OK so apparantly there are 1500 grains of rice in a bowl of Rice Krispies. That’s just begging to be counted…

Having a night in tonight; 1, I need to get to sleep at a decent hour as I’m off camping tomorrow leaving about 8am (on the Brum M6 at rush hour, ho hum lol) and 2, N needs to get an early night as she’s up at 3am so we can’t go out tonight, had another nice night out last night though

Yep off camping tomorrow until Saturday at Llyn Gwynant Campsite in Snowdonia. Inside a valley right next to a lake at the foot of Snowdon, 2 miles from civilisation (well a little village, also 5 miles from Beddgelert), went there a few years ago and it’s truly stunning. Hope it’s not full! Well with the latest weather forecast we may well have the site to ourselves… The car is pretty much loaded, just need to chuck my personal stuff and my Ikea bag full of food (big and strong, perfect for it) onto the back seat in the morning (cos the boot is almost full).

No I’m not taking my Macbook and the phone signal will be non existent on site so no blog entries til the weekend.

Take care everyone.

Sunday
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0930: No rush to get up as breakfast is served a little later during weekends. Was the usual continental style ‘help yourself’ affair. Anything you may want was on offer; cereals, croissants, toast, fry-up, tea, coffee, orange juice, yogurts. Needless to say I didn’t take advantage, I rarely eat much in the morning. Breakfast is served in the very ornate on-site Italian Restaurant, very pretty with natural stone, polished wood, church style interior dome things with embossed leaves. Almost like being there, especially with this glorious weather!
Yes, bright and hot again so only one thing for it.1030: Yes, to make the most of the weather while it’s here I took the short walk round the corner to the station. I was having a day at the seaside! Jumped on a DART to Bray, a lovely little seaside town. Guess I arrived there around 1115. Nice stroll around the harbour and prom, then a visit to Bray Sea Life Centre. Quite small compared to the English ones, but very good all the same. They even had an octopus in there which I swear came over to the side of it’s tank where I was standing to say hello. Also there were little jellyfish, seahorses, little sharks, tropical fish, anemones, carp, piranhas, you get the idea.
After that it was a little stroll on the beach. Mostly pebbles and shingle but a nice stretch of wet sand is where the tide was. It didn’t feel extremely hot but I could sea a fine but distinct mist forming where water was evaporating from the beach.

1230: Time to move on. I fancied doing a walk which I read about before I left home. It’s from Bray to Greystones, the next town down. The path goes around Bray Head, raising high and following the jagged coastline beyond, curving above the railway line, past rocks and ruined stone buildings, through leafy tracks, past fields, stunning views all the way and finally lowering into Greystones towards the harbour. Got to Greystones about 1430 or thereabouts. First job there was to get a train ticket back to Dublin and see how long I had there, being a Sunday service. So opted for 2 hours, ample time.

Greystones is smaller than Bray, more like a village, but a very popular place. It’s easy to see why, with long beaches and coastal rocks (hence the town’s name, from the big grey stones), small harbour, grassy cliff tops, handful of shops and stunning views. After a stroll round, had a wander on the beach but the ‘dry’ sand was actually too hot to walk on for more than a few minutes, and the paved areas weren’t much better! I’ve experienced this in the Med, but never in this corner of Europe or Britain. Needed to find a place for lunch, came across a funky little place called Nosh & Coffee, or something like that. Very modern little place, leather sofas and young staff. Very strange though when you see a Chinese looking member of staff with a strong Irish accent. They did a beautiful tomato and mozzarella panini with pesto and fair trade cappuccino and not ridiculously priced. Yum! Again, just like being in the Med!

1515: Spent the last hour or so sunbathing, found a nice grassy spot above the rocks that was fit for the job looking out to sea so I could watch the speedboats, a man showing off in his jet-ski, people on an inflatable banana and various yachts (near and distant). Also think there was a large ferry coming in to Dublin in the distance but it was very hazy and hard to tell. It was hazy when I left Birmingham yesterday and it’s still the same. Not too great when it comes to the views but nothing can be done about it!

1645: Time to get the train home. Wow, there was a stunning girl at Greystones station standing nearby on platform 1, who ate a banana and had water in a big blue bottle in a ‘Tesco Ireland’ non-disposable bag (yeah, she ain’t gonna be reading this…!). Looked quite like Katie Holmes (that alone is good enough) but with that nice Irish touch, you know, extra freckles and those deep sexy Irish eyes! I don’t know what it is, but there’s something special about Irish girls eyes that I can’t explain. Deep, piercing and sultry. I see it often round here. Has the effect of mascara and eye shadow without the need for them to even wear any, they draw you in. Sort of like Kirsten Dunst’s. Sort of. Anyway we all had to change to platform 2 and she was there again, standing close…(on purpose? Yeah right who am I kidding…) hair tied up and back, dark sunglasses, mildly tanned, simple summer wear, light blue flip flops… very cute!
The ‘Commuter’ train was packed when it arrived so it was a case of all squeeze into the doorway. She was in the same doorway, but after 10 minutes, she departed at Bray. Never mind, it’d never have worked anyway! A long distance relationship is one thing but international would be pushing it. Of course, more people got on so I was left squashed against the opposite door all the way to Dublin. Not a great thing when I’ve been walking for hours. The train had emptied by half by Tara Street but decided there was no point finding a seat for the last couple of minutes over the Liffey and round the back of my hotel into Connolley. I love long interesting walks but I don’t do it often enough, something I should start working on when I return.

I must just mention that the train ride between Connolley and Greystones is one of the nicest there is. It crosses the Liffey and passes through south-east Dublin, Grand Canal Docks and underneath part of Lansdowne Road Stadium (which I noticed is being gutted, are they knocking it down), then along the Dublin Bay coastline through places like Blackrock, Dun Laoghaire (major ferry port), Sandycove, Dalkey (where Bono has a house) and Bray, past wide beaches, beautiful buildings, tunnels and cuttings, lots of nature, harbours and old monuments. A must if you’re ever in the area. Especially on a sunny day like today.

1730: By the time the train got in I was desperate to sit down! So desperate in fact that I even took a LUAS tram to get me around the corner by one stop to the hotel. Only it’s typical that the tram was almost full so I found a strange perch-type seat, better than nothing. I was so so glad just to get into the hotel room and be able to collapse onto the bed! Went into the bathroom to freshen up, looked in the mirror…oh…is my face really that red?!! One word of advice, never judge the rate of sunburn by what’s showing on your arms! Although they have now come up rosy. I should have taken a mirror! The redness shouldn’t last too long.

1915: Back into town, now the sun is dying down (although it’s daylight until about 2230 here, and at the time of writing it’s 2308 and still a bit of light left in the sky!). Besides I had a tram ticket to make use out of and I needed food. Still nice and warm out, as it was last night (t-shirt at midnight!). Wandered nowhere in particular to find somewhere to eat, stumbled across a Persian restaurant on the edge of Temple Bar so decided that would do. Had a chicken kebab, done properly - prepared open, fresh and generous, puts chippy’s ones to shame. The place began with a Z but can’t remember what it was. Then stopped at the shop for a Club Orange (think orange Tango, but made in Ireland with 10 times more flavour and deliciousness), and finally the Haagen Dazs shop for what should have been a 3 scoop tub but the feller pretty much had it overflowing, good work on his part, so my snack-like dessert was like another full course. After that hearty kebab I was struggling…but I won. Two scoops of mango & passion fruit (the tub was almost overflowing by this point) with a scoop lemon sorbet on top. One happy customer = one returning customer!!

So strolled the Liffey while forcing that down then called it a day, back to the room about 2130. After all that walking I deserved an relaxing evening. Sh…ugar this entry is possibly longer than yesterday’s…!

Was over at Malcolm’s blog looking at strange things passengers expect. This reminded me of one I heard a few months ago. A passenger was boarding a bus, it was about to depart. She was waiting for her friend who’ll ‘be here in a minute’. Not wanting to delay everybody else the passenger was asked exactly where her friend was, as we may well wait a few moments if the person is in the area (welll, the shopping bit near the fountain). Her reply was ‘he’s on the Northern line’. Brilliant.  Needless to say, off went the coach!

Further to the earlier posts about services and all that, it was unfortunate that Watford Gap (Roadchef) lost out on business on Sunday. Going north I instead called into Corley (Welcome Break) with 33 passengers. And returning from Manchester I actually had 81 on board! My previous post has the potential amount of business gained by the service station. Yesterday I did the same, however numbers were lower at 32 up/13 down (the difference a day makes!). But, profit is profit when it comes to business. And Roadchef don’t weem to want it.

Which is a shame, as the trip I was doing the last couple of days the passenger nearly always used to have some time at Watford Gap! Was actually quite nice to use Corley again instead, as I was based there when working from Nuneaton in the early Megabus days. At least we are ‘Welcome’ there.

So what’s the story with Watford Gap? Well I obviously cannot go into full details…

Each service station operator tends to have a coach drivers scheme, and each can be joined by any coach driver for any travel company. Roadchef, Moto and Welcome Break each have their own individual schemes. This usually consists of free or discounted meals and drinks for drivers and hostesses. Of course there is a limit, such as one drink, starter, main course and desert per visit, or a sandwich or something like that, bottled drinks not usually included and they must be consumed on the premises. These rules are sometimes overlooked at discretion of the site staff, but are only available when the coach staff are visiting professionally (i.e at work on a break or changeover, not valid for drivers who call in on a day off!). In addition to this, the driver often collects points, also awarded, maybe £2 per visit, usually on a card of via vouchers. The value accumulated can usually be spent anytime within the service stations shop or amenities. A condition of being given points is that the driver must bring passengers. Again extra points may be awarded at the discretion of site staff. There are often bonuses too, such as draws, competitions, vouchers and freebies issued from time to time.

All these benefits act as a sort of commission and appreciation of the driver bring passengers into the service station, many of which spend money there (at services highly inflated prices of course!), and also to encourage visits to their site instead of competitors.

Unfortunately there were a handful of drivers abusing the system. Maybe taking food away too often, not bringing passengers in (or refusing to let them off on a changeover), treating the food allowance like a local Tesco, and other things.

So how to fix this? Simple. Grab hold of these drivers. Tell them off, warn them, if they continue remove their driver scheme ‘cards’ and block them from the database (so they can’t rejoin the scheme).

Did Watford Gap do this? Nope. Firstly, they stopped issuing extra points and stuck to the rules of only accumulating points when you have passengers. No problem, those are the official rules so none of us were too fussed about that! Apart from the abusers who lied about having passengers. So theystopped issuing points full stop, but retained the food allowance. OK so that wasn’t as good,but to be honest again most of us weren’t too fussed as we don’t go there for the points, we just like a drink and a bite to eat while we’re waiting around.

So, many of us were making a point of showing we let our passengers use the services when we can. But that wasn’t enough as they’ve now stopped the free meals and drinks. For every Megabus/Stagecoach driver. None of us will pay full price for low-quality food! If we did that 5 days a week it’d work out cheaper to buy a brand new car!

But that’s not the main problem. It’s the discrimination against the company and the childish behaviour that’s riled us all (like at school, one’s been naughy you can all stay behind!). Of the hundreds of passengers that we do let through their doors each week, they are not noticing or are ignoring this fact and are accusing us of not taking any passengers in, and just getting all the free food we can! Not true at all.

Many of us wouldn’t mind paying for our food and drink, just not full price. But we believe, seeing as drivers join the schene individually (nothing to do with the company you work for), abusers should be treated individually, and drivers who have always played by the rules should not be treated like criminals. To us that do it properly, it’s like they’re saying to us “thank you for not abusing it and bringing passengers, now you’re not having a coffeeor anything now f*ck off, have a nice day”!

So obviously they don’t want the business, which seems a strange business plan to me! Of my handful of trips into Corley this week, I had a few coffees and a bite to eat (nothing much), made £10 in vouchers and they in return made hundreds of pounds from my passengers. I’m happy, passengers are happy, Welcome Break are happy. Simple.

Oh, and to cover the cost of these benefits, only a handful of passengers need to spend money in the service station. My benefits could be covered for a month by a single average coach load of passengers. So for those times we can’t let them off (usually when it’s late) there is no loss.

It’s mainly a few of the northern drivers that are the worst. The bring their coach down, hand over to one of ours, get their 3 course meal. Then when their return coach comes in 20 minutes early, they jump straight in and go. There aren’t many like that, usually the ones with the attitude problems who to be honest are not coach driver material and should be replaced, as they annoy passengers who in turn may travel with another company next time. Not good for us!

Most of us (those that do it right) still hope for a resolution as we like visiting Watford Gap, it’s a nice service station (especially after the refurb), staff are mostly friendly (most of which sympathise with us, they know first hand who is honest, etc.), location is ideal as we have m1 and M6 routes. But we don’t expect one anytime soon. Until maybe Roadchef review their figures as no more passenges are getting there, it will bring their earnings down, simple as that.