Used my bus pass for the first time yesterday. A week ago, we pranged the car – not seriously, no damage done to us – and it has been taken away for inspection. Until the insurance company decides what to do, we are carless. So it was off on the bus I went hey-ho.
I had assumed that you merely flashed the pass at the driver as you scurried aboard. But no – I was hauled up short and told to put my card on top of a card-reader; I hadn’t noticed it, but the card has a tiny chip embedded in the plastic. Going to town? I was asked – like everybody else on the bus, I was, so that hardly needed saying. Going back, I had the same driver – I started to tell him where I was going, but he said it for me; the bus drivers around here know everybody, where they live and where they usually go. As do most of their fellow passengers – the local bus quite the club in these rural parts.
So, here I am, joining the oldies’ club at last.