(30 Jan 2016, 5:33 pm)Jimmi Did not enjoy that bus tour I went on today.

Half of the things planned for the day got dropped and we got a pointless 15 minute break for Wetherspoons in Bedlington where we waited about 5 minutes before walking out as no-one got served, then then we got to spend over an hour lingering round the bleeding MetroCentre. I paid £15 for this displeasure, now on the X22 back to Durham.

I'm never doing another one of these trips again! Feel totally conned and felt like I have wasted my money and my day.

(30 Jan 2016, 5:40 pm)R852 PRG I decided not to attend the trip, as I feared the itinerary would just go out of the window and stuff would get dropped or time would be forgotten about. Were there any positives to be drawn from it?

(30 Jan 2016, 5:48 pm)Jimmi Only positives were I have photos of certain buses belonging to the companies we actually visited, which no doubt will receive zero intrest as these things often do on my Flickr, so I may take a half arsed approach to uploading them, no cropping or owt.

I actually did a similar sort of tour round the North East about two years back and that was the exact opposite of today, we got everything that was advertised and even got an additional bus which wasn't advertised and we got more out of the day and it costed a damn sight less as well.

(30 Jan 2016, 5:50 pm)R852 PRG What were the numbers on today's tour like? Am I right in suggesting the guy who organised it isn't from the region?

(30 Jan 2016, 5:56 pm)Jimmi Think him and a load of others came up from Sheffield way or somewhere. Think there must have been around 20 odd people all together. The North East enthusiasts seem to comprise of myself, Tommy and Biglugs and I think that may have been it. Biglugs didn't seem to rejoin us after the hours break at the MetroCentre.

(30 Jan 2016, 5:59 pm)R852 PRG So what did you actually end up doing, and not doing? Can remember Biglugs attended the NNRG running day in September as well.

(30 Jan 2016, 9:03 pm)GX03 SVC What a load of bollocks that tour was. I arrived back in Ashington no later that 2020, after spending three hours at both MetroCentre and Morpeth doing fuck all.

Jesus. I was going to choke on one of Primrose's Tigers. A very strong smell of smoke and petrol since we boarded.

And the people on board never stopped talking about bloody buses! I'm sick of buses after today!

(30 Jan 2016, 10:47 pm)BusLoverMum Aversion therapy!

(30 Jan 2016, 11:03 pm)GX03 SVC Jimmi probably thought he had landed with Karl Pilkington for the whole day with the amount of cursing and moans that were being produced.

If having a Vario on the tour was stressful enough...Crapital FM was being played!

(30 Jan 2016, 11:07 pm)Jimmi I certainly got my fair share of moaning in, especially on that journey where the legroom was pitiful, gave me horror flashbacks to Arriva's X---GGO Darts.

(31 Jan 2016, 1:27 am)GMitchelhill Had a feeling it wouldn't go well with this tour.

I refused to do anymore bus tours with this organiser as a few years ago he set up a decoy page to poach people (and sabotage) another tour organised by a rival enthusiast. I was actually planning on attending this rivals tour because it was using ex GNE Olympians and double checking the details I noticed the tour I was going on went missing from the page, turn out the set up similar blog page to misguide people to his tour.

As for the person turning up late each time. They didn't have a dog by chance and a Newcastle United hat on.

(31 Jan 2016, 12:52 pm)GMitchelhill Rowells I believe is now owned by the same people as Primrose

(31 Jan 2016, 2:36 pm)GX03 SVC There's nothing to feel bad for Jimmi, about me having a bad day. There was poor organising on my part too for not planning, not like I could as I was never given a return time to MetroCentre...

I had to choose the quickest way to MetroCentre as possible, and that meant going via Morpeth and using rail. On return, the plan went badly wrong and left me stranded at both MetroCentre and Morpeth for hours.

The bloke who kept turning up to the stop late, despite being given the departure times, was wearing a camo jacket and was bald and big of build.

Before departure at MetroCentre, as the coach was running at least 10 minutes late, I messaged the organiser on Facebook, asking what his ETA was. No response nor apology for delay, and he's read it.

Going the way this tour has gone, I'm not going to give feedback to him, as he will probably end up giving me a generic response.

I haven't had much motivation recently. This has put me well back and I'm considering just not bothering with the bloody damn buses any more. At the moment, I don't even feel like getting the bus into Ashington as I'm so sick. Although it might give me a bit more satisfaction for a whole lot less.