Deep Doubts, Deep Wisdom; Small Doubts, Little Wisdom

I'll give you 'Feng Shui is the answer to all your prayers', as some people like to think.

Feng Shui is great. But you have to take it in conjunction with the rest of Chinese thinking, beliefs and general outlook. This is alien to European thinking and people have been misled by by the array of consultants and organisations who have cherry picked certain parts and generally taken them out of context of the whole.

If only Feng Shui was the answer to all problems on buses, it would be marvellous. There have been cases where experts have been called into bus stations where there have been a string of accidents to try and redress the Feng Shui. Claptrap. Making the access easier, improving the lighting or taking away an ill placed bollard would have been a cheaper option.

So GBDS - Grumpy Bus Driver Syndrome kicked in the other day when a passenger accosted me with the latest superstitious invention:

"Do you know, this month has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays?"

"No I didn't," I replied with too much fake interest.

I paid for it, because the passenger cornered me and went on and on:

"Yes it is interesting. It happens once in every 823 years."

When I got home there were 5 e-mails from different people with this information. Sensible people. They asked me to pass this message on to 8 people and I would get rich. It was reinforced and given supposed added value gravitas by a quote from Winston Churchill about opportunities and pessimists.

Being charitable, I feel people have lost their marbles because they are desperate and frightened at the forthcoming Government cuts in the UK. The atmosphere on the buses at the moment is so thick with fear and uncertainty that you can cut it with a knife.

The old aged pensioners are not certain if they are to keep their free travel or not. The young are worried about their studies. Everyone else fears for their jobs.

For once I am looking forward to November. At least people will have more of an idea where they stand. Feng Shui consultants will no doubt have a busy run up to Christmas. As for the buses - little will change.