On 26/07/2012 23:59, wrote:

Are those buses no longer operating in revenue service?

They found somewhere with a load of bendybuses going cheap... (no, really).

It all changed last year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta_bus is
probably as good a place as any.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:33:14 +0100, Arthur Figgis
wrote:

A convoy of unusual buses in advertising liveries went past our office
the other day - connected with some kind of sports day, I understand.

One of them was an exotic looking vehicle in Lloyds TSB branding. Anyone
know what its background is? It looked more like something from Malta
than London.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenbrandist/7119103369/

provides the answer.

Oh yes! I saw that pass my daughter's house in Cambridge and have a couple
of pictures of it.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 21:51:21 +0100, Mizter T
wrote:

On 26/07/2012 21:22, Recliner wrote:
[Maltese Lloyds TSB bus]
Here's my shot of it as it went past me yesterday:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/recline...in/photostream


It's was a bit more of an imaginative effort than the Coca Cola and
Samsung 'floats'.

You mean you didn't see the Coca Cola Master (new bus for London
Mk11)?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2475974...in/photostream

I really enjoyed seeing the torch relay, and so did everyone else I
know who went to catch a glimpse. Barmy maybe, but great fun.

It does seem to have captured the imagination given the huge numbers
who have been out to see it. Did a similar thing happen for Beijing
or is this a uniquely British way of presenting it?

Hmm. That's not the float Coca Cola used in Cambridge. If I could be arsed
to make a web page I'd put it up.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article , ()
wrote:

Have the police running with the torch been the same ones throughout
the whole journey or have they changed by region?

We had Met officers in Cambridge.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On 27/07/2012 00:05, Arthur Figgis wrote:
On 26/07/2012 23:59, wrote:

Are those buses no longer operating in revenue service?

They found somewhere with a load of bendybuses going cheap... (no, really).

It all changed last year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta_bus is
probably as good a place as any.

Bit of an atrocity, sending London bendibusses over to Malta to replace
their rather unique fleet.

I remember hearing that some drivers would very elaborately decorate the
interior front of the busses, that is by the front window. Am I correct
in recalling that they actually had competitions for this sort of thing?

On 27/07/2012 01:43, wrote:
On 27/07/2012 00:05, Arthur Figgis wrote:
On 26/07/2012 23:59, wrote:

Are those buses no longer operating in revenue service?

They found somewhere with a load of bendybuses going cheap... (no,
really).

It all changed last year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta_bus is
probably as good a place as any.

Bit of an atrocity, sending London bendibusses over to Malta to replace
their rather unique fleet.

I remember hearing that some drivers would very elaborately decorate the
interior front of the busses, that is by the front window. Am I correct
in recalling that they actually had competitions for this sort of thing?

They were certainly customised. AIUI the individual buses were owned by
their drivers, rather than a central company, and each one was
personalised. I caught one with "In God we trust" painted over the door.
Not so much a random slogan, more a statement of policy on approaching
junctions.



--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 23:29:17 +0100, "
wrote:

On 26/07/2012 22:04, Recliner wrote:
On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 21:51:21 +0100, Mizter T
wrote:


On 26/07/2012 21:22, Recliner wrote:
[Maltese Lloyds TSB bus]
Here's my shot of it as it went past me yesterday:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/recline...in/photostream


It's was a bit more of an imaginative effort than the Coca Cola and
Samsung 'floats'.

I really enjoyed seeing the torch relay, and so did everyone else I know
who went to catch a glimpse. Barmy maybe, but great fun.

Yes, I was a bit cynical about this synthetic, commercial event, but
on the day, everyone loved it here, and apparently everywhere else.
Where I was, the security was low key, the police were friendly, and
it was even on time. It's a quiet suburban area, so not too many
spectators.

It's done a great job of bringing the Olympics to the many Brits who
would otherwise have only seen any of it on TV. And people really have
turned out for it in large numbers all over the country. I'm quite
jealous of the flame, which has seen some amazing sights. And also
full credit to the police escort runners, who must now be the most
filmed and photographed cops in the world. You can see how one of the
police runners was suspicious of my camera's noisy rapid fire shutter
and looked hard at me in this shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/recline...57630743333584

As for the floats, I thought the Coke one was best. The Samsung one
looked more like a very high tech dusk cart.

For anyone who's interested, here's the set of my pics on the day:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/recline...7630743333584/


Have the police running with the torch been the same ones throughout the
whole journey or have they changed by region?

It's one team of 70 Met officers, of which 35 are runners who each ran
up to 20 miles a day. I don't know if the motorcycle police were also
from the Met everywhere, but I expect that they were.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18645207

On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 10:18:41PM +0100, Paul Corfield wrote:

It does seem to have captured the imagination given the huge numbers
who have been out to see it. Did a similar thing happen for Beijing
or is this a uniquely British way of presenting it?

The Beijing torch relay was mostly abroad, visiting several countries
including the UK, but I don't think anyone went to see it apart from
pro-Tibet protestors.

This time around, who knows whether huge numbers of people have seen it.
I doubt it's all that many really when you consider that it's meant to
pass near 95% of the population.

--
David Cantrell | Nth greatest programmer in the world

You are so cynical. And by "cynical", of course, I mean "correct".
-- Kurt Starsinic

In article ,
Recliner wrote:
On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 21:09:33 +0100, Paul Corfield
wrote:

On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:07:48 +0100, Arthur Figgis
wrote:

One of them was an exotic looking vehicle in Lloyds TSB branding. Anyone
know what its background is? It looked more like something from Malta
than London.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenbrandist/7119103369/

provides the answer.

Perfect, thanks. So it really is from Malta.

Oh it definitely is.

It's erm, for a friend who asked...

I'll believe you, thousands wouldn't ;-)

Here's my shot of it as it went past me yesterday:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/recline...in/photostream

It looks more Indian than Maltese with that howdah on top !

Nick
--
"The Internet, a sort of ersatz counterfeit of real life"
-- Janet Street-Porter, BBC2, 19th March 1996