It's a long way by bus (2)

On April 12, we took bus No. 45 from Naxxar Road in Birkirkara to Ċirkewwa. It was 8.05 a.m., and the roads were practically empty but I noticed that the driver was going at a snail's pace and when he stopped at a bus stop it took him ages to engage gear and get moving again.

Then it dawned on me that sitting on his left was a fellow bus driver with whom he seemed to be having a very interesting conversation. So instead of looking straight out of the windscreen, our bus driver was addressing the other driver and consequently looking to his left and not straight ahead.

The conversation seemed to be never-ending and so it came as a relief when the ticket inspector boarded the bus in St Paul's Bay. I thought that now this nonsense would end as there was an officer on the bus and impose some discipline. But how wrong I was! After checking half the tickets the inspector sat right behind the driver and made it a threesome. He joined in the conversation and now it got worse for the driver, as he had to turn his head backwards to acknowledge the inspector as well! This went on until we reached Mellieha when the inspector finally left the bus with the other driver having left a couple of stops before.

It took us a good hour to make it to Ċirkewwa on this Saturday morning with hardly any traffic and with only a couple of stops.

Needless to say the driver has to be relaxed when driving, especially in such difficult situations and so a cigarette on the way was not uncalled for and only to be expected; why not?