A few folk are asking how I got on... so in 3 paragraphs...

Ironically I was late for the appointment because two number 5 buses didn't turn up. Brian Adam MSP is a very approachable guy, and listened intently to my complaints despite the announcement of the WPR being made during our chat. He is aware of the problems First Bus are having, and encouraged me to get my thoughts down on paper which he will then forward to Bob Dorr for comment. Brian was also keen to make a note of when the problems started (Feb 2009) and how the service has degraded.

Rather than write down some unproductive moaning Brian has suggest that I put down some positive ideas for how to fix the repeating problems - something I am going to do over the next 2 weeks. I should have a letter to be sent just after the Christmas break.

Whilst Brian can only have little influence on First, and I'm sure that my voice will not match the impact of, say, the Put Me First Facebook campaign, it felt really good to be able to actually speak to someone in a constructive manner rather than leave yet another voice mail complaint which First Bus will ignore. I'll publish my letter on here once it's been sent.

I have to write to my MSP.

I've never written to my MSP before, but now First Bus have actually ignored, and by ignored, I mean completely not responded to messages left with their "complaints department"... well... that's unfair to call it that - in actual fact its... "Mary who deals with complaints".

I had a shockingly bad experience on Friday night, and on Monday morning my girlfriend had abuse shouted at her by a driver. Its ONLY because he didn't swear that we cant put in a complaint with the Police.

48 hours later - no-one has contact us, because no-one cares.

The problem is, I've got so much rage built up inside that I keep putting off writing to my MSP as I really dont want to be in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

As much as I moan about everything, it's rare I feel the need to write about my disappointment in a TV program, but I have to get this off my chest.

I used to LOVE spooks. They pitched the program at an audience of people who needed a lot more realism than you get from, say, Doctor Who, but at the same time didnt want to watch something stuffy that would only get onto BBC4.

Things started going wrong in Season 7 when the writers expected us to believe that Harry might die. The long story arc during Season 7 saved it.

In season 8, episode 2 the producers crossed the line.

Doctor Who is a brilliant TV program, not really my bag to be honest, but I'm not the target audience. In Doctor Who they play around with country name, they use cheesy end-of-world dialogue, and they expect us to buy into relationships we've only been viewing for a matter of minutes. Spooks now do the same. Made up counties like  "Tasbekstan", dialogue like "The British gas supply runs out in 2 days, and we have to do everything in our power to save the country", and then the utterly PATHETIC 'special relationship' between the US "model" and MI5 "hunk". Give me a break.

All this is forgiveable. But here's what's not.

Spooks, I guess, is aimed at the semi-educated 25+ viewers, hence the BBC1 9pm timeslot. I think its fairly likely that those same people will know that the outcome of a major national energy crisis would NOT come down to whether one rogue MI5 agent could save the life of someone from TASBEKSTAN. The producers have screwed over their loyal core audience by utterly patronising us.

I feel genuinely sorry for the wonderfully talented cast and crew. The producers have let you down very badly. No wonder Spooks now gets less than half the viewers it did for the first 3 years.

Rant over.

If you were to spend 5 and half hours on a train departing from, say, Edinburgh, you would realistically expect to visit London.

You would expect to pay (buying in advance) about £100 for a return trip.

So here's my secret.

If you want to visit the West Coast say Kyle, Isle of Skye, Lochcarron and you are travelling from Aberdeen (via Inverness), you will expect to pay just £25-£30 RETURN!!!

That's right... from Aberdeen you can take one of the most visually stunning train journeys in the world, to the opposite side of the country, for less than the price of a return taxi into the city centre.

You couldn't drive there for that price, never mind back!

And my tip for the easiest way to find these readily available fares, is the use East Coast Trains brilliant matrix thingy-me-bob