More Bus Fuss

Clearly I'm a bit of an idiot or rather perhaps I'm a complete idiot as once again I opted to go to Kettering on the X4. Now this service used to be fairly reliable but in recent months it has become something off a joke though not a very funny one. With a time table that must have a realistic chance of winning the Man Booker prize it's become something of a gamble as to whether your bus will turn up at all never mind late. 

Today's adventure began at five to eight when I got on a bus in the Old Village before getting off again at the town centre. A mere thirty minutes later a bus did eventually arrive and a hoard of annoyed passengers shuffled aboard. Some time later as we finally stopped in Kettering town centre the driver asked us to leave this particular bus and board another. So disembarking into the rain we had a nice little queue going on amongst ourselves before everyone managed to squeeze aboard. Just ninety minutes after I began my odyssey I finally arrived at my destination, in round about the same time it would have taken to get to Hunstanton in a car. There's very little point in Stagecoach trumpeting its massive investment on a new fleet of buses if the service is either hugely late or simply doesn't turn up. They might as well promise everyone their own personal unicorn to ride, on more than one recent occasion that has certainly seemed a more realistic prospect than Stagecoach running a competent and punctual bus service! I feel an official complaint coming on but looking on the bright side at least I'm not relying on it for work or school.

Barely worth the effort, Wicksteed Park.

Now that I've got that off my chest the question is whether my horrendous journey was worth all the trouble and the short answer is no. My walk around a rainy Wicksteed Park did not produce much of note with the Chiffchaff still feeding in the willows around the fishing lake and brief views of a Kingfisher. Few diving duck present with single figures of Tufted Duck and nothing else. Quite a few more dabblers with good numbers of Mallard, Gadwall and Shoveller and a few Teal too. A male Sparrowhawk alarmed some Blue Tits but that was it. As the forecast showers appeared to have merged into one sustained bout of rain I gave up and headed back into town for breakfast. Imagine my delight when the sun came out just as I was sitting down in the Earl of Dalkeith, perhaps I should start looking into taking up a new hobby. Anyone for brass rubbing?