After scanning in, we head onto the Northern Line and travel to Moorgate Underground Station where we swap lines and head onto the Metropolitan Line to take us to Aldgate Underground Station, or so we thought. Mr UK Buses boards a Hammersmith and City Line train and we arrive at Aldgate East Underground Station instead, after this little snag, we decide to stay on the train and we arrive at the next Underground station,  Whitechapel, where we alight and scan our Oyster Card to get us on to Whitechapel Road, as we scan our cards we find out that we have reached the daily cap for the zones that we have travelled in today, we will not have any more money taken off our cards today. We make our way through the market and we arrive at our City of London regular, "The Blind Beggar", see picture right, where we have a well deserved break, whilst in the pub, I am treated to a drink served in a Blind Beggar badged glass, Mr UK Buses has a standard blank glass to drink from.

We leave the Blind Beggar, and walk across the road to our stop, where we will scan our Oyster Cards for the last time today and after a few minutes wait, a Stagecoach London Service 205 pulls up. We board and tap our cards on the scanner and take our seats. This route takes us across from the East End of London to our final destination of the day, passing Kings Cross, our normal railway station of London Euston before arriving at London Marylebone. I have a "fresh air break" whilst walking up Great Central Street to the main station building, this will be my last fresh air break before we get to board our train. We walk inside the station and decide to have a bite to eat at the Burger King which is located inside the station. After our food we quickly pop into Marks and Spencer's to get us a drink for the journey ahead and we then get onto Platform 3 to board our waiting Chiltern Train which will take us back to the second city, we walk through the carriages where we find the last table seat available and get comfy for the journey ahead. It is 17:00 and our train pulls out from the station on time and as we make our way it is getting dark outside, so to pass the time we turn on the PlayBook where I log onto the Chiltern Trains on board Wi-fi and we both have a look at the Internet for the rest of the journey. We cannot complain about the connection, offering top speeds enabling the quick loading of the web pages we look at, whilst on the move, there were a couple of signal drop-outs along the way, but this didn't stop us from searching the web. After a journey time of just over two hours (due to stopping off at more stations than we did on the morning journey), we arrive back at Birmingham Snow Hill at 19:03. We have just under half an hour to wait for our next train to take us back to Stourbridge, so we head out to Colmore Row where I can have a "fresh air" break and we make our way back to Platform 1, where at 19:28, our London Midland train arrives and takes us back to Stourbridge Junction, stopping at all the stations on the journey. We arrive back at Stourbridge Junction where we promptly make our way from Platform 3 to Platform 1 where the 19:59 "Dodger" to Stourbridge Town is waiting, leaving the station on time, we arrive at Stourbridge Town station at 20:02, which gives us three minutes to walk to Stand F along Birmingham Street to catch our final bus to take us back home. Luckily, the driver of the bus is on the phone so we are able to get to our stand at a normal walking pace before Black Diamond's Service 276C arrives to take us back home to rest our feet after a long day out.

The first trip of 2012 is a successful trip, where we have taken heed of the latest technology and used our Oyster Cards for the first time, with everything working as it should be and we weren't disappointed with how it works. The company on this trip was good and we had a stress free and sulk free day out, with only a couple of hiccups which did not affect the day. If the trips for the rest of the year are like this, it looks like it will be a good 2012.

2011 - Day Out 34: Worcestershire - The Christmas Trip

Date: Saturday 03 December 2011

It is time for the last trip of 2011, and it has been decided to mark the event with an ARMS trip around Worcestershire and that can only mean one thing too - it is the Christmas trip!

First off, I have to meet up with Mr UKBuses, so I head out from home and luckily this year the sun is starting to shine and there is no sign of snow this year and hopefully no chance of getting stranded as we nearly did on last year's Christmas outing. I make my way across Swan Pool Park and up The Broadway in Norton, where just after 0805am I meet up with Mr UKBuses by The Broadway Shops. We take a short walk up to Norton Round by the junction of Norton Road and Osmaston Road and wait for our first bus of the day. It is 0820am and our bus arrives which is Whittle's service 125 which will take us to Kidderminster. Mr UKBuses lets a couple of people on first and as he hears how much a return ticket will cost, he opts for it which means that he will save 70p when we catch the bus back later on in the day. Mr UKBuses is now happy as he has saved some money, he is always happy even when he saves a few pence. We take our seats and we make our way down Norton Road, passing through Iverley and Broadwaters near Kidderminster on a bus that is carrying quite a few passengers for the time of the journey on a Saturday morning. We pass the Kidderminster railway station, keeping an eye out for Mr D9 along the way. We arrive at the bus station in Kidderminster at 0840am, and I have my first "fresh air" break of the day whilst we wait for the arrival of Mr D9. He hasn't shown up, so to save waiting in the cold we make our way to the Cafe Nero nearby where Mr UKBuses has a cup of coffee to wake him up and seeing as Mr UKBuses doesn't like my Blackberry phone, he opts for a Blackberry Muffin for his breakfast, I opt for the diet Pepsi and Lemon Cupcake to keep me going. We get a seat by the window so that we may be able to spot Mr D9 in the bus station, but as we get comfortable, Mr D9 rings Mr UKBuses asking where we are, he has decided to go to the J D Wetherspoons, "The Penny Black" in Kidderminster for his coffee and bacon roll, he was expecting us to get off the bus at The Swan Centre stop. We all finish our breakfasts off in both locations and as we head outside of the Cafe Nero, Mr D9 can be spotted at the end of the alley from us.

The ARMs team is now complete ready for our traditional Worcestershire Christmas trip and we make our way around to the bus station where we will catch our first First Worcestershire bus of the day. We have a few minutes to wait before our bus is due, so we spend a bit of time to take a few photographs around the bus station, mainly Whittles buses as they seem to be the main operator around Kidderminster nowadays. Our first First bus of the day arrives and we board the 0915am First Worcestershire 303 service purchasing our FirstWyvern day ticket to use on the buses we catch throughout the day. We make our way from Kidderminster, passing through Hartlebury and Ombersley before we arrive at Worcester alighting at the bus station dead on 1000am. I am the first person to make a toilet stop and I dash to the toilets located in the station whilst Mr D9 and Mr UKBuses take a few photographs around the station. We then make our way through the city of Worcester, with Mr UKBuses leading the way, and we get confused when he stops ahead of us outside a "Private Shop", is he waiting for us or was he going to go in, it turns out that he was waiting for us to catch him up but I did have the phone ready to pre-order an ambulance if he stepped inside. We carry on and arrive at First Worcestershire's depot at Worcester which is located in Padmore Street. When we arrive the yard is empty except for a couple of School buses and one service bus, Mr D9 has a sneaky look inside the engineering bays from the pavement. After our brief tour looking around the depot, we head around the corner where we wait at a bus stop and we don't wait long as a bus arrives and takes us back to the bus station in Worcester. Time for a few more photographs and we head to our stand where our bus is waiting and we wait for the driver to come from the canteen where he has been keeping himself warm whilst we wait in the cold. The bus driver eventually turns up and we are ready to get out of the cold and catch our next bus.

We board First Worcestershire's service 144 where after getting out of the Christmas traffic in Worcester we pass through Droitwich Spa and Wychbold before arriving at Bromsgrove bus station after a journey time of forty minutes. Bromsgrove bus station will be our "hub" of the day as we will be visiting this place the most times today as it seems to link all the destinations that we visit today. We have a bit of time to kill in Bromsgrove before our next bus arrives so we decide to get out of the cold and visit our first pub of the day. We use the tradesman's entrance and visit The Red Lion where Mr D9 and myself are shocked as Mr UKBuses buys the first round of the day. After Mr D9 and myself come around from the shock, we pick ourselves up off the floor and find a table to rest and get warm whilst listening to some Christmas music in a packed pub which is filling up with some more Christmas shoppers from the High Street entrance. Mr UKBuses nearly downs his drink on his first sip, which means one of two things, he was either thirsty or he was in shock of having to buy the first round of the day. After finishing our drinks we make our way back out into the cold to get our next bus. We are back in Bromsgrove bus station and our next bus arrives and we board the First Worcestershire service X3 which will take us to our now traditional Christmas trip location of Redditch.

It only takes us about fifteen to twenty minutes before we arrive in Redditch, and we alight in the bus station. It is now time for lunch, so we head to J D Wetherspoons "The Royal Enfield", this was previously the Chicago Rock Cafe which were taken over by J D Wetherspoons when the Chicago Rock Cafe company fell into administration, so this means that like Stourbridge, Redditch now has two Wetherspoons in the town. The Royal Enfield is an old cinema / bingo hall which is located a couple of minutes walk from the bus station, and seeing as it is an ex-Chicago Rock Cafe, we thought we may get the same treatment as we did two weeks previously when we visited the ex-Chicago Rock Cafe Wetherspoons in Tamworth, it was totally the opposite, we were served quickly after we arrived and politely by the Assistant Manageress. Mr D9 and myself set up a little bet between us regarding Mr UKBuses choice of dinner, Mr D9 opted for the BBQ Chicken Melt and I was left with the Chicken Tikka option. We take our seats to have a little rest before we choose what we eat, and Mr UKBuses seems to have got us a table which is in the middle of the dance floor, as can be seen right. It was time to look at the menu and I opted for the Beer and Burger deal, with Mr D9 opting for the simple steak, but he wouldn't be getting the eggs of me this week as I'm not having the gammon. It was now time for Mr UKBuses choice and he was undecided, but I think he knew that Mr D9 and myself had a bet going between us when I was trying to steer him towards the Chicken Tikka Masala. He did, in then end, opt for the BBQ Chicken Melt without the cheese which obviously means it was simply a BBQ Chicken!, I gave my pound stake to Mr D9. After about ten minutes, our meals arrive and we tuck in, we had a good portion of chips on the plate, and as the meal arrived whilst Mr D9 was taking a toilet break, we teased him about the chips, especially considering I had a few more than him, which bought back memories from our trip to Chester a few years ago. After finishing lunch we decide to have a walk around to Diamond bus depot located in Church Road which is only a couple of minutes away from The Royal Enfield, the bus depot was originally the Midland Red built depot. After walking back down Adelaide Street, we find a path that brings us out in front of The Royal Enfield, thus saving some shoe leather if we had used this path to get there. We make our way past the bus station which is located under The Kingfisher shopping centre, and just around the corner from the bus station is First Worcestershire's Redditch bus depot located just off Plymouth Road, which had a few vehicles parked up at the back of the depot. After a few photographs, we head back around the corner to the bus station and we have time to visit the toilets, or should that be toilet, located inside the entrance to the main shopping centre. There is still the problem that you have to queue for the toilets. Mr UKBuses pushes his way to the front of the queue and with himself standing outside the gents, and a lady outside the ladies, we wait a few minutes before the gent's becomes free, when a woman comes out stating that "it stinks in there as a bloke must have had a good dump in there before I went in", little did she realise that we must have been waiting outside for five minutes. As Mr UKBuses went in, the smell from the woman wafted outside and we could hear a few coughs from Mr UKBuses inside. Mr D9 was next to go in and I opted out of using the toilet as I think I can hold on until we get to the next location and also avoided the smell.

We board First Worcestershire's service 143 which takes us back to our hub, Bromsgrove bus station taking us through the dreaded Aston Fields, located a couple of miles from Bromsgrove, this is where the railway station for Bromsgrove is situated as I found out with aching feet a few years ago. We also pass through Charford an estate on the edge of Bromsgrove before we finally arrive at the bus station. Whilst en route, Mr D9 and Mr UKBuses are keeping there eyes out for clay bus stops, they spot quite a few despite us being on a bus which has an all over advert and hampers our view to the outside world. As we alight in Bromsgrove, the first thing we do is visit the toilets as the drinks we had in Redditch are getting through our systems. Mr D9 and myself wait outside for Mr UKBuses who is nearly wiped out as he exits the toilets when Mr D9 decides to do a little mopping right by his feet after he finds the cleaners mop in the entrance to the toilets. We have a few minutes before our bus is due and so we have time for a few photographs, with Mr D9 doing his now standard pose outside of the 24 hour emergency toilet in Bromsgrove bus station, I decide to get in the shot this time as I pretend to be doing some business against the wall. We make our way down to our stand and as our bus is due, a Central Buses vehicle turns up at our stop ready to take the Aston Villa fans to the match being played at home today at Villa Park. Our bus has to pull up behind and after nearly tripping over an old lady who is picking up her bags to get onto the bus even though she is getting the one that goes the other way, we board First Worcestershire's service X3.

We take our seats on the X3 and we are off to Areley Kings, a place located near to Stourport and also a place that I have never visited before. On the way we pass through Chaddersley Corbett where Mr UKBuses informs us that there is a farm nearby where he is having his Christmas Day chicken from and he has hand picked it, so if you see a chicken wandering around the area of Chaddersley Corbett with the initials MW painted on it, please return it so that Mr UKBuses does not go without on Christmas Day. After Chaddersley Corbett we pass through Kidderminster, pointing out to Mr D9 the location of the now demolished Midland Red garage, and we then pass through Birchen Coppice before we get to our destination, Areley Kings. After riding around the estate, we finally alight at the bus stop just outside of The Kings Arms, the pub looks okay from the outside, Mr D9 and Mr UKBuses head in before me so that I can finish off my "fresh air" break. I finally get inside and Mr D9 and Mr UKBuses are already at a table, see picture left. We have a rest in the pub that is nice and cosy with the regulars looking a friendly bunch. You can tell that it is near Christmas as the landlord or landlady already has the Christmas decorations up. After finishing our drinks we decide that we have to brave the cold by putting our coats on and leaving the pub. A few doors down the road is another pub that we have time for a quick visit and so we enter the Astley Cross, where I get my money out for the next round. As I write this blog entry I realise that Mr UKBuses has saved a bit of money again as it was in fact his round and he forgot to correct me as I got my wallet out, a good job that we only have time for halves. It looks as we won't be having a drink in this pub, as we are waiting in the lounge, there are a load of people waiting in the bar to be served, luckily another member of bar staff appears and we do have time for a very quick drink. We sit by the window but we hear a bus coming so we quickly finish our drinks and head outside. The bus stop is a little bit up the road opposite The Astley Cross, and the bus is actually at the side of the pub waiting to cross the road. Luckily the driver spots me trying to get to the bus stop and he signals that he will stop. We rush to get on the bus and thank the driver for waiting for us.

The Christmas trip is nearly over and our First Worcestershire service 3 bus is the last journey that we will use our FirstWyvern day ticket on. It has gone dark now and as we pass through Stourport, we spot The Treasure Island arcade on the riverside still operating and quite colourful it is too as the lights blare out onto the winter sky. It takes us just under half an hour to get back into Kidderminster from Areley Kings and we pass through the Birchen Coppice Estate before passing the First Worcestershire depot in Kidderminster, which is now located in the middle of a big roundabout. We arrive at Kidderminster at 1745pm, but Mr UKBuses and myself both need the toilet desperately, luckily I know where there are some public toilets nearby. We make our way to the entrance of the Rowland Hill shopping centre in Vicar Street and located under the escalators are public toilets. Mr UKBuses and myself make use of them, and as we make our way back onto Vicar Street, we cannot see Mr D9, we were too quick for him and after he contacted us by phone, he actually went up the escalators into the main shopping centre. We are all reunited, and we make our way back to Kidderminster bus station. This is where we say goodbye to Mr D9 as he has brought a return train ticket this morning, so he gets one last use of his FirstWyvern day ticket to get a bus to the railway station. He boards the bus and it seems an eternity for his bus to depart and Mr D9 says goodbye to us by him frantically waving to us through the back window - See you in 2012 Mr D9. Mr UKBuses and myself have a further ten minutes to wait, and thankfully our bus turns up on time, even though a passenger nearly gets on the wrong bus as both Whittles service 125 buses use this stand in either direction of the route, which confuses passengers more as they turn up within a minute of each other in either direction to Stourbridge and Bridgnorth. Our bus is behind the Bridgnorth bound bus, and we board and make use of the heaters to get some warmth back into our bodies. We make our last journey of the day by showing our return tickets purchased this morning to the driver, and after passing through Broadwaters, where there seems to be some kind of Christmas Fayre taking place, we head up a very dark Stourbridge Road before we arrive in Norton and alight at our stop in Norton Road. We make a short walk down Whittington Road back down to The Broadway shops. I can now barely walk now as I desperately need to use the toilet, but as there are none nearby, I have to go behind the back of some garages opposite the shops to have an unplanned toilet break. Whilst I am emptying my bladder, Mr UKBuses pops into "The Broadway Chippy" to get his tea, I walk with him back past his house where I say my goodbyes to him and walk just around the corner where I get my final bus of the day, National Express West Midlands service 276 to Wollaston, where I get my tea from the "Lucky House" Chinese takeaway, before getting back home where I eat my takeaway and rest my feet for the rest of the evening enjoying the heating to get my blood back to temperature again.

Another fantastic day out was had, and what a trip to end the year on, this was due to the good company, good weather and good planning from Mr UKBuses, if it wasn't for the effort put in by Mr UKBuses with his plans, there wouldn't be no trips making an appearance on this blog, so a special big thanks go out to him for his spotless (well most of the time) planning throughout the year, it is very much appreciated..

I've enjoyed all the days out this year, but I think that the trips in the last quarter of the year have been better than those earlier on in the year, a few new locations have been visited this year. We have also ventured out for a few weekends this year, out of the three weekend trips, I think London in November ranked at the top, with Torquay second, and Weymouth third. London and Torquay fared better due to not stopping over at London on our visits before and not having visited Torquay before, and I can definitely say that I have not "tossed it all away" this year. 

Andy's Bald Cranium (ABC)

Bald Spot One: This was taken outside the First bus depot at Worcester, I managed to get this whilst Mr D9 was having a look inside the garage from the pavement opposite.

Bald Spot Two: This was taken in the glorious winter sunshine whilst waiting for a bus at Bromsgrove Bus Station.

Bald Spot Three: This was taken whilst in Redditch Bus Station. I think Mr D9's mind was on other things as he needed to go for a toilet break, enabling me to get this shot.