I’m up early today to take the Big Green Bus over to Thamesdown Transport in Swindon for a kind of ‘Spa Holiday’ for buses.

We purchased the bus almost exactly two years ago, but if the lovely people at the bus depot thought they had seen the last of it they were very mistaken! I’ve called Bob Gillespie from Thamesdown Transport on many occasions over the last couple of years. Sometimes it’s just been to ask what kind of oil the bus likes best, or to find out where to get a spare battery terminal from…..but I’ve also had to ask him if he could come out and fix a burst pipe just off the M4 on our way to Bournemouth - and to tow the bus back to Swindon from Bath after the old engine burst into flames. That was just over a year ago and resulted in us getting a lovely reconditioned engine which will hopefully outlast me!

It’s certainly been an eventful/challenging two years running this bus. As well as the times I called Bob for help, we have also experienced a broken windscreen wiper on our way back from Loughborough University (we had to attach string and manually operate it from inside the bus all the way home), an embarrassing experience with a low bridge that we hadn’t spotted on our map - and for the last few bus events of 2009 we had to allow an extra 20 minutes when we arrived at each event to dismantle the gearbox and tweak a nut so we could get reverse gear to work.

So….it’s time for a complete ‘once over’ for the Big Green Bus.  By the end of today it will be in Bob’s capable hands - and when we collect it this time next month, it will have been serviced, MOT’d, had reverse gear fixed, been fitted with a new alternator, got extra LED lights on the back (to make us more visible from behind) and hopefully Bob will have discovered why the heating doesn’t work and fixed it so we no longer need to travel with duvets and hot water bottles!

I wish someone would send me on a similar holiday for middle aged ladies!!!