Summer isn't Fun for Online Writers

Unfortunately we've not had the best weather since the weekend. At the rugby 7s the boys on the pitch had to deal with on-off showers. Saturday they would have had the torrential downpours that we kept getting (I was an hour out that day at Loch Lomond. I'm not sure what it's been like across at Edinburgh and Dundee.

It would be brilliant if there wasn't so much disruption. From talking to people who live in London, it sounds so much worse than the London Olympics was two years ago. But I wonder if that's because London is already so used to the volume of people in and out of the city every day.

We just had the Tour de France come through Cambridge earlier this month. I had the day off, as my friend was here to watch it with us. But working in a large hospital, you can imagine the planning which had to take place, as well as the moaning from those staff who really didn't want to be on the roadside watching but would rather have been at work. (Funny people, says this cycling nut.)

So yes, I definitely know about disruption for sporting events. I have the TV coverage of the Games at the moment and I have to say it's been a really good week so far in terms of sport.

And now please spare a thought for me.  I'm tempted to say you don't know disruption when I think of the Pop Festival here in June which brings about 600,000 for a week-end of camping and carousing.  Shops are emptied on Thursday afternoon and Friday as, of course, everyone shops when they get here, the ferries and hovercrafts are leaving half-hourly packed to the gills, fun for those coming to enjoy the Festival but not so much fun for the commuters who arrive tired at the harbour and maybe have to wait two hours in a queue (no, no advantages for locals).  Then we have the annual Cycle the Island (good natured but perilous on our narrow roads), the Scooter Rally races (ditto) and the Motor-cyclists' Week-end, and next up is Bestival.   Worst time was two years ago when the Rolling Stones commandeered the ferries for their equipment and left hundreds of people behind. 

But hey!  We all like it.  People are usually well behaved and as the Pop Festival is our main claim to fame here we hope it will keep going.

The main issues of summer for me are examination marking, which sucks up my mental energy, but provides an income, and gardening. I don't write much when I am marking, but I can balance writing and gardening.

We've had the same disruption for locals who don't get to jump any queues, even if it will make them late for work. They've put on half-hourly trains on a Sunday instead of the hourly ones but weekdays and Saturdays have had no change, except in delays and randomly cancelled trains with no notice at all. When my husband is having to call me to pick him up because they don't know when the next train will be and there are no alternate services put on because everywhere else is having problems, then it is major disruption. It's causing me disruption and I don't even commute to work!

I really feel for those of you who have it on a regular basis though. This is going to end once the games have finished and we'll be back to our normal (not-so-great) service. We don't have any issues like yours with the Pop Festival, but it does help that we don't have to take ferries anywhere.

A rainshower in this neck of the woods is enough to cause our bus services to go into meltdown.

We had a sudden cloudburst earlier which sent the buses scurrying for cover and the tourists who wanted to get home on the other loop of our service were wet and disgruntled. I was also wet and disgruntled as we had a very full single decker bus, with a buggy, a suitcase, several elderlies and a bunch of standing passengers.

(Why is there ALWAYS a buggy on the buses which are not big enough for it?!)

I have told our service 'provider' until I am blue in the face that we need double deckers on the rush hour services. I may as well be shouting into a black hole...

My sister has just arrived from Sweden where she lives, and guess what, it's just the same there!