Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Chasing the bus with the neighbour

It was the little things this morning.  Helping Toby learn to tie a tie; sorting the rubbish out; going back for that last bag of rubbish; saying hello to the landscaper and showing amazement that we could see blue sky; getting the landscaper to move his truck.  All that used up a 5 minute chunk of time that turned out to be crucial.

Juliette, the neighbour was just leaving and she offered to run us to the bus stop.  I hesitated but thought, 'Sure!  Angela doesn't need the car this afternoon so we may's well.  And there's plenty of time.'  But alas, a minute after she parked on the street beside the library bus stop, the fateful white shape loomed on the road.  Toby's bus, free from the need to pick up senior students and running 5 minutes early itself.

We ran futilely down the hill to watch it pull away.  What to do now?  No car to chase the bus.  Yingjie was parking up and looked on helplessly.  But Juliette appeared.  'Jump in, let's chase it,' she said.  And off we hurtled.

Being less experienced at bus chasing than seasoned professionals like Yingjie and myself, Juliette stayed on the main road and didn't swerve and weave down the rat run that sometimes lets you get ahead of the bus for the next stop.  But she did well.  We pulled in behind it but missed it by seconds.  'That's ok, there's that stop where the minister's son gets on,' she said.  Seems she is well versed in the Scots bus route!  A bit of deft lane changes and we got in front of the bus just as it was pulling in.  Toby leapt out and onto his bus.  Crisis deftly averted!  And thankyou Juliette for all the driving around.

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