The Bus

This is a bittersweet memory for me,* a time of great pressure. In 1990 I was co-ordinator of the Urban Programme funded Vale of Leven Health Promotion Project. The project was based in the Polaroid camera factory, but needed to extend itself to the local community. A travelling health check facility was the answer, so I went shopping for a bus.
    I found one in Liverpool which had already been used as a travelling health fair. We shook hands on £3,000 and I employed a driver and a mechanic to bring it north. We then had to convert the bus to our requirements, which took time and increased the pressure. When we got it on the road we had a driver and two excellent nurses, and it did what it was supposed to do.
    The bus was a 1974 Roe bodied Daimler Fleetline which had originally been operated by Leeds City Transport. I learned to drive it and enjoyed taking it for a spin which was an oddly mindful activity because you had to be totally concentrated on what you were doing.
                                                                               
*It was while working on this project that I first experienced depression.