Friday 30 September 2011

A weekend to treasure

Last weekend saw me take a 98.2 mile north-easterly course.

Naturally, the destination was Arbroath. As for the occasion; an annual weekend away with the youth group from the church I attend.

The idea is that the 40 or so young folk, aged between 15 to late 20s, can spend a worthwhile and enjoyable weekend in one another’s company. Time to relax, afternoons to explore the local area, opportunities to get to know people, sessions to consider the relevance of the Bible, junctures to eat good food…… and we managed to squeeze in some sleep too.

On the Saturday we opted for a Tay Bridge traverse towards St Andrews. Our two points of interest there were the renowned Janettas ice cream parlour and the Himalayas putting course, both of which suited the gloriously sunny day down to a tee. For the former, I can recommend a double wafer cone with tablet flavour ice cream. As for the latter, I’d encourage you to, at the very least, play well at Hole 14 where diners at an overlooking restaurant window can’t help but laugh or cry with you.

‘Minute to Win It’ was the game show imitation of choice as we played out our own Saturday night entertainment back in Arbroath. A hilarious boys versus girls battle ensued during challenges whose bizarre titles included Ready Spaghetti, Extreme Hanky Panky, and Tea Party. The girls won so let’s move on.

If you thought putting in St Andrews sounded dangerous, then you better turn away while I briefly recount the Arbroath cliff walk we indulged on when Sunday afternoon arrived. While sauntering ropeless along a man-made, level, metre-wide path, there definitely were moments when I chastised my adrenaline junkie nature. It’s going to land me in a tight spot one of these days.

At three seperate half hour points over the weekend, a 30-something speaker called Mark Fyfe, who works at Abernethy Outdoor Centre, referred to various parts of the Bible as he prompted us to reflect on what our true ‘treasure’ is in life. What do we value most? Money? Career? Image? Relationships? Possessions? We evaluated how much worth each of these ‘treasures’ carries in the grand scheme of things, and looked at why Jesus Christ merits being prioritised ahead of each and every one of them.

I’ll close with a pertinent quote from C.T. Studd: “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Thursday 22 September 2011

My first Firstbus bus card

So what’s better? Firstbus or Scotrail? There was only one way to find out…

Fight? No. I had to try them both.

My opening week as a MA Multimedia Journalism student was compounded with the weighty decision of deciding what means of transport would best cater for my needs over the next year.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I opted for rail travel.

This meant a ten minute walk to Cathcart train station. The stroll was fairly straightforward, granted an awareness was maintained as to the ongoing possibility of pavement-side puddle splashes from buses travelling along the main road. (Please note that any other potential routes to Cathcart station were ruled out instantly on the basis that they were non-newsagent passing)

Rain fell heavily on the Monday morning, and despite being miserably umbrella-less, I tried not to let that cloud my judgement at such an early stage of the decision making process.

Superlatives were not required to describe the station – it doesn’t try to be something it’s not. Clientele were largely standard, although certain individuals in the fairly numerous group of teenage school children waiting on the 8:10am to Queens Park did tend to make a nuisance of themselves – I’m not one for ‘tig’ on the platform, perhaps in days gone by.

The driver did an sterling job of keeping the locomotive on the tracks each day and the ticket officer did not let an uninspiring manner hold her back from checking zone-cards and traversing carriages.

Well cushioned seats made the going ’soft to good’ for newspaper reading.

All in, rail travel had served me well and I would have no problem supplying a reasonably positive reference to someone else in my position.

So then, to Thursday and Friday.

In honesty, bus travel was starting on the front foot in relation to my transport experiment, simply due to a lower ten-week card price than the train. However, there are some public travel factors money can’t buy, so Firstbus would still undergo a rigorous and fair assessment.

Realising I could basically do a three point pivot from flat, to newsagent, to bus stop was a noteworthy observation, as was the fact that on boarding the number 44 bus, I had completed the beneficial metamorphosis of ’splashed’ to ’splasher’.

As would be expected, the going was not so good on the bus, which was securely in the ‘firm’ bracket. Nevertheless, this did not impede on my ability to deal with unreplied texts and absorb part of the i newspaper.

I was keen to see the extent to which the bus filled with passengers as the journey progressed. It transpired that occupation of the top floor of the double decker, where I was, plateaued at approximately 75% capacity. Therefore I reckoned a decent chance of a double seat to myself for the duration should always exist.

Alas, on the basis of the close proximity bus stop and a significantly cheaper ten-week ticket, I was content to part with £80 for my first Firstbus bus card.

The acquisition of this physical bus card has had other unforeseen perks. How refreshing and foolproof a motion it is to quickly show the driver a bus card to gain access to the vehicle, in comparison to trying to explain where you want to go and fiddling about for the correct change.

Also, the bus card does have a touch of the L.A.P.D. police badges about it, and to date I am feeling like I walk the mean streets of Glasgow with slightly enhanced authority.

At least I can focus properly on university now….