I made a friend...

This morning was my appointment at New Craigs; I absolutely hated being in the waiting room and my appointment was mucked up, but once I got into the room with the psychiatrist it got much better; I'm going to be having fortnightly sessions now for a few months and see how it goes. It certainly looks like I'll be able to gain something from them. Having these regular sessions is extremely cool, partly because it should help the problems I have been failing to overcome since Autumn 2008, but also because I feel like Donnie Darko.

Work was interesting today, as it was Nick's last day. He's worked there for five years so everyone was gutted at his departure. He is genuinely a great guy and infuses a high quantity of banter into work. I'm not going to be too gushing as it's not like he's died, he's just found a job that should hopefully be much better.

The latter part of work became a tale of excitement; firstly Panasonic sent me a load of posters and such for my cameras, including Plinths for the camcorders. On further investigation, I also found some promotional packs of playing cards thrown in too. This brought me untold joy. As I was skipping merrily about the store, playing cards in hand, I received a phonecall from Angus informing me of Bill Bailey doing a show in Drumnadrochit next month. I was stunned momentarily before making the split second decision that I had to go. So he was kind enough to book me a ticket; I am really excited about this; he is a comedian I have been a fan of for a good few years now and have wanted to see him live most of this time.

The wonder and joy of the day was quelled somewhat by the bus driver I had the misfortune of encountering this evening. I get the impression that he despises everyone younger than himself as Hollie got on first, to whom he was obnoxious towards her request to get the bus to Drumnadrochit, before making a fuss over her payment method of handing over two pound coins for a ticket that costed one eighty-five. However, my turn came and I wan't expected for the battle of wits that ensued; I requested a single to Urquhart Castle, presenting my young person discount card, as I do every single day. This lead to some sort of argument about where I was headed, which went something like this; "Urquhart Castle??" "Yes." "URQUHART CASTLE??" "Yes." etc etc. Once this was affirmed, he shouted at me for having my discount card as it wasn't in fact a single OR a half; it was a student fare which is not what I had requested. By this time I felt deserving of releasing a little of my frustration in form of arrogance, informing him that it was in fact a "young person discount" fare that I get, not a student, as I am not a student meaning that if I was to pay a student fare I would be defrauding the company that he works for, something I did not want to do. He put the young person discount through and I gave him the correct change, to which he replied by not letting go of the ticket for the first few seconds of my attempt to receive it. His reason for doing so is still unclear to me. It was during this bus journey that I decided to lodge a complaint to Stagecoach, as he continued to be obnoxious, not to us, but to other young'uns on the bus; refusing to stop at some bus stops, screeching to a halt 100 metres along the road instead and so on. Once my stop came along, I requested his name, to which he snapped "No, get off, I'm in a hurry." I am not one to take kindly to such disregard as a paying customer, so I explained that he should be wearing a name badge and that his service towards me had been disgraceful. His response was "BYE! BYE! BYE!", repeating this in a hugely condescending tone; it was as though he knew how to anger me and was making a conscious effort to do so. I was making my way off somewhat slowly due to still registering my displeasure with him when he shut the door upon me. I yanked the door open and told him "Don't you dare shut the door on me", as this, I should imagine, is one of the top things a bus driver does not do to passengers. He replied to this by once again shutting the door on me and driving off with me suspended halfway between on and off. I managed to free myself by which time the bus was tearing away. This whole thing started off as involving an unfriendly bus driver which annoyed me, but at the castle he took it to a whole new level. I want to be clear that I did not swear at him or threaten him, so I feel that he deserves to be fired for the way he treats many of the passengers on the bus, including myself. I'm still in disbelief that he actually tried to drive off with me trapped in the door; suffice to say that stagecoach will be hearing of it in the coming days.

Ah well, it was a mixed day; hugely excited about Bill Bailey, very optimistic about the psychiatrist, gutted about Nick and furious about the driver. I guess that all this makes for much more interesting reading than my usual posts, so that's surely a good thing. Tomorrow is a shorter day at work followed by a cinema trip with the usual suspects and Catriona which will be awesome.