Just another eventful day

So I went home last night thinking that we'd had quite a good run with the M27 the last week or two.

First sign of trouble this morning was a phone call from Maria at 0545 to say that she and Trevor were stationary on the M27 due to the closure of the M3 just before the Eastleigh turn off.

So, as usual when that kind of thing happens, the schedules go out the window, I forget any thoughts of getting any normal work done and we go into improvising mode.

Happily, both Jamie and Matt arrived at work with no trouble at all, coming from the east, and Taz managed the 200 yard walk from his house without encountering any deadly perils

So everything left the yard on time, with me starting Maria's duty (she was still stationary 1 hour 40 mins after that first phone call). After that, we made it up as we went along:

Matt did the first trip on his own duty (duty 1 0708 Botley - Eastleigh, arriving about 30 late) then dropped back on to the 0850 E - B - E, then back on his own duty at 1150

Jamie managed to stick to his duty, but was about 25 late on the 0855 arrival in Eastleigh, just in time to go back out on time on the 0920.

Maria arrived just in time to take the double decker (309) and pick up Matt's scheduled second trip at 0750 E - B - E, leaving about 10 late, getting back to Eastleigh about 20 late and going back on to her own duty at 1020.

I did the 0738 Botley - Eastleigh in the V reg, arriving about 30 late, then did the 0950 E - B - E to enable everyone else to get back on to their duties.

With all the above underway and starting to look too easy, what we needed was a fresh challenge, cue a phone call from Alison's partner to say she was unwell and wouldn't be in for duty 4. So out come the scrap paper and the familiar sight of me recutting duties on the fly to get the trips covered.

Matt agreed to come off his scheduled afternoon Wildern School dupe to do the 1450 and 1620 E-B-E instead from duty 4, finishing at 1740, with Taz doing Wildern School and then the last trip on duty 4 at 1750 E-B.

Steve agreed to come in on his rest day - his second in a row - to do the first two trips on duty 4 at 1120 and 1250 E-B-E and hey presto - everything covered! And Steve still got to go home to do his painting in the afternoon!

Now unless you are seriously into this kind of stuff, most of this will have passed you by, but it gives me some satisfaction when I'm doing it and I guarantee there will be some readers who will actually be interested to see how it all comes together when things go pear shaped.

Cutting a long story short, every trip operated despite the motorway chaos and one out of four drivers going sick, albeit that the 0750 from Eastleigh was about 10 minutes late, so with enormous thanks to our drivers for their flexibility our customers will hopefully have experienced the minimum possible inconvenience.

With all this sorted, Taz and I were able to escape to MC Truck & Bus at Nursling at lunchtime, where the first DAF - V12 GMT - had been on holiday since Tuesday morning having its speedo replaced. Having brought the now fixed V12 back to Eastleigh, we were able to put it on for Jamie's 1520 and 1650 E-B-E and should now be in regular service on an ongoing basis.

We also managed to get both the DAFs that we have with us - V12 and V14 - booked in for a deep clean and valet on Thursday next week, which should lift the interiors considerably!

All the above shenanigans left me with five buses to fuel and three to sweep this evening, so didn't get away from the depot until about 1945, a late finish by my standards. Skulked back to the office, pushed some paper around for a while, snaffled the rest of the Fruit & Nut bar that was given to one of the drivers by a passenger yesterday, snaffled the Caramel Dairy Milk that a passenger gave me this morning, then came home!

This is going to be tempting fate big time, but as I left it tonight we actually have a spare low floor tomorrow - a very rare luxury - so if all goes to plan, the V- and W-reg Darts will be out in service (running cards S2 and S3 respectively), DAF V12 will be out in service as S1 so we should be able to park the 02 reg Dart spare in the bus station along with 309, until the latter does its afternoon stint on Wildern School.

Meanwhile, I see it's past my bedtime, so that'll do for tonight!