This weekend I get to play with my ultimate boy's toy
Yes, it’s the annual Isle of Wight Beer & Buses weekend.
More than 70 vintage buses will be travelling to all four corners of the island from Ryde and Newport, taking in some fantastic real ale pubs and stunning scenery along the way.
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Hide AdLast year this event proved so popular that this time more buses have been drafted in to shift the crowds.
There will be more vintage buses running than what the island’s bus company needs to operate its normal services. That’s some feat.
I co-own a 1973 Bristol VRT with Cosham transport historian Richard Newman. She’s a 70-seat double-decker and is the same type of vehicle that Southdown used in and around Portsmouth in the 1970s and 1980s. I bet many of you caught one to work or school.
At the back beats an 11-litre Gardner engine. She is British through and through. Her bodywork was built in Lowestoft, chassis in Bristol, engine in Manchester and gearbox in Coventry. She will do nine miles to the gallon.
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Hide AdI start driving at 10am on Saturday and she will travel all over the island, taking in Newport, Cowes,Ventnor, Shanklin and Sandown. I will finish at 8pm.
The day is such fun. My bus will leave full as I drop off real ale lovers at different pubs, but the bus enthusiasts will stay on until the bitter end.
As the day draws on, my passengers get louder and louder. The laughter booms around the bus and then the singing starts.
By 8pm, most are sloshed but have had a fantastic day. That’s what I love about real ale drinkers.
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Hide AdThe oldest bus running will be from the 1930s. Buses that ran for Southdown, Provincial and Portsmouth City Transport will also make the journey over to the island.
Just Google IOW Beer & Buses to get all the info.
Bus trips are free, but a guide will set you back £6.
And if you want a ride on my bus, it’s yellow and blue and has Solent Blue Line across the side.
She’s clean too, I washed her today!
I FEEL GUILTY WATCHING THEM, KNOWING I SHOULD BE DOING IT
I wonder if I’m the only person who feels guilty sat in my car whilst someone else cleans it?
These £5 hand-wash services have popped up all over the place and I think they are great.
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Hide AdMuch better than a similarly-priced automatic car wash that will scratch your paint.
But watching them beaver away, I feel guilty knowing that I really should be doing it.
Washing the car is a Sunday morning pastime for a man. It’s good exercise and is the closest thing I will get to pilates!
Then there is the satisfaction you get when you look back at your gleaming car.
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Hide AdSo as you stare at your mobile whilst others do your dirty work, think of the calories you could be burning.
THERE IS SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT CUEING UP A RECORD
Hopefully you won’t have noticed, but we’ve had a new playout system installed at Wave 105.
Today, music is usually played from one computer. It does everything.
But this new system is different. It’s like getting into a new car but the accelerator, brake and clutch are in different places and the order of the gears has been changed!
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Hide AdI’d like to go back to the days when I started. Two turntables, two CD players and 10 eight-track cartridge machines all stacked up.
That’s proper radio, juggling records, CDs and carts during your show, not clicking a mouse.
There is something special about cueing up a record to play.
If you hear silence on my show, you will now know I hit the brake by mistake!