Catching up

One of the (nice) problems I have had since taking redundancy is the number of people who'd like to keep in touch with me.  I don't live in the city in which I used to work and it costs nearly £5 to catch the bus into town to meet up with people (and can take a 2 hour round trip).  I haven't yet managed to arrange to meet more than one person on each occasion but I will try and change this next year.  I really struggle to fit people in and manage my budget so some people are getting met less and less as time passes.  I also understand that people who are working only have an hour for lunch but when it takes me 2 hours to get in and out and they then rush off after 45 minutes it does start to annoy me.

One friend, A, always meets me on a Friday afternoon.  We have a late lunch, share a bottle of wine, lots of laughter and have a lovely catch up.  It's great and I appreciate that she takes a few hours off of work (thanks A) and we stay late before I leg it for a bus home.

The 2 of us before too much wine.

My direct bus home stops at 6.20 pm.  I live in a neighbouring city, a mere 9 miles from Leeds to Home but I can't easily get home after 6.20pm!!!!!!  I end up having to catch another bus and then stand on a street corner and catch another bus to get home.  It's not too bad for 6 months of the year as I can catch many different options of the 2nd bus, but for the other 6 months when the bus timetable changes I miss all the 2nd buses and have a 30 minute wait in a quiet place to finally get home.

On Friday night I had a revelation (and I can't believe it's taken so long, about 11 years).  There is a completely different bus which I can catch from Leeds directly to my home and if I plan it properly I will only need the one bus ticket (it's a different bus company to the usual one).

Taking a phone call when in company - so rude!

Would you believe it's water?