The Pink and Blue Limo

When I first met ace-girl I was living in Ottawa. One day she was heading out into town on one of her missions. I asked if she wanted me to run her wherever she was going in the car.

I have to confess, I don't really enjoy driving around Ottawa. In winter, when it is -25C outside then the car is a nice option to have. But I know I will spend a chunk of time stuck in traffic. Plus, Ottawa is a grid system, there are traffic lights every block. But, if ace-girl is running late then again the car can be handy.

This day, she just responded, "Don't worry, I will just take the Red and White Limo."

Regular readers of this blog (if there are any! -- note to self, look into google analytics) will know that I have a bit of a thing about red and white, entirely due to the Red and White Wizards.

So my ears pricked up at the mention of red and white. I was a little concerned ace-girl seemed to be planning to take the limo to get where she wanted. Really, I would much rather run her there in the car.

She quickly put my out of my misery. The buses in Ottawa are red and white, so ace-girl just referred to them as the red and white limo.

I have always liked the bus. I grew up in Sheffield, UK at a time when the bus service was quite excellent. Being under 16 I could go anywhere in town for just 2 new pence. Adults had to pay the princely sum of 10 new pence. I would walk down to the bottom of our road and a bus would always turn up within 10 minutes or so. No need to check the timetable: the buses were often 5 minutes or so off schedule, but they were so regular that it didn't matter. Sheffield buses were Brown and Cream Limos.

Not really my favourite colour scheme, red and white would have been better, but then the blue and white half of the city might never have taken a bus. In any case, these things looked like giant ice-cream sandwiches: a block of vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two wafers.

The ride into town was always fun. I would sit upstairs, preferably at the front where you could see everything. My journey was down Abbeydale Road. It felt like you could literally find anything you wanted on Abbeydale Road. Looking out of the bus I would always notice new things. There was the cycle shop that had a penny farthing mounted above the shop window. A bit further down there was Bardwell's electronics store. This was like a little hardware store only it sold electronic components: resistors, capacitors and these new fangled things called transistors. Oh, and you could still get valves there too.

Well move on 30 or so years and I am now in Bermuda with ace-girl. Nowadays she takes the Pink and Blue Limo.

For anyone who enjoys buses, the Pink and Blue Limo has to be one of the best bus experiences in the world. First of all, the buses are pink and blue. Pink to match the sand on the beaches, blue to match the sky.

The bus stops are marked by pink or blue poles. Pink means the bus is heading in to town, blue means it is heading away from town.

I am lucky, I live at the top of a hill between South Shore and Middle Road. I can walk down to South Shore and take the 7, or I can go to Middle Road and take the 8. There is a bus every half hour, happily at my point in the island the buses are off cut by 15 minutes, the result is average waiting time should be less than 10 minutes most of the time.

I also have a moped. This is a great way to get around the island, but on occasion I head into town and end up having a couple of beers. One such occasion was last Wednesday. The Red and White Wizards were playing Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final.

The Blades are two divisions below Spurs. Just getting to this semi was quite an achievement. I headed in to town with ace-girl to watch the game.

As you can expect, for such a major fixture the bar was packed out:

I was fearing the worst. The Blades have actually been doing really well in the cups since Nigel Clough took over as manager. But after years of following the Blades I know not to get my hopes up. I really just hoped that the game wouldn't be over in 20 minutes with us 3-0 down and the prospect of a pointless game at Bramall Lane the following week. In fact, first half the blades looked in control, even had a couple of half chances.

The longer the game went on, the more I dared to hope. Spurs did get a penalty, which they scored, but the game finished 1-0. As this is two legs, the blades are just 1-0 down at half-time with the second leg due to be played in front of a sell-out crowd at the Lane. Tomorrow could be fun.

So, suffice to say, riding home on the bike was not an option. We left the bike with one of the people working in the bar. His bike was off the road due to a scary accident, happily he just had a bit of road rash and some bruises.

The next day I took the Pink and Blue Limo in to town to collect the bike. I walked down to the 7, but was sat on the wall admiring the view and looking for my ticket when the bus sailed past. Not the driver's fault, I wasn't at the actual stop. Fortunately, I had time to walk over the hill, getting there just in time to admire the view before the 8 turned up.

Bermuda bus etiquette is quite complex. The buses are smaller than normal buses and only single decker, mainly because the roads here are pretty narrow. If you are on the bus you wait until it has come to a stop before getting up from your seat to get off.

The school children always give up their seat to older people. Everyone greets the driver as they get on the bus. Usually, there are a bunch of regulars on the bus. It is Bermuda, everyone knows everyone and you see people catching up on news as they encounter friends and relatives.

I always like to get a seat by the window. On the number 7 the views of the South Shore beaches are breathtaking. On the number 8 you are inland for much of the journey, but it is never dull. You will get glimpses of the ocean, but also see lots of the wonderful coloured houses and of course all the plants and trees.

Since the hurricanes Gonzalo and Fay, back in October there has been lots more to look at. First, there was all the damage to the trees as well as some property damage. Within a couple of days everything was pretty much running as normal, but everywhere you looked there were people helping clean up. Either soldiers in the regiment, those working for the government as well as many proud Bermudians working together to get the island back on its feet.

Now the hurricanes took out a lot of trees, so now you can see things you never knew were there. The older Bermudians just smile, they have seen it before, after Fabian or Emily or Felix.

The journey is a good time to think, to slow down, experience another world that is Bermuda.

I am writing this post today in part because the Pink and Blue Limo is off the road. Unfortunately, the government here is short of money. As a result, they have been trying to reduce the wage bill.

This is coming at a time when the island is full of excitement having won the right to host the America's Cup in 2017. There is a lot of work to do to get the island ready for this. But the government is broke. And to deal with that they made an agreement with the unions to cut wages in return for days of furlough.

I don't know the ins-and-outs of it all, but the hope was this would be a temporary measure and that after a year or so the budget would begin to balance and hours would be restored.

This now doesn't look like happening and so the last two days there have been peaceful demonstrations in town in protest.

Here is hoping that all parties will get around the table and work out a solution that works for all of Bermuda and ace-girl can get back to her Pink and Blue Limo.

Oh, and if the blades could somehow pull off a miracle tomorrow, that would also be good ;)