10.28 X21 Bedlington to Ashington ANE 7523
Was forced to start the day off with an X21 or X22 journey, as I had a free day ticket that could only be redeemed on one of these services. It turned up a minute or two early, and that was pretty much the tone for the entire journey, stopping every few stops. It was only me and a few others upstairs for the most part, although it got very busy in Ashington. Plugs and WiFi both worked, so I was happy
11.10 X22 Ashington to Newcastle ANE 7524
When I alighted 7523 at Ashington, my original plan had been to catch the 35 in the hope of a Streetlite, so I could go to Morpeth and catch an Omnicity. However, as a horrible sounding 7492 roared (and not in a good way!) past, I decided to head to ASDA for a drink. I then saw 7524 pull into the bus station, so decided against waiting for the next 35 (which turned out to be a DAF), and jumped on this. Much to my delight, everything worked! Quite enjoyed my ride on this, got the front seats on the right hand side, in the sun, and it performed very well as well, accelerating very nicely. We arrived in Newcastle a couple of minutes late because of the traffic in Gosforth (we had been pretty much "on time" all the way until Regent Centre...). It had a pretty friendly driver as well
12.10 (12.13) X11 Newcastle to Cramlington ANE 7617
The fact that it arrived after it should have left didn't fill me with much hope, and oh how I was right. 7524 followed us out of Newcastle, and overtook us when we dropped someone off. By the time we were on the A1 it was getting off. It just seemed to have no power at all, and got me to Cramlington 6 minutes late. The leg room was minimal as well, and the whole bus just didn't seem all that nice, with rattles etc. I headed to the Library and cracked out my books.
15.05 (15.07) X13 Cramlington Westmorland Shops to Seaton Burn Fisher Lane ANE 1493
Wasn't on this one for long however I did notice a few things:
There was a strange knocking noise from the back panel, didn't seem like it was screwed in right
The back padding on the seat that I say in was all but gone
There was a strange sound coming from beneath the floor
If I was on for ay longer it would have drove me mad, so I bailed.
15.22 (15.25) X22 Seaton Burn to Bedlington ANE 7524
Same bus, same driver, same deal. Pleasant ride, made up a couple of minutes by the time I got off, (probably would have been on time but for me getting on!). Again, good perfromance and it never really struggled. We let someone off on the hill into Bedington and it accelerated up no problem. I got off as I needed to pick something up.
16.08 (16.10) X21 Bedlington to Ashington ANE 7528
Now, I needed to get back to Morpeth and still hadn't achieved either of my targets (Streetlite or Omnicity), so I decided to have a ride to Ashington and pray the 35 to Morpeth was a green machine (not a clue where that came from!
). 7528 turned up (all 14-reg Enviro's today, thank you Arriva!), and was quite busy. Sat upstairs and immediately plugged my phone in as it was running low, and was disappointed (but not surprised) to find that the plug next to my seat didn't work 
It was a rather uneventful journey, the bus seemed alright, nothing majorly noticeable like 1493, and the fact it made up time signalled to me it was okay!16.40 35 Ashington to Morpeth ANE 1579
FINALLY!! As I was standing at the bus stop, a DAF appeared at the lights and I sighed, even when actively trying to get a Streetlite I couldn't... I glanced up to find it sail past, it was on the 20! A few minutes later 1579 rolled around the corner. Firstly, it is quite bland inside, no advertisements, grey side panelling and a ghastly black screen at the front. However, it quickly accelerated, which shocked me, really didn't expect that! There was some rather worrying sounds, don't know if it was when it was changing gear,but it flew along the road to Pegswood. Was quite impressed with the thing, certainly was a lot better than I expected.
Overall a pretty good day, strangely enough a journey on an Enviro was my highlight, and I was quite surprised with the Gemini's lack of power (unless it was just the driver?). Thank you all for reading