And so, last night was our end of rotations meal. With 14 girls going out to terrorise a local eatery, we decided to borrow the college’s minibus for the evening. Luckily one of our number had given up alcohol for lent, and so was the self-appointed designated driver. We gave ourselves 45 minutes to pick up three sets of people and travel to the restaurant that was about 15 minutes away.
And so we set off, with 5 in the bus and the wheels going round and round. We dropped 1 off to fetch 4 others from their house when we get a call that a previously unsure member had decided to come. So abandoning the 1+4 we drove back to pick up the unsure 1, before doubling back again to get the waiting 5. 1 was ill so we only took 4. Then, with 9 in the bus we drove to the High Street to get another 2. However, the one route into the High Street was blocked with a broken down bus in the middle of the traffic lights. Whilst queuing, gear 1 disappeared and we had to being doing hill starts in gear 2. We eventually (after about 15 minutes) bullied our way through (being for once bigger than most other vehicles) and got to pick up the 2. We then tried to pull out onto the busy High Street and promptly stalled, sideways on blocking both lanes. Tried to start it, no joy. The only choice was to let the bus roll backwards and try starting gently (whilst trying not to flood it) from the turning we were coming out of. Eventually it started, and we pulled off in gear 2 again to start the next leg – to pick up the last 2. On driving into the drive of the last 2’s farm and trying to turn around the bus found itself facing uphill on the drive with 13 girls in it and all 4 gears disappeared in protest. De-girling the bus worked for some reason and gear 2 was found again. We trundled off and all 13 made it to the eatery in a snappy hour and a quarter!
The meal itself was good although the service was appalling. Well, the service was ok, food was hot and fast, but the woman serving wouldn’t know a smile or common courtesy if it slapped her in the face. We felt most unwelcome and I shan’t be going there again. I’m borderline thinking of writing to them to inform them of the effect that rudeness can have – 13 people were irritated and bad news travels much further than good. However, the company was brilliant as we like each other a lot, and the relatively uneventful drive home in a bus of 12 tipsy and 1 sober girls singing “The wheels on the bus go round and round” loudly was good fun 😉
I have a good rotation group 🙂 We rock 🙂
