9 July 2018

Pass

Hello. It's me again. Back home in sun-baked Sheffield. The lawn looks as though it belongs in the south of France - parched and yellowy. By the way, if you are thinking that that's a picture of me above you are wrong. It's just a random old fellow holding his bus pass.

Before we headed up to equally sun-baked Scotland our garden received a damned good watering and fortunately the vegetables survived seven sunny days without Farmer Pudding's intervention. Our potato plants are just about ready to dig up though I am expecting tiny tubers because we have had six weeks now without a  drop of rain. The courgettes, runner beans and French beans are all doing well but Lord knows what has happened to the peas. It's as if they haven't flowered.

The raspberry bushes in the top corner have borne hundreds of raspberries but their growth has been stunted owing to these drought conditions. We went to a fruit farm near Holmesfield yesterday afternoon but their raspberries were very sparse. When we went last year you could pick a punnet of plump and juicy raspberries in ten minutes or so. Not this year.

There was an envelope waiting for me when I got home. It contained my "senior" bus pass which means that I am now officially an old git! Now you can understand why I posted that photograph at the top of this post. The pass will entitle me to travel anywhere in England on public buses free of charge. After working at Oxfam on Wednesdays I usually catch a bus back home. Normally that ride cost me £1.20 - or £62 a year. Now that money will be saved. Strangely I won't be able to use the pass in Scotland though Scottish "seniors" can use their passes in England. Most unfair. Seniors are also not allowed to use their passes before 9.30am which suits me just fine.

If you think you have seen the last of my pictures from south west Scotland, think again. This blogpost is just a delaying tactic. More pictures for your edification tomorrow.

32 comments:

  1. So what will you spend your savings on? enquiring minds want to know

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    1. I will squander it on wine, whiskey and women.

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  2. Such fun! I think you oldies should all hog the back seat and make a lot of noise.

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    1. Quiet! Ye young whippersnapper! Show some respect. After all, I fought in World War II so that folk like you could live in freedom.

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  3. I was over the moon when I got mine. Here in London, we are lucky enough to use it not just on the buses, but also on the underground, trams and commuter railways out as far as to the M25. Of course we can use it on buses anywhere in the country too. It also gets me 50% off at my local fish and chip shop! What's not to like?

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    1. What's not to like? Why should senior Londoners still get their passes at the age of sixty when in the rest of England the age limit is moving to 65. Again - not right.

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    2. I think the rule was when you reached retirement age, which for me was 60 at the time. I just got through the net before they staggered it to 65. I was actually 60 and a half when I got mine in 2011.

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    3. I understand that in London folk can STILL get their passes at sixty but I have occasionally been known to be wrong about certain things - amazing as that might seem!

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  4. Tiny tubers from Yorkshire Pudding's garden -- it is what one would expect.

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    1. A bowl of Yorkshire pudding mixture on your bonce is what you should expect Bob!

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  5. My understanding YP is that The Scottish concessionary fare bus travel scheme operated by local authorities across Scotland can be used at any time of day anywhere in Scotland and on limited journeys across the border into England. It's not valid for journeys within England or Wales.

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    1. Thank you Graham. I stand corrected.

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  6. So now you can ride the bus round and round the city all day long. There are, unfortunately, lonely seniors that do that here. They sit on the bus from bus station to bus station or get on and off the bus at different stops.
    Greetings Maria x

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    1. Thanks for that idea Maria. Riding buses for free could become my number one hobby.

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  7. Does his mean that Clint will be able to rest more?
    Briony
    x

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    1. Clint gets plenty of rest already. As I look outside I can see him snoozing on the drive. I must do something about his snoring.

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  8. What a nice benefit. Great Britain sounds like a really good place to live...I am jealous. xx

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    1. We will have to do a life swap Jennifer. You can be a three day a week nurse and I will be the new fish man. Shirley can work in school admin while Gregg lazes around in our house tapping away on this laptop.

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    2. That sounds like a plan! Except I would make a terrible nurse and Shirley might not have a job to come home to..but aside from that...

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    3. To be a good nurse all you have to do is flutter your eyelashes at the doctors and say "Oh dear!" occasionally.

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  9. Hooray for your bus pass! How strange that English seniors can't used their passes in Scotland. That DOES seem unfair.

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    1. In Scotland it is free to park in hospital car parks but not so in England of course.

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  10. As far as I know, bus (or any public transport) passes here in Germany are not for free for senior citizens, but they do come at reduced prices. My Mum frequently uses the bus to go into town and back; she is not only a senior citizen (turning 74 next month) but also has a certain percentage of handicap since she broke her elbow about 15 years ago and has never regained 100 % usability of that arm.

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    1. Your Mum should not have volunteered to arm wrestle with her data protecting daughter.

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  11. Just in time! You can use your bus pass to haul up to London to protest the Trumpster Dumpster.

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    1. I have already hired a light aircraft so that when Trump is playing golf I can pee on him.

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  12. Congratulations on being old enough to get a senior bus pass. I'll be looking forward to the next photos.

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    1. Have you got a senior pass in Alberta Red?

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  13. My gardener father always told me that peas like cool weather, so maybe the sun is the culprit for your non-producing plants. There's always something in a garden that isn't happy with the weather!

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    1. You are right there Jenny. Some things do well while other vegetables suffer.

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  14. I have had my bus pass for 12 years and only used it once! Could have been twice but I only realised the second time round on Park 'n' Ride in Oxford!

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    1. You could have an adventure with your bus pass - see how far you can travel in a day. You would need to do some online timetable research beforehand.

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