Friday: Losing it at the end

Ok, I'm a couple of days late with this but didn't feel like writing much Friday or Saturday evening so here's a bit about Friday.

How is it possible for a day that proceeds pretty smoothly throughout, to result in one of the most chaotic and badly organised returns to the depot that I have presided over?

The normal script goes:

1750 Phil waves off last departure to Botley in Eastleigh Bus Station, then takes spare bus to yard, fuelling en route if necessary. Spare bus is in bed around 1800.
1800 Phil walks down to petrol station ready to meet first two buses
1810ish First two buses in from service arrive at petrol station from opposite directions, usually around the same time
1840ish Last bus runs in to petrol station having come back dead from Botley. Phil fuels and hitches a lift back to the yard
By 1900ish all buses fuelled, swept and tucked up in bed

All day Friday the operation proceeded without hitch. All the buses stick to their lines, all drivers complete their duties without problems. Taz is doing the first part of duty 4 because Maria has the day off, and Matt is finishing it as overtime, but that all happens on auto-pilot and everyone knows what they are doing and just gets on with it.

Meanwhile in the office, our newest team member Mikey is in for the day to help us out (he's a Wildern School student who's interested in buses and what we are doing and how it all works, and we're happy to give him the odd day's work while he's on school holiday). It's his first proper day with us and he ploughs through the work I ask him to do, in a fraction of the time I was expecting, so it's all good!

The only slight hitch is that the power keeps going off, which is a bit of a pain but not a show-stopper, although it is for some shops in the High Street that have to close completely due to power failure (even though Southern Electric deny all knowledge of any failure)

So having waved off the 1750 with Matt driving, I head over to the yard in 303 (the spare bus) and make the fatal mistake of showing an interest in V14 which has just had its new alternator bracket fitted, but needs charging up. Quick conference with the electrician and Rob and Shaun from Brenhaul resolves that the best way forward is to bury V14 at the back of the yard and leave it ticking over for a few hours to build up the charge. I'm out for a meal in Bishopstoke tonight so can easily pop into the yard on the way back through to switch it off.

Unfortunately, someone's left a van parked in such an awkward spot in the yard that although we've got two parking lanes, everything has to squeeze in through a gap one bus wide, so that means V14 has to go in first so that it doesn't end up blocking anything else in. Unfortunately we can't move it yet, as there are vans parked all around it and tools all over the ground. Also, V7 had its pre-service inspection earlier and is now parked in the spot at the back of the yard where V14 needs to go. Also, the time it has taken to sort this out means that the first two buses are now waiting at the petrol station and I'm not there!

So I run down to the petrol station and fuel them - the two white Darts - and come back up the road with them. They can't go in the yard yet because I have to get V7 out and put V14 in, and V14's still surrounded, so we put the two white Darts temporarily in two of the truck spaces which happen to be empty, and hope the trucks don't come home in the next half hour or so.

Meanwhile Matt had warned me before going out on the 1750 that some of the interior lights are out on V12, and I'd forgotton to mention this to Rob, Shaun and the electrician, so I wander back over to Brenhaul to mention this. They then decide to start taking apart the light fittings on V14 to see what bulbs they are (we think they are common or garden flourescent strips that you can buy in any good hardware store) and needless to say we can't see how to get the light covers off.

I then realise that Matt is about to arrive at the petrol station with V12 so I send Jamie off down to meet him with the fuel card, and go back to V14. Eventually we decide that we can't work it out and that it would be easier to do the whole exercise on V12 since that's the one with the problem. So the vans get moved, the tools get scooped up and V14 is free. I decide there's not a lot of point getting V7 out after all as it's not ready for the road until we fit the ticket machine anyway, so put V14 in the yard and park up the two Darts around it.

All that's left now is for V12 to roll in having been fuelled, we'll put that on the front of the line and it's all done!

Sure enough 5 minutes later V12 rolls up, so I tell Matt where I want him to park it, it's a bit of a tight squeeze so it takes a bit of shunting but eventually it's in. Matt assembles his gear and heads off to get the broom. At that moment, Jamie rings up from the petrol station and asks whether Matt is going to come in to get fuel at any point!

Turns out Matt hadn't seen me at the petrol station (which I wasn't), didn't spot Jamie so carried on up to the yard, then when I told him where to park assumed I wasn't planning to fuel him so didn't say anything! Nobody's fault, just a misunderstanding all round, but grrrrr!

So I leap in V12, dig it out of its parking space, head back down to the petrol station, meet Jamie, fuel up, take V12 back to the yard following Jamie in his car and begin the painstaking process of parking it up again. Being in a bit of a huffy mood and quite impatient by now, I misjudge all the angles (not like me, one thing I'm pretty good at in a bus is going backwards!) and nearly demolish Jamie's car, V384 and Steve himself in one single manoeuvre. Luckily I don't, and much shouting and hand waving later V12 is finally in bed and I can go!

At about this point, we learn that the guy who owns the van that has screwed up our parking, had left the keys in it all along in case we needed to move it!

Now of all the nights for it to descend into chaos, it would be the one where me, Jamie, Louise, Steve and Nickie are all going out for a meal so having kept everyone waiting (although to be fair Jamie and Steve mucked in as always to help out) we're finally eating a bit later than planned. Very enjoyable and convivial, but we don't finish late because Steve and Nickie have to go to Winchester to pick up one of their other daughters, so Jamie and Louise head off and I go back to the yard to switch off V14, which you will recall we left running to charge up the battery.

It has gone dark while I've been away, and I now discover that we'd left all the interior lights on on V14 so while it's still running ok I wonder how much charge it will have built up! Will it have enough to start again? Find out in the morning I suppose!