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In England, our buses used to be run by the government (give me some leeway) and whilst they issued timetables to the minute where each of the 10,000’s of buses should be and when – as with most of 70’s Britain which was nicknamed ‘the sick man of Europe’ – efficiency was poor and nothing was where it should be – when it should have been there.
What would then happen is, having waited for 30 minutes longer than expected, a bus would arrive and directly behind it would be another and maybe a third. Our self deprecating view of British efficiency then spawned the phrase – ‘buses always come in 3’s’.
There is some science behind this which is based upon the time and motion studies done. If a bus leaves late, then it collects the passengers expecting it, plus a few more who are early for the next bus – and others who would usually be late and miss the bus.
This happens at each stop causing more and more people to get on the bus than usual. This of course means each stop is incrementally longer making the bus later and later.
Of course the bus behind has fewer passengers to collect, so in turn its stops are shorter and shorter and it catches the bus in front. The 3rd bus driver thinks Armageddon has occurred as no one is waiting for his bus and he drives non-stop along the route.
Regardless of the science, there is an ironic humanistic world view behind the thinking that, ‘buses always come in 3’s’ that is best expressed as ‘sod it, whatever I do, they will come in 3’s anyway. This is a deterministic thinking that places the control of world events – including the arrival times of buses – in the hands of a greater being or power whose is capricious and it/he/she/their prescription of world order is capricious and for their own pleasure.
Tonight, rumours are emerging from Germany that Paddy Lowe of McLaren is off to join the great gathering at Brackley. Apparently loyal Toto had recruited him to join the team that he chosen to devote himself to – Williams.
Now that Toto has jumped ship, Paddy is apparently to follow him to Mercedes. I noted in my earlier article the statement from Stuttgart mentioned only Wolff, Brawn and Lauda as ‘completing the management team’ at AMG F1, questioning whether Nick Fry was out in the cold.
However, the German media source Bilde.de is suggesting that Nick Fry is about to throw in the towel, and Ross Brawn may be joining him too.
Helmut is getting seriously outnumbered now, as Lauda’s gang grows by the hour. Maybe he could swell the ranks at Milton Keynes by recruiting the veritable pit-bull – recently ex-Ferrari media boss, Luca Colajanni, who Maranello has banished to the Indian sub-continent – to add bite to the inevitable verbal war that is likely to ensue.
They say if a butterfly flaps its wings in China, then a hurricane can be felt in the gulf of Mexico. The can now say ‘When an estate agent (realtor) loses a property sale in Grove – another gains one in Brackley’, I suppose.
And all this on a day where the telecoms corporation cuts me off from reality for half a day, and the air rescue helicopter has to winch me from the snow.
Whilst incommunicado, Glock leaves Marrusia, Wolff joins Mercedes, Parr could rejoin Williams, Di Resta may be hijacked by Razia and now this???.
Most surreal of all, a respected long standing Yorkshire born F1 journalist whose blog I enjoy much, posted an embedded video tonight on his site.
Buses indeed came in 3’s today.
Signing off for some light refreshment at my local in a dark corner folks
While I have great respect for Brawn’s contribution to motorsport, his time at Mercedes have show that without Rory Byrne he was a good technical director but not a great one. And how Nick Fry has lasted as a CEO in F1 for as long as he has with so little to show is astounding. Paddy Lowe must surely be under contract so any move from McLaren wouldn’t be until late this year at the earliest, so his impact on even the 2014 car would be minimal.
A better question to ask is where is all the money coming from? Mercedes were clear that they weren’t increasing the teams budget and there haven’t been any announcements of major new sponsors. Is Niki funding the team with money from sponsorship on his cap? Maybe Rosberg gets dropped and Susie takes his seat and drives for free.
Knowing the source I’d say its likely to be true – we’ll see I guess.
And maybe as part of his plea bargain agreement with the Munich prosecutors Bernie joins the team as well.
Haha – and sings weekly on prime time RTL – Das Deutschlandied in Bavarian Fraulein attire. Some things money just can’t buy 😀
It’s called Dirndl, Judge.
and tank you sooo much for busting up one of my favourite kinks in girl’s attire FOREVER!
Why thank you – my education yet expands – for others
A dirndl is a type of traditional dress worn in Germany – especially Bavaria – Liechtenstein, Austria, and South Tyrol, based on the historical costume of Alpine peasants
The dirndl consists of a bodice, blouse, full skirt and apron. While appearing to be simple and plain, a properly made modern dirndl may be quite expensive as it is tailored and sometimes cut from costly hand-printed or silk fabrics.
So Bernie’s will come from Saville Row I guess.
Dirndl is great: so much to undo!
It’s also a affectionate name for a sweetheart, as in “Oh, my Dirndl!”
Bavarians are very sweet nutters. My love was Swabish, a even sillier subset of that culture. If you can think of any joke about tight Scots, there’s a crueler one about a Swabian. There’s historical connexions also, to Scotland, though I never read up properly. Great thing about Germany, even though dint older parents, for my age oh so acutely aware of the history, big hangup, there’s such a variety of them.
Exactly my thought, if Lowe would leave McLaren, there’s a 6 months gardening leave waiting for him, that would mean he could join the team halfway through next season.
There have been some rumors about Brawn leaving Mercedes and even going back to Ferrari for some time now, but what would be his role at Ferrari? The only position i can imagine is Domenicali’s, i don’t see that happening to be honest, but than again, it’s Formula 1.
I thought that the EU freedom of labour rules meant you couldn’t force the contract to expiry, so it would be 6 months from whenever the contract is busted up, i.e. June / July.
Also, if you think someone is going to quit, you want them out of the door asap, in my book.
In my book to, i thought these 6 months are to prevent leaving employees from taking the latest research, development, know how etc. to their new team, also the former employee cannot take another job whithin that time period.
Hi enzomaiorca,
I don’t know if you can make it a argument, if you suspend someone on full pay. Because the right to freedom of work is about feeding your family, earning, and all that, predominantly. In which case I think it becomes a issue between the companies, more than absolute freedom of work choice.
Either way, the tribunals in England and Wales are only just being made to be a bit more sensible, insisting on fees from who complains, because of so many speculative cases. I’ve witnessed utter travesties. Because the process does harm to all parties usually. 13 step process to fire someone? Then the vast number of constructive dismissal suits. I’ve done and won on both sides. Not boasting, it’s a crap – shoot of procedure and sentiments. Worst I had was getting a settlement for someone who frankly caused their own problems, which was why I negotiated purely to argue pay the costs and be gone. Except I’m not a licensed practitioner. So my pittance of a fee was absorbed because a solicitor had to be engaged for the settlement to be binding who basically wasted hours to bill parroting what I had done as “confirmation”. Costing the other side time and money I had got them to avoid otherwise. I so very nearly, oh so nearly, for being stiffed of a week’s work cumulative, and more babysitting a hysterical friend who’d gotten themselves in this mess, filed with the court my objection. Apologies for the rant. It was a favour spat back in my face.