The first minister of Wales had pronounced a whole raft of instructions and guidance on how to spend Christmas and New Year safely. In of a few people . Not allowed to watch football. Not going out to celebrate New Year . Nightclubs closed . . But across the border just a stones throw away Boris had allowed everyone a free rein to enjoy themselves . We could have listened to the first minister and stayed locked up . But this time we had had enough. We were fed up of being forced to stay in. It was time to spread our wings and rebel.
On the buses - that is the clue to how we spent the day. Did you watch Reg Varney all those years ago in the rather corny On the buses . He was a clippy on the buses working on London bus services and the show followed his misadventures and love life . Perhaps you watched Summer Holiday with Cliff Richards driving a red London Bus on a long holiday .
those old buses . A few weeks ago I had spotted in a magazine a list of things to do over the holiday period . Angels at St Giles Church in Wrexham - ticked that box twice . Wrexham Victorian market - an interesting night out in town with its fairground . Christmas trees lit up at Gresford Church - missed that one because of the restrictions . And then there was the Heritage bus day organised to raise funds for the local hospices in Wrexham and Chester.
. The event had been organised for last year and the first minister had effectively shut it down then when he closed Wales down . The hospice had lost out on much needed funds .The First minister in his wisdom had done his best to do the same today . . I spent all of yesterday trying to find out if the event was indeed going to be on or cancelled . I asked at the swimming baths in the hope that someone knew something . I began to think that I had dreamed the whole thing until someone mentioned that they had seen a poster about it . Someone else
It turned out that the original event was starting in Wrexham bus station where all the buses would start out . They would line up and give us the opportunity to give them the once over . They would then run ever ten minutes to Chester bus station and back . However due to the welsh restrictions the event organisers had to work very quickly to find somewhere else to run the event from . It was in danger of being cancelled again . That would have been a travesty .
Chester Railway station and the Chester Park and Ride came to the rescue . The event was quickly moved over the border into England . The buses would line up at the Park and Ride and from there one bus would head back to Wrexham and the other head for Chester. The first bus would leave for Chester at 9.38 so we headed off across the border to get to the Park and Ride to travel on the first bus . We heard that
instead of buses leaving every ten minutes they would instead run every half hour . That was better than nothing we thought .
We were surprised just how empty the massive car park was . It looked a very overgrown and unloved park and ride . There were height barriers up but it seemed if we rang beforehand they would raise the barriers for high sided vehicles . Today though there were no staff on duty . Perhaps many thought that the event was cancelled and had not turned up. Thankyou First Minister for denying the hospices much needed funds . A few cars were parked up and as we walked over to the parked up buses we could see the drivers hanging about waiting for passengers . There were a number of anorak wearing men with cameras . They reminded us of train spotters who stood on bridges waiting for a named train along . They talked amongst themselves about the gear changes in the buses , the colours of the buses and asked which museum the bus from .
good condition. Some from private collections and others from local transport museums. The volunteer drivers must have enjoyed bringing the old girls out for a much needed drive on the public roads . They had all gone through the routes yesterday .
