Kilted bus driving

[cessna152towser]

As many of you already know I retired from the legal profession last October and have been doing a course with a view to obtaining a Bus Driver Certificate of Professional Competence. The course leads to an NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) level 2 and after passing all the class and theory work in Modules 1 and 2 earlier this year I moved on to Module 3 which is the practical driving. Today I passed the driving test on this old troop transport, a forty passenger Dennis Javelin which served with the British military from 1992 to 2008. This enables me to add buses to my driving licence. After my holiday I will go back and do Module 4 which deals with passenger safety and comfort and loading passenger luggage etc. Then I can look for paid driving work. I'd love to drive the Scottish tour buses but initially I'd like to gain experience by driving small local buses.

Here I have posed the bus at the border bridge over the River Sark between Scotland and England at Springfield near Gretna Green. The rail line in the background is the West Coast Main Line towards Carlisle and London (left) or towards Glasgow and Edinburgh (right)