Public Transport Will Be The Death Of Me
Oct. 9th, 2005 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
r_scribblesLovely weekend away at Al & Kitty's in East Dulwich. Lots of booze, chatting, Halo 2, Myasaki, Kitty's Famous Chilli Chocolate Pudding :) Slighty marred by the long and bizzaire journey home. Having paid our £1.20 to get a bus to East Dulwich Train Station (it costs £1.20 to get a bus anywhere from East Dulwich, whether it's just down the road or Victoria Staion... weird...) two stops along the driver gets out and goes on the phone. There's an indicator out so we'd all have to wait for an engineer. Since we don't know how long that'll be, we decide to walk. Tis a nice day and we're in no particular hurry, so the forty minute walk isn't too bad, even though we miss the train and had to get the next one. But of course there was nobody at the ticket kiosk and the automatic machine was broken so we all had to queue up at London Bridge to buy a ticket in order to get out. Quick fast food lunch (at 4pm... it had been a very lazy day) and a wander along the South Bank, pointing at the Gherkin and the HMS Belfast. Nice. And the train home was OK, but we had to go to Canterbury West since the trains to Canters East were all cocked because it's a Sunday.
So... walking home through Westgate, quarter to 7 on a Sunday night... just crossing the street when Hubby points at a bus going past, says 'That doesn't look good.' We see that the bus looks like it's had a bit of a prang. it's all scraped on one side. Ho well, Canters is full of tight squeezes... but then the bus goes straight over the roundabout and down a dead end street. As we pass on the pavement behind it, it begins to reverse, into the stream of traffic trying to use the mini roundabout.
Hubs: 'What's he doing?'
Me: (watching the bus continue to reverse towards us, but more immediately towards a passing car) 'I dunno, but it looks like a recipe for disaster...'
Suddenly, instincts kick in. This ain't right. Bus doesn't look like it's going to stop. We start to run. Bus continues to reverse straight over roundabout and into pavement railings. And doesn't stop. Bus continues to impale itself on the railings where we had just been standing. Crowd gathers as blantanly pissed bus thief attempts for a good couple of minutes to free the now utterly fucked Double Decker from the railings. Hubby phones police. Bus Thief strolls off, unfluttered as passer-by wisely switches off ignition (bus is now leaking dodgy-looking substance). Despite fact that when Hubs called, Thief was still on the scene (in the bus!) and Rozzers who have their station but a minute's fast drive up the ringroad were informed of this and the dodgy leak, it still took them a good quarter of an hour to turn up.
Hubby still at station, Helping With Enquiries.
It's all very exciting!
Also giving big 'Whoop's out to Sealy for getting the piccies and Ch2 of LiB up despite Techy issues and Sharelle for her poster and icon, which I shall nick just as soon as I've worked out how.
So... walking home through Westgate, quarter to 7 on a Sunday night... just crossing the street when Hubby points at a bus going past, says 'That doesn't look good.' We see that the bus looks like it's had a bit of a prang. it's all scraped on one side. Ho well, Canters is full of tight squeezes... but then the bus goes straight over the roundabout and down a dead end street. As we pass on the pavement behind it, it begins to reverse, into the stream of traffic trying to use the mini roundabout.
Hubs: 'What's he doing?'
Me: (watching the bus continue to reverse towards us, but more immediately towards a passing car) 'I dunno, but it looks like a recipe for disaster...'
Suddenly, instincts kick in. This ain't right. Bus doesn't look like it's going to stop. We start to run. Bus continues to reverse straight over roundabout and into pavement railings. And doesn't stop. Bus continues to impale itself on the railings where we had just been standing. Crowd gathers as blantanly pissed bus thief attempts for a good couple of minutes to free the now utterly fucked Double Decker from the railings. Hubby phones police. Bus Thief strolls off, unfluttered as passer-by wisely switches off ignition (bus is now leaking dodgy-looking substance). Despite fact that when Hubs called, Thief was still on the scene (in the bus!) and Rozzers who have their station but a minute's fast drive up the ringroad were informed of this and the dodgy leak, it still took them a good quarter of an hour to turn up.
Hubby still at station, Helping With Enquiries.
It's all very exciting!
Also giving big 'Whoop's out to Sealy for getting the piccies and Ch2 of LiB up despite Techy issues and Sharelle for her poster and icon, which I shall nick just as soon as I've worked out how.
