Un groupe international

A couple of months ago we were strolling along the narrow streets of Gigondas, in Provence, when the local school bus was held up by an illegally parked car. We could probably have continued our promenade, but instead we paused on the pavement to take in the accompanying drama i.e. the driver's display of Gallic indignation.

This allowed my companion to notice the Trans-Dev logo on the side of the bus, which very logo, he announced, had recently appeared on the 65, alongside the familiar brand mark of London United.

C'est vrai. Read about it here, en anglais or here, in Another.

Grumblestiltskin

I spend a lot of time grumbling at bus stops, not that I always initiate the dissent. I chime in, as I am wont, with my own little take on the current moan. Not that there's that much to moan about post-Stagecoach, but we can always rustle up something, like the fact that the first line of the bus display is missing, and so all you can declare with confidence about the arrival time of the next bus, is that it will arrive in anything up to the time predicted for the second. Following a minimal rant recently, I was advised by a fellow bench percher, to subscribe to KATA. I thought he said 'Carter' originally, but then I remembered that a couple of years back, in the days before I reduced my subscriptions to almost none, subscribe to it myself for a year. Apparently a new improved system is on the way. I think I'll have to look out for a KATA update at the library. Cheaper than £5 p.a. for a measly few sheets of A4 at patchy intervals. And why is it that I'm at my most pedagogic at bus stops? Yesterday I pointed out the location of the bus stop number to a fellow stopper. I was sick yesterday, mind you, and conscious of my mortality so I look on it as a valiant, if failed, attempt to transfer the meddling baton. But don't I do that rather a lot....?

The world in one bus

Is the dearth of London bus blogs an indication of “Mrs Thatcher’s put-down"? “Any man who finds himself on a bus after the age of 30 can count himself a failure in life.”

In what context did she come out on this? And did she use 'man' in the generic sense, or did she deem women to be exempt from her pronouncement? And the new Europeans who, at times, seem to be the majority, at least on the upper deck. Do they escape this kind of judgement, which prevails as far out as Claygate, of all places. Mind you, given that they're afflicted with the K3, one of the great unloved routes of London, perhaps I'll spare the residents of Claygate further humiliation.

I’ve been absolutely fascinated by the Guardian’s atlas of multicultural Britain. They published a similar map of London a year ago, though it’s tantalisingly unrevealing in terms of analysing the current immigration wave.

Speaking as a pre-twirly, who flirts with the 65 practically every day of the week, I can vouch for the number of new Europeans who travel on it. On the upper deck, there is rarely a journey that you don’t hear people chatting away in one of the Slavic languages. With Ealing and Acton constituting something of a Polish hub in West London, the 65 is the route south, for immigrants wanting to earn or spend or party. Plus, from the top deck, there can be few bus routes that trump the 65 for “scenic” with its intimate views over the walled gardens of Petersham.