On Friday I went out to lunch with a couple of old friends, as I’ve probably explained already. While I was in Manchester I popped into my hairdresser’s to make an appointment. I’ve been planning to phone for an appointment for at least the last two weeks and so, as I was going past, I decided it would be a good idea to do so in person. I hesitated about accepting a 10 ‘o’ clock appointment for today but in the end decided I could do it. So I got up rather earlier than usual this morning and was down at the bus stop on the corner in time for an early bus. Quite efficient, I thought. That’s when the trouble began.
I saw my bus head up the slope into the village where it would turn around and come back down before taking the turn towards Oldham, where I could catch the tram to Manchester. It went up but it never came back down. Two local school buses went past, not heading my way. An inappropriate bus bus to Diggle went past. The bus to Ashton (wrong direction) came and went. I stood at the bus stop in the rain for a good twenty minutes. The next bus to Ashton went up into the village to do it’s turn-around. When it came back down I asked the driver if there was a problem with buses to Oldham. Well, it turned out that the one that never came down was sitting, broken down, in the village. I was persuaded that it would be a good idea to get on the Ashton bus, get off in Uppermill and catch a different bus tomOldham, one that was supposed to run every five or ten minutes. A mistake!
Arriving in Uppermill, I discovered the next bus to Oldham would be in 15 minutes time. I should have waited for the next Delph - Oldham bus. It was too late for that now. Eventually I reached the tram stop in Oldham, just in time to see a tram disappearing. No problem! They usually run every 7 minutes. Or so I thought. Another misconception!
The next tram came some 12 minutes later. I phoned my hairdresser and explained that I would be maybe 10 minutes late. That was not quite the end of the story of mishaps!
Because of a cracked rail outside Manchester Victoria station my tram was not going to the stop closest to my hairdresser’s but taking a detour. So I alighted (alit?) at Victoria and marched quickly from there to the centre. All was well. I got there in the end. And they weren’t so busy that my late arrival was a problem. Phew!
Hair sorted, a bit of shopping done, I caught a tram homewards. The rainy morning had turned into a fine, almost sunny afternoon. i travelled back to Oldham on a tram full of very well-behaved, quite excited (apart from some who had fallen asleep) children, probably 6 to 7 year olds by the size of them. They told me they had been to the Museum of Science and Industry and had had a very good day. Most of them were Asians, so they spoke also about Ramadan and what good things they hoped to eat when they broken their fast this afternoon.
These were not terrorists!
Neither I suspect were most of those killed, injured or arrested when Israeli forces attacked Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis – at the time the largest functioning hospital in the Palestinian territory – beginning on the 15th of February. Apparently our government is asking for an explanation! Quite so!
Maybe the protests by the many thugs and terrorists around the UK have been having an effect.
A different kind of protest is going to take place next weekend. “Hundreds of people are expected at a mass trespass of Cirencester Park in protest against the introduction of charges and electronic gates for pedestrians and joggers.” The ‘Right to Roam” campaign is organising the mass trespass, a grand old tradition for preventing the enclosure of land. Imagine having grown up playing the park and now discovering that it will cost you several pounds to get in, even of only to jog through it. That could make a family walk cost £20 before you even get started! Keep on protesting! say I!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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