It took weeks to get the work on the axial finished. We were still in our friends sleep-out. It was early February. Phoenix and Izzy’s friends went back to school. I didn’t see any point in starting them and then pulling them out once the bus was finished,(would it ever be finished??). Plus I needed to get my head around how Correspondence School worked, so we might as well start as we mean to continue. In retrospect this probably was a mistake and I should have left them with their friends at school. It was a stressful time. All of us crammed in a single room, doing something completely foreign and strange. It really showed in Phoenix’s behaviour and he would cry a lot and say he just wanted to go home.
After what felt like forever the bus was ready to be picked up from Lance. Such a nice man and his son too. Genuine down to earth good men, earning an honest living. They let us have a look around their Bedford graveyard. Beautiful old machines set out to pasture. If only the children hadn’t been arguing non-stop John and I could have spent all afternoon wandering around.
The axial was replaced and brakes had been tested at the Thames VTNZ. They were still playing up slightly but on advice from Lance, all we could do is go and try for a re-test.
This mean’t a full re-test which was nerve-raking in itself. What if they found something else that needed to be fixed.And they did of course. We failed for the third time on brakes(surprise surprise), blown head-light, and those blasted window wipers.
“Thats it, the dreams over.”
At this stage we were ready to give up. I had lost all enthusiasm that this was even possible. What if this just wasn’t mean’t to be??What if I was wrong and it can’t be done?? John and I used to joke all the time and say “if it was easy, everyone would be doing it”. Well it beat us. It was just too fucking hard.
That was until my dear friend slapped me, literally and quite hard, on the arse and said
“You can’t give up. You’ve come so far. Keep going”
And so we did. We rang around again and found a mechanic that would look at bus brakes, on another recommendation. He seemed quite confident that he could help. We left the bus parked on the side off the road in his hands and started praying again.
The next day he called to say its ready to go get re-tested. John in all his wisdom, decided to take it for a short drive to test and warm the brakes before we went in. He didn’t get far before he noticed plumes of smoke coming off the brakes. The handbrake had been tightened too much. I saw the smoke coming off the wheels before I saw the bus on his return. This do not instil confidence that this guy had the slightest clue about what he was doing. But we had no other choice but to trust him.