I've been hearing the term 'social mobility' quite a lot recently and 
was loathe to admit that I had no idea what it meant. I think I do now. 
Goaded by my dear wife I used my crumblies free bus pass today to travel 
from my home village to Guildford -- a distance of about 12-miles. For 
me to travel on a bus in England is quite a novelty and I've now gotten 
out of the habit of buying things by wandering into shops and dealing 
with sales staff. I've become a dedicated mouse clicker, content to let 
White Arrow vans deliver my goods, even down to reams of paper, 
envelopes and even swimming pool chemicals because local shops have 
pulled out of that business. In Guildford one has to run the glove of 
footpads and miscreant meths-reeking ne'er-do-wells.

What surprised me were the unreal bus fares that young people have to 
pay. A woman travelling from Godalming to Guildford with two children 
had to find about a tenner for the single fare. According to my wife, 
the single fare from our village to Guildford is about GBP11! I can't 
really believe that with what we saved on petrol and parking that 
hopping on a bus for a local journey saved us about GBP50!

Shomething wrong, shurely?

Anyway, we're going to do it once a week now. Saving close on GBP200 per 
month is like getting a chunk of our council tax back. It makes life in 
this crazy Monty Python sketch a little more worthwhile. In the words of 
the Maurice Chevalier song: 'I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore'.

In Bognor the local chips and fish shop give crumblies a reduced rate 
for meals. Anymore freebies I'm missing out on?

-- 
James Follett

On 2008-06-24 00:40:33 +0100, JF  said:

> 
> I've been hearing the term 'social mobility' quite a lot recently and 
> was loathe to admit that I had no idea what it meant. I think I do now. 
> Goaded by my dear wife I used my crumblies free bus pass today to 
> travel from my home village to Guildford -- a distance of about 
> 12-miles. For me to travel on a bus in England is quite a novelty and 
> I've now gotten out of the habit of buying things by wandering into 
> shops and dealing with sales staff. I've become a dedicated mouse 
> clicker, content to let White Arrow vans deliver my goods, even down to 
> reams of paper, envelopes and even swimming pool chemicals because 
> local shops have pulled out of that business. In Guildford one has to 
> run the glove of footpads and miscreant meths-reeking ne'er-do-wells.
> 
> What surprised me were the unreal bus fares that young people have to 
> pay. A woman travelling from Godalming to Guildford with two children 
> had to find about a tenner for the single fare. According to my wife, 
> the single fare from our village to Guildford is about GBP11! I can't 
> really believe that with what we saved on petrol and parking that 
> hopping on a bus for a local journey saved us about GBP50!

Only if you drive a tank sir!

If you have to pay for buzzes they're fuggin expensive. My missus get's 
the bus to Guildford fairly often and for various bizarre reasons, it 
goes from our house, through Godalming to Guildford. It's about a fiver 
for her for a return and free for kids under some small number that's 
over three ( I have no idea, but the three year old goes free and the 
others are in school anyway).  So it's a fiver for her and the nipper...

Parking in Guildford is about £2 for two hours, my 3 litre diesel car 
does about 35 MPG, and with diesel currently being extortionately sold 
at about £6 a gallon, I'm around £3 in the hole for a return trip for 
up to 5 people.

i.e. it's almost equivalent for a short trip of 2 people for up to 2 
hours. If I add more people to the mix, it gets cheaper to go by car. 
If we stay longer, the parking goes up, but it'soly about £1 an hour, 
so no big deal.

Mind you - I think the bus fare is criminal. A fiver for one person to 
get to Guildford and back from Cranleigh area makes no sense at all. 
Its cheaper to go by car. The other stupid thing is it's almost the 
same price formy wife to go to Cranleigh as it is for her to go to 
Guildford by bus.

I still hate public transport. It's slow, expensive and doesn't go 
where, or when I need to go.


> 
> Shomething wrong, shurely?
> 
> Anyway, we're going to do it once a week now. Saving close on GBP200 
> per month is like getting a chunk of our council tax back. It makes 
> life in this crazy Monty Python sketch a little more worthwhile. In the 
> words of the Maurice Chevalier song: 'I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore'.
> 
> In Bognor the local chips and fish shop give crumblies a reduced rate 
> for meals. Anymore freebies I'm missing out on?

JF wrote:
> 
> I've been hearing the term 'social mobility' quite a lot recently and 
> was loathe to admit that I had no idea what it meant. I think I do now. 
> Goaded by my dear wife I used my crumblies free bus pass today to travel 
> from my home village to Guildford -- a distance of about 12-miles. For 
> me to travel on a bus in England is quite a novelty and I've now gotten 
> out of the habit of buying things by wandering into shops and dealing 
> with sales staff. I've become a dedicated mouse clicker, content to let 
> White Arrow vans deliver my goods, even down to reams of paper, 
> envelopes and even swimming pool chemicals because local shops have 
> pulled out of that business. In Guildford one has to run the glove of 
> footpads and miscreant meths-reeking ne'er-do-wells.
> 
> What surprised me were the unreal bus fares that young people have to 
> pay. A woman travelling from Godalming to Guildford with two children 
> had to find about a tenner for the single fare. According to my wife, 
> the single fare from our village to Guildford is about GBP11! I can't 
> really believe that with what we saved on petrol and parking that 
> hopping on a bus for a local journey saved us about GBP50!
> 

Not at 1.20 a litre it isn't.


-- 




21st Century Spazmoid Man